GG: Etude/Soaking of the hands

[Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@eden.rutgers.edu>]

Form the Advice column of The Etude Music Magazine, March 1933:

E.D.D. I must walk about half a mile to my piano lesson, and, in winter,
my hands get so cold that the first few minutes of my lesson are
practically wasted. Is there anything I can do?
Answer: Winter hands are the bane of pianists! First of all, help
yourself to resist cold by going warmly and sufficiently dressed. The
_Musician's Mirror_ goes on record as recommending suitable
underclothing! Your hands can't warm up when your whole body is
shivering. Next, wear gloves that are warm in texture-- wool or
fur-lined gloves are excellent and and very inexpensive this year: and
be sure they are large enough.  Cold hands can be due to over tight
gloves, which impede circulation. (the same is true of cold feet and
tight shoes.) Finally, when you reach your teacher's studio, rub your
hands briskly for a minute or so, to stimulate circulation, and then
soak them in warm water. Josef Hofmann once wrote that he considered
five minutes in warm water as good for the hands as ten minutes of
'warming up' exercises. But be careful not to put your hands into warm
water while they are still icy cold.

So if this common-sense ritual of arm soaking was in a popular musical
advice column before he was playing, and Hofmann (and I'm sure others)
did it-- why did GG's habit become such a part of his legend?  Is it
because the journalists writing were non-musicians? Was he overly
fanatical about it?

-MJ