§i. I M wi "M M Was Aristotle Right? SON of a physician and highly educated man, pupil of Plato, Aristotle had the best training possible in that amazing day when Greek civilization evolved intellectual ideals which are still discussed in all the great Universities of the world. In his politics he discussed at measured length the bringing up of the ideal citizen. Just now, when so many people are trying to show that the so-called literary subjects (including drawing) have such utilitarian value, it is Well to listen to Aristotle who, perhaps, saw further than the moderns in many things. Music, for in*-stance, was to be employed for higher development, not merely for pleasure nor for the sake of relaxation. He divided melo-dies into two classes. First, those which give us pleasure and second, those which give us pain. The first he associated .with noble ideas, and the second with debased ideas. Aristotle attributed to music the power of inculcating "the habit of forming right judgments and of taking delight in good dispositions and noble actions." But the greatest attribute which Aristotle would have us believe music to pos-sess is "katharsis" or purification. Music was believed by this great philosopher to rouse in us a compassionate regard for humanity, to raise us out of ourselves, to free us from debasing temptations, to bring us into touch with higher things, Can you imagine Aristotle at a modern Symphony con-cert? What would he have thought of the Scheherazade or L'apres midi d'un Faune? How would he have considered Salome, or the Fifth Symphony, or the Manzoni Requiem? If the primitive music of Athens inspired him with such reverence for the art, what might he have thought of the music of 1920? We have done years of thinking about music, but we do not believe that we have come to any wiser conclusions than those which Aristotle evolved twenty centuries ago. W e have the evidence of thousands who have told us of the refreshing and purifying effect of music. Som^ years ago Mr. Edwin Bok told in THE ETUDE of the wonderfully restful and in-vigorating effects of symphony concerts when he found him-self fagged out on Saturday nights. He was merely retelling the theory of "katharsis" so luminous to Aristotle. A Great Musicologist THE passing of Dr. Hugo Riemann, in June, of last year, removed one of the foremost of the world's musical lexico-graphers. He was also one of the most industrious, if not one of the most profound, musicologists of his time. He was born in Thiiringen, July 18, 1849, and died in Leipzig. His father was a man of means, and he provided his son with all facilities for an excellent education. He studied philosophy, law and history at the Universities of Berlin and at Thiiringen. Later he entered the Leipzig University and the Leipzig Con-servatory, where he became a pupil of Jadassohn and Reinecke. Unlike many musical theorists, Riemann was a practical worker. He wrote many compositions, including a symphony, and was at one time a much sought-after teacher of piano as well as musical history, theory and composition. (Max Reger was probably one of the best known pupils). He was engaged in many educational institutions in his native land, until in 1908 he was appointed Professor of Music at the University of Leipzig. In a recent issue of The Monthly Musical Record (London), Dr. Frederick Niecks, Professor of Music emeritus of the University of Edinborough, gives a very detailed biogra-phy of Dr. Riemann, recounting many of his noteworthy works in theory, history and composition. His accomplishments seem truly enormous when regarded merely from the standpoint of the immense quantity of his output. He is best known to our friends through his famous Musical Dictionary, which, at one time, had a truly immense sale, but which has now been super-ceded in the homes of many by the larger dictionary of Sir George Grove. Dr. Riemann contributed valuable articles to THE ETUDE, and was an agreeable correspondent. His pen-manship, however, was so microscopically minute and so diffi-cult to read that we were constantly concerned over the possi-bility of misprints. He represents a phase of musical scholar-ship, combined with practical experience, which cannot fail to command a permanent position for his excellent works in the musical history of the future. Hand Playing A PIANO-PLAYING device of truly remarkable character advertises "the nearest approach to hand playing." What a consummate testimonial to the unequaled worth of real hand playing! But the value of hand playing is not a matter that ends with the mere approval by the sense of hearing. That is something which is very hard to explain to the unsophisticated music-lover who has never experienced the great jo y of hand •playing. THE ETUDE has recognized for years the very great educa-tional value of sound reproducing machines. Music is of course primarily for the ears. It must be heard to be fully enjoyed, but all instrumentalists know that there is something about the use of the hands in making music which gives entirely new and different understanding to the art, and which conveys a sense of artistic gratification almost impossible to get in any other way. Miss Helen Keller, the modern psychological miracle, who, despite her total blindness and deafness, has written books that are now regarded as great literature in their field, says in one of them ( Th e World I Live In) : "M y hand is what your hear-ing and sight together are to you. In large measure we travel the same highways, read the same books, speak the same language, yet our experiences are different. All my coming and going turn on the hand as pivot. It is the hand that binds me to the world of men and women." It is not until we realize what has been done by the won-derful tactual sense of a Helen Keller, that we gain a proper respect for the hand. The training of the hand in the art of playing an instrument has such immense possibilities that volumns have been written about it. Yet its scope has never yet been fully comprehended. Let Helen Keller speak again, from the patient beauty of the soul liberated by the hand. "I t is the hand that binds me to the world of men and women. The hand is my feeler with which I reach through isolation and darkness and seize every pleasure, every activity that my fingers encounter. With the dropping of a little word from another's hand into mine, a slight flutter of the fingers, began the intelligence, the joy , the fullness of my life. Like Job I feel as if a hand had made me, fashioned me together round about, and moulded my very soul." "No Music" MOZART was once asked what he considered the most won-derful effect in music. He replied: "N o Music^" meaning that the silence, caused by rests, is more impressive at times than the actual music itself. Very few players pay the proper respect to rests. An ingenious English writer, Mr. C. A. Harris, has devised a very practical way of "holding up " little players for rests, and many students who are studying without the watch-ful eye of the teacher might find it a good idea. It is merely that of raising the hand and touching the wood of the piano when one comes to a rest of more than one or two beats in length. Mr. Harris writes: "This insures that the hand is raised from the keys, and the difficulty of doing so apparently simple a thing will at first cause considerable amusement. The plan is invaluable, not only for securing the observance of the rests, but for acquiring independence between the hands. MARCH, THE HEIGHT OF THE MUSICAL SEASON —TH E BEST EVER! 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