8 TH E ETUD E ftbougbts—Suooesttons—Hfcmce* PRACTICAL POINTS BY EMINENT TEACHERS. ENSEMBL E PLAYING . B Y HAMILTO N C. MACDOUGALL . Two people who are capable performers on their re-spective instruments can have a great deal of pleasure in playing duos. This is granted and without question ; but the great benefit to be derived from ensemble play-ing, and the great importance to every musician's growth in his art, need to be emphasized afresh every now and then. Take the most common combination of instruments, the violin and piano. What does each performer gain ? The pianist—in the beautiful singing tone and the num-berless, refined effects of the violin—is incited to renewed efforts to conquer the monotony of tone and poverty of phrasing, comparatively speaking, of his instrument; while, on his part, the violinist realizes, more and more, the power of harmony to color, modify, and strengthen melody. Each performer will gain alike a sense of proportion and, along with that, the power of subordinating him-self at the proper moments. Each will also find his musical enthusiasm much greater and finer than under ordinary solo conditions. * * * * * PUPIL S OUT OF TUNE . B Y C. W . GEIMM . OUR instruments get out of tune from wear and tear, and even we teachers are very often unstrung,—why should it not be possible for our pupils to get out of tune ? Did you never have a diligent and musical pupil, who at some time or other became listless to your explanations and disinterested in his studies ? If you did, your first thought undoubtedly was, then, whether it could be the result of some fault of yours in addressing the pupil or in the mode of presenting the subjects to him. After you had carefully judged yourself, and came to the con-clusion that no mistake was made on your part, you, perhaps, imagined your pupil had become merely some-what lazy. You would entreat him to practice more, thereby making matters visibly worse. One thing was evident, the sunshine of industry and enthusiasm was gone. Really, I have not yet found anything better than to wait patiently for those cloudy and dreary days of in-difference to pass away by themselves. A disease may be working upon the pupil; then he is physically out of tune. It may be a secret disappointment that has broken his heart strings, or some private affair that has upset his whole family. The best is to let time heal such wounds. We teachers should be serious in our work, yet always of a cheerful disposition, even if the pupil be not in such a mood, otherwise we are not fit to teach. * * * ABOU T TH E PIANO-STOOL. MADAM E A . PUPIN . A WOED of warning ought to be sent forth throughout the whole length and breadth of this country, against that plush abomination called the music-stool (?) or piano-stool. Many cases of severe spinal difficulty have been known to result from the use of some of these instruments of torture, and there have doubtless been many other cases whose origin has been unsuspected. Suppose a piano-stool were to be dissected, what a revelation there would be. This one is " a cunning little stool just suitable for little Jenny." It is nothing but a three legged, tottery piece of deception ; the top is a hard board with an iron knob in the center and covered with a piece of hair-cloth. No wonder Jenny doesn't like to practice, and wonders why music makes her tired. When Amelia is sixteen years old, she gets a beautiful new piano-stool: it has four legs, but it stands on a very small space on the floor. It screws up but it doesn't screw down, that is, it screws up as high as the music desk, but it can never be made to go low enough to seat one's self before a grand piano. It has a well-rounded plush seat which suggests the most delightful ease ; but this is only false pretense ; its immovable rigidity can be com-pared to nothing but the bumpers in a railroad station. The best seat for one practicing at the piano is a chair with cane seat; if the chair is not high enough it should be fitted with a flat cushion stuffed with tow. The next best seat is a wooden stool with hollowed out wooden seat. Both the chair and the last mentioned stool have a good solid base, which every one does not realize the value of, but which is very important. * * * * * ADVANTAGE S IN TH E CLASSICS. THOMA S TAPPEE . CLASSIC themes, and classic education in general, are not infrequently looked upon as being within the reach only of those who are exceptionally well settled in life, with riches, and the opportunity of college life until twenty-five or thirty. It has, however, been very per-tinently pointed out that a young man or woman who has at twenty a pronounced desire to study—let us say Greek —can, by working ten years, save even in very common circumstances a thousand dollars ; and still have sufficient spare time to read everything valuable in English on Greece and the Greeks, at the same time gaining much knowledge of the language itself. Then the money saved would secure a year or more in Athens or at a European University. Even the most restricted view of these opportunities must yet include a great deal. One must acknowledge that a person with determination would make much out of the conditions. It is, of course, different with the music student, who must in comparatively early years accustom the hands to the task of all the life ; but the analogy of plan can be made to mean much, as well for music students as for others. * * * * * HAN D POSITION OF CHILDEEN . J. C. FILLMOEE. I HAVE lately heard a good deal from various teachers about " forming the hand " in pupils, especially in chil-dren. But tell me, fellow-teachers, did you ever teach a child the " correct " position of the hand as laid down in the conservatory text-books, without his holding his hand cramped and rigid? Did you ever have a case where you did not have to go through a long course of technical "grind," and resort to all sorts of expedients