Selected Content from the July 1898 Edition of The Etude
We wonder sometimes at the eccentricities of great musicians, and the frequency with which they give evidence of mental aberration. Many of the great composers have been thought partially insane; and almost any one who has visited various parts… Read More
Pauline Viardot-Garcia was born July 18, 1821. A life of Adelina Patti is being prepared by a London journalist. Marie Wurm produced her concerto in G minor, with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin, in March. A wish frequently expressed at… Read More
“Two hundred years ago no one thought of a girl playing the piano. Only men played.” Of course, strictly speaking, two hundred years ago neither girls nor men played the piano as we to day understand it, for the instrument… Read More
The twentieth annual meeting of the Music Teachers’ National Association, June 23d to 27th, at the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel, New York City, is now a matter of history. It opened under the most favorable conditions. The place of meeting being… Read More
In an article in a recent number of “The Musical Record” Mr. Ward Stephens says, among other interesting things: “I believe in study abroad, and when one intends to follow the career of a professional musician, the sooner he goes… Read More
BY RUTLAND BOUGHTON. Bach.—” Come pray with me. Thank God for your birth, your life, aye, and your death. Come within the Cathedral and pray with me. Praise God for all His mercies. Go with me into the fields, the… Read More
BY ALFRED H. HAUSRATH. Professor Quack was a man of short stature, crooked legs, round shoulders, pale face, and weak eyes, whose sight was assisted by powerful glasses, through which he peered as though he were making frantic efforts to… Read More
BY J. S. VAN CLEYE. The other day I was visiting the family of an educated gentleman, who is, in fact, a superintendent of public instruction in a good-sized Illinois city, and I chanced to overhear, and consequently to observe,… Read More
CARL W. GRIMM. In the race for improved methods one great leading thought seems so often to be forgotten—namely, that the development of technical ability does not include spiritual growth. It may be overlooked, because thousands can teach how to… Read More
PERLEE V. JERVIS. The value of the mordent for technical practice is not sufficiently appreciated. When played with all combinations of fingers, the daily practice of the mordent and inverted mordent conduces rapidly to flexibility, limberness, lightness, and muscular development…. Read More
W. F. GATES. A good deal is said and written about the relations of teacher to pupil, and but little on the other side of the question—the relations of pupil to teacher. Perhaps the reason is that writers know their… Read More
GEORGE H. HOWARD. There is no more hopeful indication of musical progress in America than the evidence of increasing effort on the part of the most thoughtful teachers toward developing the minds of their pupils along lines of individual and… Read More
S. N. PENFIELD. Teachers differ widely and unaccountably in the value they place upon the use of the metronome. I say “unaccountably,” for it does seem that the value and the limitations of the little machine must be evident to… Read More
LOUIS C. ELSON. To the layman in music, even of the more cultured sort, our art often seems to be a series of sentimental impressions merely. Even Fetis gave the definition of music thus: “Music is the art of moving… Read More
MADAME A. PUPIN. There is a great deal of grumbling about the drudgery of learning the piano. Teachers complain that pupils do not like to practice; and pupils shirk, as much as possible, the irksome task of repeating, day after… Read More
The real name of Remenyi, the violinist, was Hoffman. Mme. Marchesi was reported to be seriously ill during the past month. Josef Hofmann is said to have cleared more than $30,000 by his recent tour. The foreign trip of the… Read More
[Our subscribers are invited to send in questions for this department. Please write them on one side of the paper only, and not with other things on the same sheet. In Every Case the Writer’s Full Address must be Given,… Read More
Please explain the different kinds of touch for the piano.—G. E. N. The shortest answer I can give to your question would be to recommend you to buy the first volume of ”Touch and Technic” and read it carefully through…. Read More
J.S. Van Cleve M. G. L.—You ask if it is necessary to be able to transpose music, because singers so often wish their accompaniments transposed. Yes; I consider it extremely desirable, and there are two customs which were quite universal… Read More
IV. This question is one of interest to teachers and pupils, and with the idea of securing material on the subject The Etude solicited contributions from a number of well-known teachers. Replies were published in The Etude for April, May,… Read More
KATHERINE LOUISE SMITH. Every teacher starts out, of course, with the determination to have a pupil succeed. There are two reasons for this,—the desire that springs from enthusiasm and a love of the work, and the feeling that one… Read More
MISS SUSAN LLOYD BAILY. A very ambitious young woman once registered with me for lessons in piano and harmony. She was studying almost everything else under the sun at the same time, including the higher mathematics, Latin, French, German, elocution,… Read More
J. COMFORT. This is the kind that vexes the very soul of every careful teacher, and is surely the kind that materially aids in the development of those peculiarities of character and that excess of temper which are supposed to… Read More
