Selected Content
from the Composers Department 
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Robert Schumann--Poet. - July, 1893
Poetic, Schumann ever was. Poetic by nature and by culture. Poetic in his work both as composer and as criticiser of the works of others. Poetic in his every thought--every idea. And this poetic spirit he infused into the music of his time, and cultivated it wherever and in whomsoever he found it. And it is for this that I have called him "Robert Schumann--Poet," and it is as poet that I shall here regard him. Read More
Notes on the Works of Some Living Composers - July, 1893
The statement that but few, if any, effective art works for the piano are produced in the busy present has been heard quite frequently of late, and the wail is ever increasing in monotony. It is said that the modern composers, in the search for orchestral color, are treating the piano in a decidedly exaggerated style; that the reaches are impossible for normal hands, and that the dissonances hold out so long that when they do resolve the effect is lost--especially on thin-toned pianos. As is usual in sweeping assertions, there is a shadow of fact for a base. In this case it is but the merest shadow, and it is almost impossible for those who know the truth to stand by in passive abeyance. Read More
How Composers are Inspired. - October, 1895
The creating or composing by a musician is the greatest puzzle to the layman. How often the question was asked of me, "How do you manage to hold on to a musical thought and to put it on paper so anybody can play or sing it just as you had thought it out? How, where, and when comes to you a musical impression--a melody? How is it possible with one thought to encompass all the instruments of an orchestra and to make note of it all? Do you have first the musical idea, and then look up a text or poetry for it, or is it vice versa?" Read More
Recollections of Gottschalk - October, 1897
BY JOHN FRANCIS GILDER. I have heard many pianists of note, dating back into the "forties," beginning with Henry Herz, and extending through to Paderewski. Of the entire number, I consider Thalberg, Gottschalk, and Rubinstein the three greatest. Each possessed... Read More
Song Writers of the Day. - December, 1897
BY FARLEY NEWMAN. FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI is by no means the least fortunate of the many sons of the sunny south who have been successful in converting the note of Italia's classic lyre into coin of the realm. Signor Tosti... Read More
The Writing of the "Requiem." - December, 1898
The story of Mozart, his Requiem Mass, and Geppert, the park-watcher. This story is used by permission of the " Saturday Evening Post," of Philadelphia, Pa. Read More
Cecile Chaminade. - June, 1899
Chaminade tells a very amusing story about the Queen's gift to her. She had played at the Queen's palace during the Jubilee celebration, and a short time after that the carriage of the English Ambassador at Paris drove up in front of her house at Le Vesinet, and two men in gorgeous livery alighted carrying with them a large parcel. Chaminade was frightened on seeing the men in her house with such an ominous-looking package completely covered with seals, and when she was told that the Queen had sent it she almost fainted. After breaking open the seals and unfolding many layers of paper, she found a photograph of the Queen, with the autograph of Her Majesty. Read More
A Few Words On Chopin's Works. - October, 1899
No hard and fast rules can be laid down for the right playing of Chopin's music; but one rule can be followed with great advantage, and this rule is: "Play Chopin's compositions as you feel them." If you do this, and if you feel them in the same way that Chopin intended you should feel them, you may rest assured that you are playing them as they should be played. Read More
Sophie Menter and Cécile Chaminade. - November, 1899
Right here, at the risk of being burned as a heretic, let me ask an honest question, to be answered candidly by each reader, in the safe privacy of his own inner consciousness, if he has not the courage to stand openly to his convictions in the frowning face of conservatism and tradition. Does any one to-day really care to listen to these Bach fugues from purely musical reasons; these monstrous tone acrostics; these gigantic thematic puzzles; these huge, mathematically exact monuments of human ingenuity and manipulative skill, which express nothing but pride in the mastery of material, and contain nothing but cold, though perfect architectural symmetry? Read More
Schumann: A Vanishing Star. - January, 1900
There was a time, mes enfants, when I played at all the Schumann piano music. The " Abegg " variations, the "Papillons," the "Intermezzi "--"an extension of the 'Papillons,'" said Schumann--"Die Davidsbündler," that wonderful toccata in C, the best double-note study in existence,--because it is music first, technics afterward,--the seldom attempted "Allegro," opus 8, the "Carnaval," tender and dazzling miniatures, the twelve settings of Paganini, much more musical than Liszt's, the "Impromptus," a delicate compliment to his Clara. Read More
Schumann's Early Loves. - January, 1900
It would be unfair to inquire minutely into the inevitable boyish passions of the young Schumann, were it not that his uncommon candor in describing them to his friends, the fullness of his confidences, and the rapid shifting of the objects of his devotion give amusing glimpses into the cloud-land of romance in which his youth was spent. Read More
Moritz Moszkowski. - January, 1900
Moszkowski has had among his pupils many Americans. His Berlin studio has been described by one of the latter as having contained "little furniture, a desk, chair, and music cabinet, with busts and pictures everywhere, well-known faces of Liszt, Von Bülow, and the fathers of classic music--Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Read More
A. Schmoll - February, 1900
Herr Schmoll's works are mostly for the piano. Among the most used are his primary method; 80 etudes, op. 116-119, moderately difficult; 10 sonatas, op. 61-70; 50 "Grandes Etudes," op. 121-123; and "Album de Lectures," op. 96-99. A selection of his studies has been issued recently in this country. He has composed some two hundred drawing-room pieces, which are used extensively in France. The scene of his activity is Paris, where he publishes his work himself. His most popular composition in America is his "Spinnino," which has been reprinted by most American publishers. Read More
Recent Reminiscences of Liszt. - April, 1900
