Page 29G MAY 1920 THE ETUDE T.—Have patience, there are plenty more to come, and by degrees there will be some robust enough to bear rough treatment. Remember the story o f Queen Signy in the Volsun g tale. She had to breed up a really great hero, so she sewed fur gloves upon the hands of her six sons and when they winced with pain she saw they were weaklings and so slaughtered them off. But her true son, Sinfjotli, only smiled at the pain and when she proceeded to tear the gloves off, skin and all, he said, "Full little, I ween, would my father Volsun g have felt such a smart as this!" An d so he became a hero wh o conquered the world. P.—A nice bloodthirsty story ! But don't you think that was going a little too far ? Besides, I don't want my works to conquer the world ; I just want to write nicely. T.—But experience shows that unless you r ambition travels far ahead o f you r utmost possible performance yo u will do no goo d at all. P.—Oh, dear, that is a hard saying! Then if I believed in myself absolutely should I be a genius? T.—I never suggested anything of the kind. Wha t an absurd non sequitor! Besides, I don't kno w what you mean by a genius. D o you ? P. ( coaxingly )—Pleas e don't be cross ! A genius is a person wh o does wh^t other people can't, but I never thought I was one. T.—A foolish definition! I was always taught that "Whateve r man has done man may do." I find that a mor e helpful saying than the feeble twaddle about genius that lazy amateurs are so given to. P. {indignantly)— I am not a lazy amateur! T.—Prove it by striving to write fro m the head and not fro m the heart. S o will the mind gro w stronger and the feelings no weaker. Th e first time you com -pose a piece and I see that yo u have really looked ahead and tried to do a definite thing in a definite way, instead o f tumbling out your ideas on paper like a child strewing its toys about the nursery, I shall be-gin to have hopes o f you. Th e amateur pretends to believe that to "tinker" with his inspired productions will take the fine bloom1 off, i-f it does not positively spoil them, but in his heart he knows that this is un-true; it is a mere excuse fo r laziness and inefficiency. N o wor k was ever anything but improved by intelli-gence being brought to bear on it, unless it was so radically faulty that it crumbled away under criticism. Let your motto be "Excelsior! " and not "Bu t that's what the public likes!" S o may you—s o will you, if you persevere—become a composer, great or small, ac-cording to the strength o f your devotion to your art, and ix least avoid the reproach of being called a mere Jerry-builder. How to Write Characteristic Music By Edward Kilenyi, M.A. THE composing of characteristic music does not necessarily involve intricate difficulties. It is just as easy as the writing o f simple phrases o f fou r or eight measures, a problem with which every music student is familiar. Even the simplest o f chords might make a phrase "characteristic." Suppose, fo r instance, you want to compose a lullaby. Tr y to invent a tune or melody which you would sing to a child in the cradle. That is to say, let the thought of the cradle with a sleepy baby in it suggest a melody ! Writ e dow n the tune (and do not forget that yo u will change it or im-prove upon it! ) Then find an accompanying figure which would suggest the rocking cradle. O r rather think again o f the rocking cradle and yo u will find that it will suggest to you an appropriate musical accompani-ment. Th e followin g simple figure and chord will serve as illustration: Lullaby by Ilynski. Lullaby, Ilynskr Th e same figure is repeated with the tune, which is not important at all: jfe M i T r — j' | J. ' ~ fr riJ m p 1 If instead of a lullaby you want to write a serenade, fo r instance, think o f the sound of the guitar or harp, and imagine the music o f a serenading lover under the windo w of his lady love in a moonlit garden. Her e is a simple example : A nocturne should be made up of smoothly-flowing, quiet phrases, to give the feeling o f calm and rest; a tarantelle should above all be provocative in its rhythm, with the impression of a perpetual motion that whirls in ever-increasing swiftness and allure. Simi-larly, the accompaniment o f a scherzo should be sug-gestive of and suggested by something playful, funny, grotesque. Even one single bar carried out cleverly —as w e have seen in the Ilynski example—will give enough atmosphere and color to the composition which consequently would be characteristic o f what you wanted to express or say in the language o f music. Music that is characteristic, and so suggestive, o f foreign countries can be easily composed if you kno w the exact musical characteristics o f the nation whose music you want to imitate. Th e characteristic Spanish music is easy to write, with its strongly-accented