to overcome this tendency ? Did you ever see a pupil acquire a really musical touch without breaking up the rigidity, caused by " forming the hand " according to " school-correct " principles ? And did you ever hear any really expressive playing from a pianist who had not a musical touch? Did you ever see a great artist like Rubinstein, or Paderewski, or Bloomfield-Zeisler who habitually held his hands in the " school-correct" posi-tion ? Do they not all, the really great ones, swing the hands naturally, from the wrist, with an elastic poise which is the very reverse of the cramped holding of the hands taught in most of the conservatories ? How many artists, or even decently musical players, did you ever see turned out of the Stuttgart Conservatory, for exam-ple, with its 600 students a year, its stupid pedantry and its cramped, unnatural, methods ? I venture to say, precious few, and those in spite of their teaching. The instruction in the Stuttgart Conservatory kills out the musical life in all pupils, except those in whom it is too vigorous to be destroyed by any amount of pedantry. It makes " correct " mechanical players, with no more soul in their playing than there is in a music-box or any other piece of machinery. And this is not the only school which has become insufferably pedantic, although it is, perhaps, the worst in the lot. Then, why, let me ask, should we still pattern our teaching on unnatural methods? Why not model on the artist's instead of the pedant's? Why not teach young pupils to swing the hands freely and naturally, instead of holding them stiffly and unnaturally ? Why not teach even the youngest pupils to produce a musical tone from the start? Why not think for ourselves, instead of run-ning blindfold in anybody's ruts? OBJECTS OF SLO W PEACTICE . B Y HENE Y G. HANCHETT . PEOBABLY nobody has any adequate idea of the num-ber of different nerve-cells that are concerned in appar-ently simple processes. There are many millions of nerve-cells in the brain, and thousands more in other parts of the body, and all of them have their functions. A thing is well done only when every nerve center that is engaged in performing any portion of the act does its work per-fectly and automatically. What we know as the con-scious volition actually moves no muscles, but simply directs subordinate and unconscious nerve-cells which, are the active agents in the control of movements These agents learn to perform automatically any mo-tions which they are required to repeat frequently ; but if in the early learning of such motions, as when practic-ing a piano piece, careless supervision allows imper-fections to be acquired, these imperfections are often-times very persistent and can only be removed by great patience and with difficulty. The object of slow practice, then, should be to enable consciousness to watch every detail of the process of practice, so that by no possibility can an erroneous mo-tion become a part of the finished execution. A thing learned wrong requires to be unlearned and learned over again to make it right. The wrong learning is one false step, the unlearning again is a much more difficult and time-consuming step, and when accomplished but leads us to yet another step—that of learning the piece cor-rectly. Slow practice should have enabled us to have every thing perfectly correct at first, and thus to save much valuable time. MR. EMIL LIEBLING'S BACH COURSE. IN response to many inquiries, Mr. Emil Liebling has indicated the following as his usual course of Bach in the earlier grades. Of the two-part inventions he gives in this order, Nos. 8, 13, 14, 6 ; then 4 and 3 ; then 1, 10, and 12 for the single mordent (with the note below—the character distinguished by a vertical stroke through it) ; then 4 and 3 for trills upon dotted notes, in which the trill instead of going entirely through stops at the dot ; then 2 for the trill beginning with the upper note. Of the three-part inventions he uses Nos. 1, 10, 12, 2, 7 ; of the Clavier Vol. I, prelude 20, prelude 6, 10th fugue, 3d prelude, 5th prelude, 21st prelude, 15th pre-lude, 2d fugue, 5th fugue, 21st fugue, 15th fugue ; and for melodic invention and delicate sentiment, preludes 4 and 8. Pursuing the classic course he then gives several pieces from Biilow-Scarlatti selections, and then Handel, giving of the latter the Chaconne in F, Gavotte in G, Variations in E (Harmonious Blacksmith), Theme and Variations in B-flat, D minor Suite (prelude, air, and presto), Gigue in F minor, Gigue in G minor, Fugue in E minor. Of Rameau he gives the Gavotte in A minor with variations. Also of the Scarlatti selections by Tau-sig he uses those in G minor and F minor. The Bach course then proceeds to arrangements, among which he particularly recommends the Toccata in D minor ar-ranged by Brassin. TIMELY ADVICE. " Do N'T coddle the throat" is a piece of advice which is supposed to find favor in these blustering da}rs and nights only with the hardy few. It finds support at least in the testimony of Mr. Edward Lloyd, who has certainly as deep an interest in avoiding huskiness as any living Englishman. This eminent tenor has assured the Strand Magazine interviewer that he never'muffles his throat up in a huge silk scarf, but believes in the low collar and " weathering it." The only time he muffled his neck he caught a fearful cold. His advice is : " Breathe through the nose, and not through the mouth, when coming out of a hot room. Do n't wrap up ; whilst an egg beaten in a very little whisky and water will be found an excellent fortifier." On the other hand, con-trary to the general opinion, Mr. Lloyd has never found smoking affect his voice, though he has been a smoker from an early age ; still, he would not advise singers to follow the example of Mario, who is said to have smoked as many as thirty cigars in a day.—London Daily News.
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