By the term the "pupil of Liszt" was not to be understood a pupil in the ordinary sense of the word. Liszt never accepted remuneration for his lessons. They were given to artists or rising stars who desired the honor of playing before Liszt. Liszt could refuse no one, the consequence being that much chaff was found among the wheat. Bülow wanted to bring a change Liszt saying he did not have the heart to be harsh to anyone, Bülow replied: "Then leave it to me." Read More
Pseudonyms of Musicians. - March, 1901
COMPILED BY MYRTA L. MASON. Stephen Adams is the pseudonym of Michael Maybrick; A. L., Mrs. A. Lehmann, mother of Liza Lehmann; Albani, Emma Lajeunesse. Julius Becht, Charles Kinkel; Helen Blackwood, Lady Dufferin; Blind Tom, Thomas Wiggins; John Braham, John... Read More
Ludwig Schytte. - March, 1901
I was born April 28, 1848, in Aarbus, Jutland, Denmark, the youngest of thirteen children. My father, who was a minister, played with considerable skill a number of instruments--violin, viola, 'cello, guitar, flute, and piano; my mother had an excellent voice, and all of my brothers and sisters were musical; so that in my childhood I heard a great deal of music. But what interested me most was chamber-music, Beethoven's sonatas, and Chopin's "tone-poems," several of which one of my sisters played very well. Read More
Hartwell-Jones (Hamilton Gray). - July, 1901
Hartwell-Jones, at an early period, began the composition of music, but it was not until he was well in his teens that anything from his pen came under public notice. His first popular "hit" was, no doubt, "The Heavenly Song," which found its way, not only into the homes of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, but into the far-reaching lands across the seas. Read More
In Mozartland With Old Fogy - January, 1902
Salzburg, December 15, 1901. Dear Mr. Editor: The Mozart number of The Etude has just reached up here in Mozart's land, and to say that I devoured its contents at a sitting would be but the statement of a... Read More
Three English Women Composers - April, 1902
REFINEMENT, fine feeling, and sympathetic appreciation are the qualities that have aided in marked degree in the success of women as song-writers, a form of musical composition for which the sex seems admirably adapted. The three examples at this moment in mind,--Miss Frances Allitsen, Madame Liza Lehmann, and Madame Guy d'Hardelot,--each successful in her particular field, are each so widely different in individuality and in the matter of surroundings as to make them interesting subjects. Read More
Robert Schumann on Liszt's Playing. - May, 1902
Liszt is now [1840] probably about thirty years old. Everyone knows well that he was a child phenomenon; how he was early transplanted to foreign lands; that his name afterward appeared here and there among the most distinguished; that then... Read More
Transcriptions for the Piano by Franz Liszt. - May, 1902
Whatever may be thought or said of Liszt as an original composer, in his piano-transcriptions he has never had an equal, scarcely even a would-be competitor. His work in this line is of inestimable importance to the pianist, both as student and public performer, and forms a rich and extensive department of piano-literature. Read More
Liszt As a Teacher, by Amy Fay - May, 1902
I am sometimes questioned as to Liszt's "method." He had none that I am aware of, although he doubtless served his time when he was a pupil of Czerny, who must have been one of the best teachers who ever lived. Probably it was to the faithful practice of Czerny's etudes (from which he, in vain, prayed his father to be delivered) in his youth that Liszt owed those fine-spun fingers of his, for his finger-technic was something marvelous, and made everybody else's seem coarse and heavy in comparison. Read More
Liszt as Pianist and Piano-Composer. - May, 1902
From the material of his playing it seems quite certain that the early distinctions of Liszt were due to his captivating manner, which as a boy was serious, charming, and full of sensibility, and as yet without the circumambient "atmosphere" of the successful virtuoso. Read More
Liszt, the Musical Liberal - May, 1902
It may help the reader to form an estimate of one of Liszt's chief characteristics if I say that he was the most loved man in history. He was loved by more people than any man I ever heard of, and I think I have not overlooked anybody of consequence in history; he was loved more devotedly, more affectionately, demonstratively, and more enduringly. Read More
Liszt as a Musical Influence. - May, 1902
Liszt's effect upon the music of the last half of the nineteenth century is by no means to be measured by his own work in composition or by his great abilities as a pianist. His power as a composer was scarcely understood during his life-time, although Wagner ranked him as among the very highest in this field, and his abilities as a performer were veiled from all but a select few by his early retirement from the concert-platform. Read More
Victorious Liszt. - May, 1902
It is useless to say that nothing aroused his wrath so much as the receipt of an invitation to play the piano at some festival concert by a "friendly" committee which tactlessly ignored the fact that he was a composer as well as a pianist. Though he was the most genial of men, I suspect that he had said to himself: "If they will not listen to my compositions, they shall not hear me play either." Read More
My Opus I - July, 1902
PHILIPP SCHARWENKA - I AM to tell about my first work, and to do so must go back to the Second Punic War, which, in my recollection, is connected so closely with the composing of my first work. Read More
Edward Macdowell on the Relation of Music and Poetry - July, 1902
Mr. Macdowell, for he prefers this simple mode of address to that of either professor or doctor, to both of which he is entitled, is firm in his opinions, frank in expressing them, impatient of mediocrity, and unflinching in the holding fast of his ideals. In common with most sensitive and intellectual people, he has two distinct sides to his character, that which the world knows and that which shows only to his friends. Read More
Two English Composers of To-Day: Frederic H. Cowen & Edwin Elgar - February, 1903
DR. FREDERIC H. COWEN, the busiest conductor in England, is an interesting personality. He has the same restraint of manner that distinguishes many of his countrymen, yet much enthusiasm and a marked gift of fluency of speech, directly and simply... Read More
Amy Beach - New Gems in the Old Classics - February, 1904
She is a woman of charmingly simple manners, and, as foregone conclusion, of high, innate refinement. She is of medium height. Her eyes are of a grayish blue, large, and smiling. Her complexion is fresh and brilliant. Her blonde hair, primly parted, is brushed back smoothly from her face. Read More
