Selected Content from the June 1900 Edition of The Etude
[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
“Composition cannot be taught, but I can give excellent advice to girls studying the piano. Let them practice slowly and loud. As a rule, they work too quickly. The only way to acquire grace and lightness of touch is to… Read More
It is very difficult to train a hand the skin of which is in bad condition. Now, the skin is one of the three organs of excretion, the other two being the lungs and the intestines. Nine young girls out… Read More
The first note of woman’s emancipation came when she began to organize her present club life. In the club, individuality, culture, talent, for the first time became objects of admiration and desire. If papers were to be written, the power of writing a good paper (something which neither the money nor the position of her husband could give her, but which was something independent of anyone but herself) gave the woman that possessed it a position absolutely her own. For the first time in woman’s social career being began to stand for more than having,—and being makes its own initiative. Read More
At a recent song recital in New York, Madam Sembrich sang in Italian, French, English, German, Russian and Polish. Every one of these languages the prima donna speaks with facility. Polish is her native tongue. German, Italian, Russian and French are as easy to her. English she speaks with little accent and considerable fluency. Read More
POSITION WANTED-AS TEACHER OF THOR- ough-Bass and Elementary Harmony in School of Music. Can give reference. J. H. Coffey, Columbus, Ind. WANTED-POSITION AS TEACHER OF PIANO in a school, by a graduate of one of the best institutions in… Read More
Pictures of the human voice thrown upon a screen at the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia, created enthusiasm among the scientists present. It was demonstrated that the vibrations of each separate tone of the human voice possessed its own individual geometric figure. Read More
The Young Man is what he is by virtue of circumstances which are to a great degree inexplicable. His inherent character, the thoughts he permits himself to think when alone, his secret desires, and his professed ambitions spring from him as naturally as certain flowers spring from certain soils. Read More
One method of stimulating interest is to get the pupils to ask questions concerning their work. The asking of intelligent questions on an uninteresting subject is not an easy task. An excellent recipe for finding questions is to have the pupils explain points in their lessons to older persons ignorant of music. The would-be teacher’s attempts to meet the questions of such persons with satisfactory answers will reveal to them their limitations, and suggest other questions. Their ability to explain satisfactorily such questions will awaken feelings of self-confidence and interest. We like to do what we can do well. Read More
Child-study! What a privilege, and yet what a difficult thing! How may we best begin? There is the scientific study of children, which has been followed out, not only by those who are interested in general education, but by scientific men of our time, who have recognized that science had much to gain from an investigation of the physical growth of children, and of their social characteristics, and also of their mental, moral, and religious tendencies and development. Read More
It is strange to think that there are many students of piano and voice who do not avail themselves of attendance at concerts as a means of study; who work away at home at a Beethoven sonata or a difficult aria and never dream of the inspiration received from the hearing of these works as given by a first-rate artist. Of course, there is the excuse so often heard “I really cannot afford it. My lessons and my music cost so much!” Read More
Some of the “Etudes” by Kreutzer and Fiorillo may, without the slightest hesitation, be declared to be of little or no merit. Often, also, the progress of these studies is illogical, if not actually absurd. But, with all their shortcomings, they are works of monumental strength, as indispensable to-day as they were many years ago, and doubtless will continue to be in the years to come. Read More
A well-known artist tells the following excellent anecdote: One Friday morning he was visited by a very small boy who carried a very large green bag. This green bag proved to contain a fiddle of the Christmas-tree variety; and, when… Read More
When the American girl leaves home and friends for that far-away country of golden musical hope, she little realizes that the relinquishment of customs and comforts inseparably associated with her life will cause a gap for which no “Gemuethlichkeit,” no sincere hospitality, can amply make amends. Read More
Too many young people who are very musical in their make-up have a decided objection to giving time and effort to studies outside of their limited musical curriculum. Every once in awhile we hear of this one quitting school to study music, and that one dropping out of college to give “all my time to my practice.” Read More