M. B. ROBESON. A young girl came to me not long since, who had received thorough technical training, and who was in many ways an excellent player, but who was becoming a trial to her relatives “because she would n’t… Read More
HELENA M. MAGUIRE. I had a slender wisp of a pupil, with the weakest little fingers in the world, burdened with four rings. I mildly remonstrated, but vanity was stronger than my persuasion, and the tiny fingers toiled on under… Read More
BY J. FRANCIS COOKE, MUS. B. BEHIND THE SCENES. It is often surprising to note the ignorance of the general public regarding the importance of advertising. I have known people to stand in open-mouthed wonder when they hear for the… Read More
BY W. F. GATES. During the past few years much ingenuity has been displayed in the structure of automatic musicians, so to speak, and it is possible that the cheapness of these instruments may in some degree affect the income… Read More
BY EDWARD DICKINSON. A newspaper clipping recently sent to me for comment contains a somewhat disgruntled expression of surprise at the unsatisfactory nature of the playing of many piano students who are rated as possessing talent and technical skill. “It… Read More
BY EDWARD BAXTER PERRY. VI. BERLIN. A wise philosopher has said, “A man may fancy himself in love many times and be mistaken, but when he really is in love, he knows it beyond all question.” It is much the… Read More
It is a common complaint made by the music lover who must toil eight or nine months of the year that the time for personal study is so limited. At the end of a day’s hard work spent in teaching… Read More
BY J. C. FILLMORE. LETTERS TO A YOUNG MUSIC TEACHER. LETTER VII. To W. E. S.—Thus far I have written only of the “up-arm” touch. But, as you already know, there is a “down-arm” touch which is much used by… Read More
BY F. B. HAWKINS. However strange it may seem to some, it is a fact that music, like all the other fine arts, is divided into three branches,—the spiritual, the mental, and the physical,—all of which must work in complete… Read More
BY ROBERT D. BRAINE. What can be done to get the insane notion out of the heads of thousands of our respected fellow-citizens that “anybody can start a beginner in music,” and that “later on will be time enough to… Read More
Never, surely, was composer more witty than the master who gave us an immortal setting of “William Tell.” Rossini’s whimsicality extended even to his birthday. Having been born in leap year, February 29, he had, of course, a birthday only… Read More
BY WM. E. SNYDER. How do the great majority of piano students, even some of the most talented, earnest and ambitious, set to work to learn an étude or a piece? There are certain études which the modern piano-teacher and… Read More
ARTHUR E HEACOX. A question often asked is “What do you do in ear-training?” We sing more or less throughout the course, and use the piano as little as possible. Pupils are urged to join a class in choral singing… Read More
II. When viewing as a whole the foreign repertory, it is less difficult to pursue the plan suggested in the first article on this subject; in fact, it is common among the American profession to teach a composer’s entire repertory,… Read More
In conversation with a young and successful teacher, the other day, I put the question: “With whom have you studied?” Her answer would, perhaps, give as fair an index to her character as it would an explanation of her success…. Read More
Last spring, as the curtain rose at the commencement of the finest representation of Gounod’s “Faust” which have ever had the good fortune to attend; as the first notes of de Reske’s recitative floated forth, my neighbor in the next… Read More
Dr. Bernhard Marx, the famous and learned musician, writer, and critic, in his work on “General Musical Instruction,” says: “We have already said that, if possible, every one should learn music; we now pronounce our opinion more specially, that ‘every… Read More
Fine enunciation is to song what perfect mintage is to coins. As a mere matter of art, every word should be as distinct in its vocal elements as a coin fresh from the mint. Having stated this absolute rule for… Read More
Mme. Materna, the great prima donna, says: “One of the most salient features of learning any art is routine; and where can a dramatic singer learn routine except on the operatic stage? Most singers learn after six years of study… Read More
BY BLANCHE W. FISCHER The musical blues are prevalent to an alarming extent. It is a well-known fact that the spiritual strain of any art has its reactions, and this is especially true of music; the exalted state of mind… Read More
When Mendelssohn played on the piano or the organ, the listener felt the great musician and composer in every bar. The man’s musical memory was marvelous. Sir Charles Halle, who, in 1843, spent several weeks with Mendelssohn at Frankfort, describes,… Read More
It is hardly necessary to say that I refer to C-sharp and C-flat majors and their relative minors, the omission of which in scale manuals, tutors, and elementary (or advanced, for the matter of that) theoretical text-books must often have struck the thoughtful teacher. Then, where not absolutely ignored, they are generally mentioned slightingly, as “identical with the scales of D-flat and B majors, B-flat and G sharp minors, and, therefore, unnecessary to be learned separately,” or “to be printed in full,” or “and the fingering is the same.” Read More