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - The Masters as Students - March, 1904
BY ARTHUR L. MANCHESTER. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART. I. In the preceding series of articles under the head of Student Life and Work I have endeavored to set forth principles which underlie real study. I have based... Read More
Johannes Brahms - Studies In Musical Biography - March, 1904
BY ARTHUR L. MANCHESTER. JOHANNES BRAHMS. Of very different personality from that of Tschaikowsky is the subject of our study this month. The morbid temperament of the Russian, coloring with dark hues his life and compositions, contrasts vividly with... Read More
A Talk with George W. Chadwick - March, 1904
REPORTED BY WILLIAM ARMSTRONG There is a generally entertained idea that to know a writer is to feel a keener interest in that which he writes. To the composer this same idea is applicable. If you know... Read More
Richard Strauss - April, 1904
So much interest is manifested in Richard Strauss, the composer, at present in the United States, that we reprint the following selections from an article by Gustav Kobbé: — To begin with, he is no connection of the "waltz"... Read More
Antonin Dvorak - The Masters As Students. - May, 1904
There is no life that can more profitably be studied than that of Antonin Dvoràk. The reader must be ready to understand what is not written as well as that which is set down. He should know something of the history of Bohemia and surrounding nations, and he must make his deductions wisely. Read More
Antonin Dvorak. - Studies in Musical Biography. - May, 1904
The story of his life from this time until 1892, when he, in the fulness of his powers as a composer, came to New York, is the story of a student. He studied the works of Beethoven and wrote, made mistakes, perceived and corrected them, and persevered in the face of repeated discouragement until he won a grant from the Austrian Kultusministerium which enabled him to devote more time to composition. His compositions are not such as the piano teacher can use, but his position as a leader among his countrymen, his success in England, and his universal acceptance as one of these who have definitely influenced modern music gives his personality and life a place in our scheme of biographic study. Read More
Antonin Dvoràk. - June, 1904
One of the great figures of modern music was taken from the world of activity, May 1st, when Antonin Dvoràk, the Bohemian composer, died at Prague. Read More
Thomas Koschat - My Opus I. - October, 1904
For the first time in my life I was master of a piano upon which I could thump to my heart's content. My first impulse was to try to pick out one of my own melodies which I had often sung with our cook at home. Read More
Chopin the Revolutionaire - January, 1905
BY CONSTANTIN VON STERNBERG. WHEN we contemplate a portrait of Chopin, when the remembrance of his fascinating melodies renews to us the life of these delicate, finely cut features of his face, from which it is so easy to... Read More
Old Fogy's Comments - January, 1905
Dussek Villa on the Wissahickon, December 25, 1904. DEAR MR. EDITOR: Your letter about the Chopin number of THE ETUDE—The only musical publication I care to read in these days of musical gas, charlatanism and chicanery—caught me in... Read More
Chopin the Poet of the Piano-Forte - January, 1905
BY EDWARD BAXTER PERRY. EDGAR ALLAN POE, writing of Tennyson, says: “No poet is so little of the earth, earthy”; and declares he would be willing to rate anyone’s poetic instinct and perceptions by the impression made upon... Read More
Chopin the Man - January, 1905
By W. J. HENDERSON CHOPIN was a mystery to his contemporaries, a phantom to his successors. It is perhaps true that no one ever quite understood him except Aurora Dudevant, the towering George Sand of French literature, who... Read More
Schubert: The Education of the Masters - January, 1906
Like Mozart, Schubert is commonly supposed to have had a mind for music and nothing else. In The Etude for October, however, I presented documentary evidence indicating that Mozart might have made his mark in other branches of intellectual activity had not music absorbed every minute of his time till he succumbed to the struggle for existence. In the present number I wish to show that Schubert, also, was a man with a more varied mentality than he usually gets credit for. Read More
Vincent d'Indy - January, 1906
Vincent d'Indy was born at Paris, March 27, 1852. His family is aristocratic and wealthy; his father was an amateur violinist and was fond of music. D'Indy was brought up by his grandmother, Madame Theodore d'Indy, and it is due to her cultivated influence that his musical tastes were formed on serious lines. At the age of ten, he began piano lessons with Dièmer and harmony with Lavignac, both professors at the Paris Conservatory. These lessons lasted until 1865. Read More
Schumann's Fantasy Pieces, Opus 12 - July, 1906
Schumann's grandest visions of beauty are apparently seen "as through a glass, darkly." His thoughts seem at times too big for his musical vocabulary. Or rather perhaps his ideas are poured forth from the volcanic depths of his genius, in a molten state, too rapidly to solidify into separate forms; but intermingle, overlapping and blurring each other. Read More
How an Opera was Written. - July, 1906
"Do not worry," the young wife pleaded; "in spite of our poverty we have so much for which to be thankful. We are both strong, have each other and our sweet child. Think how it would have been if death, so near a few months ago, had separated us and laid me in an early grave!" Read More
The Making of an Artist - The Views of Alfred Reisenauer. - July, 1906
When I had reached a certain grade of advancement it was my great fortune to become associated with the immortal Franz Liszt. I consider Liszt the greatest man I have ever met. By this I mean that I have never met, in any other walk of life, a man with the mental grasp, splendid disposition and glorious genius. Read More
A Soirée at Richard Wagner's - July, 1906
Suddenly Liszt interrupted the animated conversation. The Countesses Schleinitz and Usedom led him toward the piano. He did not seem to resist at all, but rather wished to go. With daring I forced my way through Liszt's encircling clouds of tulle, gauze and other transparent fineries near by the instrument, so that I stood directly by his side. The Duke of Meiningen did the same, also Niemann, the hero- tenor. A breathless silence followed. Read More
Henry Parker - August, 1907
It is a notable fact in the history of English music that many of the most distinguished men in that line of work gained their first practical knowledge of music as choir boys. The custom of using boy sopranos... Read More
