BY WILLIAM H. SHERWOOD.
This is the age of specialties. It is said that composers have exhausted the resources of melody and harmony, but not so of rhythm. So there is still a chance to combine melodic and harmonic progress with ingenious movements that may be original and new. But this does not concern the music student as much as the laws that govern dynamics and correct sense of proportion and the relative value of tones, in the interpretation of music. There is some reason, based upon the peculiarity of the elements mentioned above, for the proportionate value of any two notes in succession, as related to each other. The thorough study of music, with such principles developed in the player's mind, should always result in improved expression. By looking at the music in the most minute details, on one side, and, again, with the broadest sweep and largest sense of prolonged groups and their proportions, on the other side, one can alone get at the truth, assisted at all times by natural taste and musical feeling, and by correct examples, through hearing good music interpreted by artists. The recital is to the music student what the art gallery is to the painter. A similar care about the smallest details of physical training, preparatory to playing, alternating with an equal intelligence in combinations, for the sake of a free sweep, are just as important for technical equipment of the right sort as is the musical analysis.
