Selected Content from the November 1915 Edition of The Etude

MacDowell

Ten years have passed since the cloud which tragically obscured America's foremost composer began its gradual descent. To-day we find the fame of Edward MacDowell greater than ever. THE ETUDE has for some time planned the publication of a… Read More




Music All the Way

It is very gratifying to note the number of men who are making an avocation of music. By starting to learn the art in their youth and giving just a little time to it every day or so they… Read More




Welcome

Twenty years ago Americans were praying that America might become the music centre of the world. Two years ago we were protesting that it already was that, but to-day we are overwhelmed with riches. The war has exiled most… Read More




Organization Among Teachers

Beginning December 28th and continuing for three days the Music Teachers' National Association will hold its thirty-seventh annual convention in Buffalo, New York. This Association, started by the founder of The Etude with the aid of a group of… Read More




The Boy Who Would Not Practice

By Ruth Alden   A lecturer once said that when he found his audience disregarding his efforts, and actually talking to one another for their diversion, he knew that he was utterly failing to hold their interest. But he… Read More




A Beethoven Piano in America

By James Frederick Rogers   Though most of the instruments of the large Steinert   collection, now to be seen in the Memorial Hall of Yale University, are older and quainter, without and within, the lover of music lingers longest… Read More




The Four Essentials of Daily Practice

By Guy Maier   The musician who is deficient in one or more branches on the practical side of his art, is to be found everywhere. We meet on all sides teachers and concert-givers who possess a startling technic,… Read More




The Power of Suggestion in Music

AN ESSAY By EDWARD MacDOWELL   [Editor's Note.—The excellent essay upon this page is from the volume known as "Critical and Historical Essays,' published by Arthur P. Schmidt. These discussions of various phases of musical education, history, science and… Read More




The First Performance of Handel’s “Messiah”

Handel's Messiah was composed in less than a month. It was, in fact, begun on August 22, 1741, and completed September 14. It was not performed, however, until the spring of the following year, when Handel went to Ireland…. Read More





Franz Liszt—The Last Word in Piano Playing

Although the standard in this art has grown and is continually growing better, the highest excellence of several decades ago has not been maintained, nor is it equalled by any of the present day piano virtuosos. Read More





Beginnings of Modern Instrumentation

By Arthur Bird   It takes much time to discover the waters of the musical seas, but still more to learn to sail on them.—Berlioz.   The dream, of almost every student of music is, or most certainly should… Read More





MacDowell’s Distinguished Career

Several of the following excerpts appeared in past issues of The Etude. When coming from outside sources full credit has been given. They are assembled here for the convenience of many Etude readers desiring a fuller knowledge of MacDowell’s accomplishments. Read More





Edvard Grieg and His Own Compositions

Probably every composer at times feels dissatisfaction at his own works. Only he knows the goal for which he strove. Only he can tell how far short of that goal his written works are. Something of this is reflected… Read More





The Artistic Musical Temperament

And What a Few Kings Did in the Tonal Art   By Louis C. Elson   Etude Readers will find the noted Boston critic in his happiest mood in this very readable and instructive article   Some years ago… Read More





Methods and Methodism in Music

Grave Dangers in Making Proprietory Musical Systems Compulsory   By EDWARD BAXTER PERRY   [If the musical people of America had the clarity of vision possessed by Mr. Edward Baxter Perry, the following article would not be necessary. Although… Read More





Right Musical Vision

By Grace Busenbark   Some of my pupils, who, "having eyes, yet saw not," consequently had difficulty in reading music.   One used to look at a chord four or five times before she got it correctly and had… Read More





The Physiology of the Piano Tone

By Hans Schneider   When we consider the popularity of the piano and the fact that it has been in use for several centuries, one would think that a great many vital improvements would have been made, and yet… Read More





MacDowell’s Period - The Etude Master Study Page

With MacDowell we have a new and distinctively different type. Mason and Gottschalk were both born in the year 1829. MacDowell was born thirty years later, and those three intervening decades were of the greatest significance to the music of the new world. Much of this was due to the splendid initiative of Theodore Thomas as well as to the activity of Dr. Mason. When MacDowell was a boy in New York, Thomas was organizing his Symphony Orchestra that was to do such magnificent pioneer work. Read More





A History of the Pianoforte in a Nutshell

The pianoforte is the result of an evolution having its beginning many centuries back. The very first stringed instrument was possibly some form of the ancient lyre, associated with poetry and Greek history, although the instrument originated in Asia,… Read More





Clara Schumann’s Compositions Reviewed by Her Husband

The age in which Clara Schumann lived was not propitious for the woman composer. What George Bernard Shaw is pleased to call "middle-class morality" was rampant, and the woman who dared do anything but cook and sew and gossip… Read More





Henri Vieuxtemps, A Prodigy Who Grew Up

Henri Vieuxtemps was a giant among violinists of the nineteenth century. He was great as a virtuoso, as a composer and as a teacher. Moreover, he was notable as an example of a prodigy who made good in after… Read More





“Old Violin” Stories Dying Out

The "Old Violin" story seems to have outlived its usefulness so far as the daily papers are concerned. Not so long ago every violin found in a garret or hidden in the cellar was a valuable Stradivarius or an… Read More





The Trick of Producing Tone

By E. W. Morphy   Every violin student who has once heard the broad, soulful tone of a truly great artist is to a more or less degree fired with a desire to acquire the same valuable asset. If… Read More





Kreutzer, Kreutzer and Again Kreutzer

The standard etudes, which some of the Germans call the "bread and butter" studies—Kreutzer, Fiorillo and Rode— should be studied, reviewed and re-reviewed, until the pupil knows them thoroughly. Many violin students are satisfied to go over these studies only… Read More





The Music Lover’s Digest

The Best in Musical Literature from Everywhere   Debussy and Tone Madness "I have known Debussy now for nearly twenty years. When he was just beginning to revolt from the standard of Massenet and others of the conservative camp… Read More





Questions and Answers

Helpful Inquiries Answered by a Famous Authority Conducted by LOUIS C. ELSON, Professor of Theory at the New England Conservatory   Q. Is there any rule governing the performance of arpeggios? I notice that some in playing arpeggios start… Read More





World of Music

At Home   Carl R. Diton, the accomplished Negro pianist, recently gave an "All-Negro Composers' Night" at the City Auditorium, Houston, Texas.   The American violinist, Louis Persinger, formerly concert-meister of the Berlin Philharmonic, has been appointed to a… Read More