Géza Horváth - August, 1907
The races that make up the great Slav family have contributed much to music. One need but stop a moment to think of the Russians, the Poles and Hungarians, the Bohemians, and with them various smaller divisions. Everywhere that one... Read More
Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakoff - August, 1907
By Edward B. Hill In spite of the many brilliant achievements of the younger school of Russian composers, the unquestioned recognition accorded to Rachmaninoff, Scriabine, (who has been for some months a resident of New York), Ippolitoff, Ivanoff and... Read More
Woman in Music - December, 1908
The preparation of One of Ingeborg von Bronsart's operas for the stage in Dessau brings up the subject of woman's achievements in music. Less than a century has passed since Mendelssohn opposed his sister's desire to publish her works,... Read More
Saint-Saëns as a Pianist and Organist. - December, 1908
Saint-Saëns' work for the piano is extensive. He has touched all kinds, and in many proved himself superior to his predecessors. Read More
How Chopin Played - December, 1908
Chopin held the very highest ideals with regard to playing the piano. His pupils tell us that the first few lessons with him were a veritable martyrdom. The touch must always be crisp (sec?) and the least detail that did not correspond with the master's idea was severely reprimanded. In order to place the hand in a position that was graceful, and at the same time advantageous, he made his pupil place it on the keyboard very lightly. His style always depended on delicacy of touch, and great simplicity of phrasing. He disliked affectation, and, in consequence, all grandiose movement. Read More
Carl Czerny - June, 1909
Czerny's compositions, some of which embrace fifty numbers, approach the formidable number of a thousand, not counting the piano arrangements of numerous symphonies, oratorios, operas, overtures, etc., nor a German translation of Reicha's voluminous work on harmony, nor his own grand method for the piano so well described in Adolph Kullak's (1823-1862) "Æsthetics of Piano Playing;" nor his own "Treatise on Composition;" nor, if I am not mistaken, twenty-four masses with orchestra, four requiems, three hundred graduales, motets, concertos, symphonies, quartets and quintets, songs with and without orchestra, all of which are still in manuscript. Read More
The Influence of Women on the Great Composers - July, 1909
How Many Art-works Have Been Inspired by Women PROBABLY in no way has the influence of women been directed to better advantage than in its bearing on the works of great composers. The sublime utterances of the great tone-poets... Read More
Famous Women in Musical History - July, 1909
By ARTHUR ELSON Author of “Women’s Work in Music” THAT women have had much to do with music is shown, first of all, by the fact that the patron (or matron) saint of the art was a woman. Not... Read More
Some Piano Transcriptions of Numbers from Famous Italian Operas - January, 1910
By the Eminent American Piano Virtuoso WILLIAM H. SHERWOOD A few days ago an estimable lady, who has been one of my neighbors, asked, "Who do you consider the greatest composer? Is it Verdi?'' Naturally, I answered that... Read More
Italy's Musical Influence on Other Nations - January, 1910
By ARTHUR ELSON It is undoubtedly true that Italy has been the most important nation in musical history. Other countries have usurped her place in the last century or so, but her supremacy was of long duration, and... Read More
Personal Recollections Of Verdi - January, 1910
It has been erroneously stated that Verdi was refused at the Conservatory of Milan because he did not give evidences of talent. This was not the case. As a boy he was wonderfully talented, but at the time he applied for admission to the Conservatory he had not had the technical training sufficient to enable him to pass the requisite entrance examinations. Milan's admiration for the famous composer is happily indicated by the fact that the Milan Conservatory has been renamed the Verdi Conservatory. Read More
Moritz Moszkowski on Himself. - January, 1910
Replying to the request of Mr. Ernst Perabo, of California, for his autobiography, the famous pianist, teacher and composer, Moritz Moszkowski, sent the following satirical letter: "I took my first step before the public in my earliest youth,... Read More
Italian Writers For The Piano - January, 1910
By JAROSLAW DE ZIELINSKI "The works of great masters are the only school where we may see, and from whence we may draw, perfection."— Charles Avison, in "An Essay on Musical Expression" (third edition, 1775). Italian air,... Read More
Verdi's Position in Musical Art. - January, 1910
By Lutie Baker Gunn. It was not until he was in his 38th year (1851), when Rigoletto appeared, that Verdi's instrumentation showed any marked care, or that he seemed to be impressed by the variety of effect. ... Read More
Some Striking Pen Pictures of Rossini. - January, 1910
The prominent place in Italian music attained by Verdi was perhaps only equalled by Rossini. The composer of William Tell did a great deal towards lifting Italian opera music out of the depths of banality into which it had... Read More
Prodigies and the Gift of Music - February, 1910
By HENRY T. FINCK [Editor's Note.—Over a year ago Mr. Louis C. Elson wrote an article for The Etude citing some of the dangers surrounding the musical prodigy who is carelessly exploited. In the present article Mr. H.... Read More
Great Italian Masters for the Piano - February, 1910
By JAROSLAW DE ZIELINSKI PART II [The first part of this article outlining the development of pianoforte music in Italy appeared in the January special Italian issue of The Etude.] THE WORK OF MASTERS. A modern... Read More
The Friends Of Beethoven - March, 1910
KATHARINE BEMIS WILSON The average student and lover of music, generally, receives from the start, an unfortunate impression of the character of Beethoven. He has been represented as an extremely rough, overbearing, uncultured man. Many stories are told of his... Read More
Some Composers Of Valuable Pianoforte Pieces In Smaller Forms - March, 1910
BY JAMES FRANCIS COOKE (From "The Young Folks' Standard History of Music.) [The following is an arrangement of Lesson 36 from the work named above, which is now in course of preparation. The book as a whole,... Read More
Liza Lehmann - To The Young Musician Who Would Compose - April, 1910
I was studying with Mme. Clara Schumann in Frankfurt, where she had invited me to become better acquainted with the immortal songs of her husband, Robert Schumann. While I was in her home, Brahms came for a short visit. Naturally, I was in a state of great ecitement. (sic) The anticipation of meeting one of the world's greatest masters was quite enough to set the student heart aflame. On the morning of the first day of his visit we had sardines for breakfast. They were served after the German custom in the original tin containers. What was my surprise and horror upon seeing Brahms devour his fish and then take up the can and drink the oil! Read More
The Passing of Carl Reinecke - May, 1910
Remarkable career of one of the most influential musicians of the past century In the last issue of The Etude there appeared what was doubtless the last article of Prof. Dr. Carl Reinecke, the eminent pianist, composer and musical... Read More
Eminent Musicians on Chopin and His Works - May, 1910
Selected and arranged for ETUDE readers from an excellent symposium which appeared recently in the London Musical Times. Chopin had little fondness for the English people and for England. In fact, upon one occasion while returning from that country to... Read More
Most Beautiful Romance in Musical History - June, 1910
By HENRY T. FINCK [Editor's Note.—The remarkable love of Robert Schumann for his talented and faithful wife is one of the very brightest spots in the story of musical art. Mr. Finck is peculiarly adapted to write upon... Read More
Schumann's Fateful Accident - June, 1910
By FRANCIS LINCOLN The accident which changed Schumann's career from that of the virtuoso pianist to that of the composer has been frequently related, but its real part in the career of one of the greatest of masters... Read More
Schumann the Romanticist - June, 1910
By EDWARD BAXTER PERRY Together with the author's personal recollections of his lessons with Clara Schumann In considering Schumann as the ablest and most fearless champion of the modern romantic school of composition we must take into account... Read More
The Influence of Heredity and Youthful Training Upon Schumann's Career - June, 1910
by CLARENCE G. HAMILTON For the sources of a man's greatness we must look to his early surroundings. Parental tendencies and tradition, natural environments, youthful friendships, all have their influence upon budding genius, and tinge the full flower... Read More
The Triumph of Robert Schumann - June, 1910
By EDVARD GRIEG (Published by Special Permission of The Century Company) [Editor's Note.—The following excellent article is selected from a critical, discussion of the work of Robert Schumann by the great Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg. It is taken... Read More
The Message of a Great Master - June, 1910
The musical world is stopping for a little while to pay its homage to Robert Schumann. It seems odd to think that had Robert Schumann lived to the age of one hundred years he would have heard musical works... Read More
The Bi-Centenary of Dr. Arne. - August, 1910
Those music lovers who pray with Charles Dickens, "Lord, keep my memory green," will hardly need to be reminded that 1910, besides being the centenary of Chopin and Schumann, is also the bicentenary of Dr. Thomas Arne, the composer... Read More
Why Bach Wrote the "Well-Tempered Clavichord." - August, 1910
BY SARAH A. PALMER. The scientists of to-day are able to tell us just how many vibrations per second produce a given tone, just what ratio this number of vibrations bears to that of every other tone, just... Read More
Beethoven and Patriotic Music. - August, 1910
The prominent part played by music in the death of King Edward VII recalls to one's mind the fact that music not only serves to voice a nation's mourning, but is also a means of giving vent to national... Read More
Events in the Life of Robert Schumann. - August, 1910
HIS FIRST ORCHESTRAL CONCERT. Robert Schumann was the son of a man in whom the love of literature and the aesthetic side of life had finally triumphed after confronting many difficulties. It may therefore be imagined that the youthful... Read More
Peculiarities of the Genius of Famous Musicians. - August, 1910
BY CAROL SHERMAN. That genius and insanity are allied has been a long-accepted fact among scientists. By insanity of the kind represented in the cases of famous musicians the reader should not paint a picture of the kinds... Read More
"A Trip to the Shrine of Beethoven" - August, 1910
By RICHARD WAGNER A Remarkable Indication of the Astonishing Imagination of the Great Musician-Dramatist Reprinted by Special Request [It is hard to read the following without believing that Richard Wagner actually made the trip to Vienna... Read More
The Ideals of Franz Liszt. - August, 1910
Let us not err through false modesty, and let us hold fast to the true, which is much more difficult to practice and far more rare to find. The artist in our sense, should be neither the servant nor... Read More
What Women Have Done For Music In Russia - August, 1910
Whether the popular prophecy that the music of the future will come from Russia is fulfilled or not, the musical accomplishments of the country which covers far more territory than any other in the world have been so astonishing that the musical world is looking to the land of the Czar with eager interest. The writer of this article has long been a resident of Russia. She is a close observer and most interesting writer. We are sure that our readers will be glad to know something of the part women have had in Russian musical development. In the March issue of The Etude M. S. Rachmaninoff, under whose supervision all the conservatories of Russia are conducted, gave our readers some splendid opinions upon piano playing. Read More
Antoinette Szumowska - An Appreciation of Chopin - August, 1910
If one is not related to Chopin by nationality there exists only one power which can raise a bridge across the chasm, and make one understand the great piano poet somewhat better--it is love! A great, deep, almost religious love, will bring one nearer to the spirit of Chopin's music. Read More
Justice to Weber - September, 1910
A great injustice had been done to Weber by the musical historians and critics. Almost unanimously they gave Berlioz credit for innovations that sprang from the genius of Weber. It was Weber's scores that suggested to Berlioz his audacious... Read More
Well Known Composers of To-Day - George B. Nevin - September, 1910
The subject of our sketch represents a branch of musical endeavor which deserves the greatest possible encouragement. To Mr. Nevin, music is first of all a work of love. Read More
A Trip to the Shrine of Beethoven, Part II. By Richard Wagner. - September, 1910
By Richard Wagner A Remarkable Indication of the Imagination of the Great Musical-Dramatist Reprinted by Special Request Part II. [Synopsis: The first part of this remarkable article, indicating Richard Wagner's unlimited and exceptionally versatile imagination, was printed... Read More
The Forgotten Rivals of Great Composers - September, 1910
For a long time, people of real musical taste had deplored the increasing lack of sincerity in opera, but not until Gluck's advent had a man of the necessary ability and stamina appeared to effect the long-hoped for reforms. Read More
A Trip to the Shrine of Beethoven, Part III, by Richard Wagner - October, 1910
By RICHARD WAGNER A Fictitious Journey indicating astonishing imagination of the Great Musician-Dramatist PART III. [This remarkable article, which is reprinted by special request, was commenced in The Etude for August. The previous parts have principally... Read More
Forgotten Rivals of Great Composers - October, 1910
When we come to the day of the tempestuous Beethoven, and those years of significant and colossal work in his art, we see him with no opportunity for even a hearing of his efforts, while the Viennese flocked to the operas of the versatile Italian, Rossini. In his indignation, Beethoven would send no more new compositions to the managers of Vienna. Read More
Tschaikowski's Ideals. - November, 1910
Probably the first thing the young musician prides himself on having, when he starts out on his musical career, is musical "ideals" of the most lofty kind. Well, indeed, is this the case, for in this mercenary age ideals... Read More
Lessons With Franz Liszt - November, 1910
By EMIL SAUER An Absorbingly Interesting, Unbiased Description of the Most Famous of all Piano Classes by the Distinguished Virtuoso and Teacher Well Known to American Concert-goers [Editor's Note.—The following is probably the sanest, best balanced article... Read More
The Triumph of Edward MacDowell - November, 1910
By CAROL SHERMAN Unspoken words at parting Find their voice in song. Ah! sing them soft and tenderly, The song will ne'er last long. And hand grasps hand at parting, Heart finds heart in... Read More
The Influence of the Folk-Song on German Musical Art - May, 1911
From an Interview with the Eminent Composer and Director GUSTAV MAHLER Secured expressly for THE ETUDE Mr. Mahler gave his opinions to our interviewer partly in German and partly in English. Consequently it has been impossible to employ his... Read More
Rossini The Humorist - August, 1911
Rossini was the prince of humorists among composers. The good stories told of him would fill a small volume and I wonder that no writer has thought of bringing them together under one cover. Read More
Masters Who Have Triumphed By Self-Help - October, 1911
By CAROL SHERMAN "Men at some times are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves, that we are underlings.''— WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. (Julius Caesar, Act I, Sc. II.) There... Read More
Well Known Composers of To-Day: J. Frank Frysinger - October, 1911
Mr. Frysinger was born at Hanover, Pennsylvania, in 1878. His musical studies commenced at the age of eight when he was placed under the instruction of Frederick W. Wolf, of Baltimore, with whom he studied piano and harmony. Later he... Read More
Wall Known Composers of To-Day: Tod B. Galloway - January, 1912
Tod B. Galloway was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1863. He published first "Seven Memory Songs." This included the exceptionally successful "The Gypsy Trail." Later he published "Friendship Songs," and a number of others. Read More
Why Rubinstein Wrote "Kamennoi Ostrow." - April, 1912
One of Rubinstein's most popular pieces is his Kamennoi Ostrow, Opus 10, No. 22. This is one of a set of pieces named after an island in the Neva river, Russia. The following short article from Musical Trades gives an excellent idea of the source of Rubinstein's inspiration. Read More
Arnold Sartorio, Well Known Composer, Reaches Opus 1000 - September, 1912
Although the American competitors in the Olympic Games in Sweden seemed to have the habit of establishing records, the German composers of to-day and yesterday are unquestionably the victors in all musical marathons. Few writers of other nationalities have ever had the persistence to write up to or beyond the Opus 1000. Read More
Georges Mathias - Some Personal Recollections of Chopin - September, 1912
The present article is by far the most eminent of Chopin's pupils. Georges Mathias (1826-1910) was also a pupil of Kalkbrenner, and a graduate of the Conservatoire, where he subsequently became professor of the piano (1862-87). The article appeared in the Exercise Quotidiens of Isidor Philipp, and is here translated and reprinted from the French journal Musica. Mathias was a Chopin enthusiast, and like many of his kind a somewhat blind hero-worshiper. Nevertheless, he was an interesting personality, and the article not only gives a glowing description of Chopin, but also affords us a fascinating glimpse of Georges Mathias. Read More
George Dudley Martin - Well Known Composers of To-day - January, 1913
George Dudley Martin was born at Scranton, Pa., in 1881. He studied with Silas Rosser (piano) and Dr. Alfred Wooler (theory). Later he went to Philadelphia where he became the pupil of Constantine von Sternberg (piano) and Dr. Hugh A. Clark (theory). Read More
Johannes Brahms - The Etude Master Study Page - January, 1913
Brahms' family name appears in some forms as Brahmst. At least it may be so found upon the program of a concert given in 1849. The master's father was an able but little known musician, Johann Brahms. He played the viola, violin, 'cello, flute, horn and contra-bass. Here and there he managed to pick up an odd job in addition to his regular work as a performer on the double bass at the theatre and in the Philharmonic concerts, and as a member of the town military band. Despite his versatility and ability, Brahms' father was so poor that he was not above "passing the hat" when he played in summer gardens. Read More
The Way Massanet Composed - January, 1913
Massenet heard his music mentally, he needed no piano to assist him. It is said that he kept no piano in his country house nor in his Paris apartment. Once when the librettist of one of his operas called... Read More
Modern Masters In Russia - by Ellen von Tideböhl - March, 1913
Moscow is the musical center of Russia, and teems with musical talent. It offers every facility for the study and development of musical gifts. Many of the leading Russian composers were born here, and received all their training at the Conservatoire. A group of composers of the younger generation entirely belongs to the Moscow school, and have received their training mainly at the hands of Sergei Ivanovitsh Taneiew, the great master of counterpoint, who has inspired them all with a true comprehension of their aim in art and the destiny of their talent. Read More
A Biographical List of Russian Composers. - March, 1913
Many names are included which are not to be found in Grove, or indeed in any one musical dictionary, as a variety of sources of information have been drawn upon. Read More
The Romance of the Chopin Preludes - By Mrs. Burton Chance - August, 1913
The Romance of the Chopin Preludes By MRS. BURTON CHANCE With Fanciful Illustrations by the Noted German Impressionist, Robert Spies Read More
The Real Haydn - The Etude Master Study Page - October, 1913
HADYN'S (sic) EPOCH. Change comes slowly to the pleasant little country villages of Europe. Many, indeed, stand to-day very much as they stood nearly two hundred years ago. As we observe their rustic simplicity we can imagine how much more... Read More
Berlioz - The Etude Master Study Page - November, 1913
Berlioz came into the world just as the French democracy, that allowed Robespierre to barter his insatiable ambition for his life, was merging into the Empire which was to offer Napoleon a similar tragic opportunity. In 1804 "the little corporal" importunately snatched the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and placing it upon his own head with his own hands declared himself Emperor of France. During the childhood and youth of Berlioz he saw upon all sides the significant "N" of Bonaparte. France was ascending to new power and new glory. Berlioz was all patriot. He loved his France and particularly his Paris. Mercurial at all times, his disposition and life experiences were not unlike the fortunes of his native land. During his entire life the French people seemed to be struggling for republican freedom --a freedom, which did not arrive in anything like a permanent form until the year after the death of Berlioz. Read More
An Interesting Aspect of the Romances of Frederic Chopin. - June, 1914
By BEULAH WINTON SICKLES Much has been said about Chopin's love affairs, but the truth is he was never really in love in his life. He had many infatuations but preferred his dreams and ideals of the beautiful... Read More
Hans Engelmann. 1872 - 1914 - June, 1914
Composers, like poets, are born and not made. It is possible, of course, for a man to go through an elaborate course of harmony, counterpoint, musical form, etc., and at the end of the course to be able to write music that is "well constructed" and blameless from a theoretical point of view. There are thousands of Doctors of Music in the world to whom the writing of such music is a simple matter. But natural musicians are more rare. Read More
Tributes to the Memory of Hans Engelmann - September, 1914
Hans Engelmann as a composer undoubtedly possessed a wonderful gift of melody, supplemented by a thorough practical and theoretical knowledge of music, thus giving to his compositions a character and finish so often lacking in the works of modern composers of salon and dance music. Read More
A Concise Biographical Dictionary of Noted Composers Who Have Written Music in Lighter Vein. The Salon, The Dance, The Operetta. - September, 1914
The composer who has not written music in lighter vein is to be pitied. Greatness does not mean sombreness. Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Wagner and even Brahms have been responsible for some of the merriest music ever written. Whether it be... Read More
Sigismund Thalberg - Prince of the Salon - September, 1914
By AUBERTINE WOODWARD MOOREIncluding the Author's Personal Recollections of Thalberg's American Tours. Nothing could better illustrate the transitoriness of a virtuoso's fame than the neglected centenary, January, 1912, of the once popular Thalberg. Although by no means the most eminent... Read More
Some Interesting Facts About Frederick Kuhlau. - October, 1914
In the autumn of 1825, Kuhlau visited Vienna and spent a lively day with Beethoven, who then lived at Baden, close by. The two friends and some other congenial spirits had a picnic in the open, at which, inspired by good cheer, Kuhlau and Beethoven vied with each other in improvizing canons. Read More
Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss, Jr. - October, 1914
Brahms was much more of a human being than are many of his admirers. His love for children is well known, and one can well believe the story told by a young American lady, traveling in Europe in 1895, that "We saw Johannes Brahms on the hotel verandah at Domodossola, and what do you think! He was down on all fours, with three children on his back, riding him for a horse." Read More
Well Known Composers of To-day: Eugenio di Pirani - January, 1915
Among other things, Mr. di Pirani, in his varied career, has acquired some amusing experiences. He related the following incident to an interviewer from Musical America some time ago: Read More
Chopin and the Music of Poland - February, 1915
By SIGISMUND STOJOWSKI CHOPIN'S QUALITY. Chopin! these two syllables breathe a magic spell. Whoever has laid his hands on a piano, nay, whoever has listened to a piano, whether it be in a concert hall or in... Read More
Chopin's Last Tragic Moments - February, 1915
While the general facts regarding the death of Chopin are well known and thoroughly authenticated, accounts do not all agree as to the details—even when these accounts have been given by those present. Lawyers know how untrustworthy are the... Read More
How Schumann and Mendelssohn Regarded Poverty - April, 1915
An interesting book entitled, A Day With Mendelssohn, by George Sampson, an English singer, records a conversation between Ferdinand David, Sterndale Bennett, Robert Schumann and Mendelssohn. The talk drifted around to Schubert, and more particularly to the extreme poverty... Read More
Egotism, Eccentricities and Mannerisms Among Famous Musicians - April, 1915
By LORNA GILL The vanity of the musician is a theme upon which few disagree. The "big head" is the plague that counts its most numerous victims upon the concert and operatic stage, where it assumes so many... Read More
Up the Slippery Slopes of Parnassus - May, 1915
By JAMES HUNEKER In which the distinguished critic calls special attention to studies about which all ambitious students are eager to obtain expert information LAST March I dealt with studies that are the foundation of the art of playing... Read More
Pegasus Flies Across Parnassus - September, 1915
By: James Huneker Third and Last in a Most Excellent Series of Articles in which Mr. Huneker Has Covered the Field of Pianoforte Studies in His Own Inimitable Fashion. The Previous Contributions Appeared in the March and in the... Read More
Clara Schumann's Compositions Reviewed by Her Husband - November, 1915
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
MacDowell's Period - The Etude Master Study Page - November, 1915
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
Edvard Grieg and His Own Compositions - November, 1915
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
MacDowell's Distinguished Career - November, 1915
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
Franz Liszt--The Last Word in Piano Playing - November, 1915
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
The First Performance of Handel's "Messiah" - November, 1915
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
A Classified List of Some "Futurist" and "Modernist" Composers - May, 1916
The following list of composers who by their music have earned a place among the advanced musical thinkers of today—even though some of them are dead—does not pretend to be complete. It simply serves as an abbreviated "Who's Who"... Read More
The Phenomenon of "Blind Tom" - February, 1918
In his day, people regarded Tom merely as a great freak, as he indeed was. Nowadays, people realize that his case was principally interesting because it was a marvelous manifestation of the sub-conscious or dream mind as differentiated from the conscious mind. Tom's mind, that is, his conscious mind, was just about sufficient to remove him one step from the helpless imbecile who has to be fed and cared for. Read More
The Case of Richard Wagner vs. Democracy - February, 1918
Allowing that Wagner Operas could be given in the English language in America, without rendering personal assistance to dangerous alien enemies, should they be debarred from our stage at the present time? Read More
The Two-Fold Vitality of Anglo-Saxon Music - February, 1918
Americans and British are to my mind intensely musical races, especially from a creative (compositional) standpoint, but we are musically primitive races when viewed in the aggregate; at bottom closer allied to the musical instincts of South Sea Island Polynesians and African Negroes than to those of Hollanders, Frenchmen and Germans, for instance. Read More
An Authentic Biography of Rachmaninoff - October, 1919
Especially Translated from the Russian of I. Korzuchin By KURT SCHINDLER This Biography Has Been Read by the Great Composer In Person, and Is, Therefore, Accurate Rachmaninoff is now 45 years of age. He was born on... Read More
Beethoven--Iconoclast, Democrat, Genius - October, 1919
By the Noted Critic and Author HENRY T. FINCK [Editor's Note:—Just when the spark of Democracy commenced to flicker in Germany no one knows. Our own republic was well established when Beethoven reached his prime, and it is... Read More
How Some Composers Compose - April, 1920
THE supposition of the general public is that composers sit down at the table or at the piano and write down at once some beautiful masterpiece snatched from the gorgeous wells of inspiration. As a matter of fact, most... Read More
Rossini at the Keyboard - July, 1920
The world thinks of many of the great composers in the light of creators, but in reality many of them have also been very fine pianists. Massenet and Debussy are said to have been especially fine performers. An interesting... Read More
Johann Sebastian Bach - Secrets of the Success of Great Musicians - July, 1920
The advent of a man of genius is not always an erratic phenomenon, but the combined result of his antecedents and of the character of his age and outward circumstances in which he developed. J. S. Bach was the child of a family who had for four generations cultivated music, not as a mere profession, but as an art, as the object of their lives, and his hereditary talent was fostered and turned into its peculiar channel by the spirit of the age in which he lived. Read More
Dvořák as I Knew Him - May, 1921
By John Spencer Camp [Editorial Note.—Mr. Camp is a well-known composer, pupil of the great Czechoslovak Master.] My relation to the famous composer, Antonin Dvořák, was that of a pupil in composition and orchestration. I had studied... Read More
Dr. Richard Strauss - New Paths and Visions in Musical Progress - January, 1922
It is not necessary for me to advise America as to the matter of musical ideals. There are horrible perversions in all parts of the world. One of the greatest abuses I have observed since my visit to this country has been the deliberate pilfering of the great musical masters of the past to make some popular tune. If there must be prohibition, why not make a law to prevent such desecration. The other night I heard in a hotel in Pittsburgh the lovely Blue Danube Waltz of Johann Strauss murdered in some popular tune in which it appeared in four quarter time. I am told that this is not only common but that popular publishers in keeping with the banditry of the times are making a continual practice of it. The bad effect upon the art and upon the student of the art is that it belittles the need for creating original melodies. When it is so easy to steal, why produce? Read More
Some New Facts About the Creator of The Nocturne - JOHN FIELD of Dublin - April, 1922
Secured for The Etude by the Eminent MusicologistW. H. GRATTAN FLOOD, Mus. Doc. K. S. G. Together with unique portraits of the composer and a newly discovered youthful composition. [Editor's Note: William Henry Grattan Flood was born at Lismore, Ireland,... Read More
Liszt at the Court of Napoleon III - March, 1923
By the PRINCESS PAULINE METTERNICH ETUDE readers who may have missed the October issue will be pleased to know that the Princess Metternich’s “Memoirs of Richard Wagner” may be obtained in that issue or secured in book form in... Read More
The Humor of Richard Wagner - Written Expressly for The Etude by the Son of the Great Master - SIEGFRIED WAGNER - January, 1924
The underlying trait of my father's character was a lofty artistic earnestness. Along with this, however, there poured forth an illuminating humor and a sunny happiness which, notwithstanding the difficult life situations and the disappointments, rarely resolved into satire or irony. Read More
Bandmaster Gilmore - April, 1934
The Story of One of the Most Picturesque Figures in American Musical History. Reprinted by Permission of "The American Mercury" Read More
The Gift of Liszt to Grieg - November, 1936
AT THE PEAK of his fame, a master musician, pianist and composer, Liszt loved nothing so much as discovering talent and genius in others. But though hundreds of young students had sent him their compositions, Grieg had not. Imagine... Read More
Harry Adjip: From Jungle to Symphony Hall - February, 1938
From Jungle to Symphony Hall An Extraordinary Musical Life The tale of a man with four names; who was born in Hawaii, of American Indian parents; was brought up by a Malay in Singapore, as a Mohammedan; is now a... Read More