rhythm and its constantly-repeated note in the bass formin g what is really a pedale <to the superimposed melody. Suppose you want to write Indian music. Tak e the Indian scale: (the black keys on the piano) . An y tune on the black keys, with accompaniment o f empty fifths—fifths being the oldest and the most primitive intervals—giving the bass a rhythm reminiscent of the monotonous beating of drums, will give a goo d example of Indian music, and will give the characteristics and atmos-phere o f Indian music. Now , the Chinese scale is identical with the Indian ; primitive Chinese instruments, however, produce a thin-ner or shriller tone than the instruments o f the less cultured Indians, and so if you transpose the same tune to a higher register and give a more elaborate and free accompaniment, music suggestive of the Chinese will be the result. Th e followin g quotation fro m " A Chinese Episode," by E. D. Kelley, is a goo d example o f what we mean : Cultivate Your Self-Consciousness By Sidney YES ; that spineless, useless thing called "self-con -sciousness" may be turned into a genuine asset. Invertebrate at first, the offspring of nervousness, timidity and lack o f confidence through ignorance, it may be cultivated and developed to such a degree as to become the backbone o f your career. But yo u must give it the proper kind o f training—study and prac-tice. Analysis o f your faults and weaknesses, together with patient practice to eradicate them. Bushell Become intimately acquainted with your instrument. Realize its dependence upon yourself to give its best results. Then, while using it, becom e so conscious of you r powers, you r ability to control it to express your idea, satisfactorily and convincingly t o yourself, that, in you r positive consciousness o f self, that negative, light-extinguishing "self-consciousness" will cease to exist. Some Big Thoughts from a Great Writer HERE are five choice rules fo r the attainment of the unhastened quietude of mind which many music work -ers would do well to consider. The y are by Henr y Va n Dyke, our forme r Ambassador to Holland : "First: Yo u shall learn to desire nothing in the world so much but that yo u can be happy without it. "Second: Yo u shall seek that which yo u desire only by such means as are fair and lawful, and this will leave you without bitterness towards men or shame befor e God. "Third: Yo u shall take pleasure in the time while you are seeking, even though you obtain not immedi-ately that which yo u seek ; fo r the purpose of a jour -ney is not only to arrive at the goal, but also to find enjoyment by the way. "Fourth: Whe n yo u attain that which you desire, you shall think mor e of the kindness o f your fortune than the greatness o f your skill. This will make yo u grate-ful, and ready to share- with others that which Provi -dence hath bestowed upon you ; and truly this is both reasonable and profitable, fo r it is but little that any o f us would catch in this world were not our luck better than our deserts. "Fifth: Whe n you smoke your pipe with a goo d con-science, trouble not yourself because there are men in the world wh o will find fault with you fo r so doing. If yo u wait fo r a pleasure at which no sour-complexioned soul hath ever girded, yo u will wait long, and g o through life with a sad and anxious mind. But I think that Go d is best pleased with us when w e give little hee'd to scoffers, and enjoy His gifts with thankfulness and an easy heart." Slow Scales By G. B. Newcomb AFTER m y study in Germany I went to Paris, where my master asked as his first question: "D o you play slow scales?" I did not kno w exactly what he meant, because I assumed that, since I could play scales at a terrific speed and raced up and dow n the keyboard to the admiration o f my friends, I could also certainly play "slo w scales." H e tested me. I was never so humiliated. Ther e were at least a dozen faults in m y playing—all con -cealed in the fast scales, but very evident in slow scale playing. I recommend to all students the prac-tice of the scales with the fingers playing very slowly —say keeping time with the metronome at 40—but with the mind working with the greatest possible rapidity to observe and correct every movement. This is hard—not easy at all. Tr y it. Don't Be Fooled by Fake Memory Systems By an Old-time Teacher A YEAR or so ago I happened upon a memor y sys-tem "ad " in a popular magazine. This "ad " promised to d o all sorts of wonderfu l things fo r anyone wh o would only sign his name on the dotted line in the coupon at the bottom of the ad. First came a pro -spectus. Thi s looked interesting, fo r it told ho w many of the most wonderfu l memories of the times had been cultivated by this system. Whe n the system came, I found that the basis of the whole thing was a series of artificial tricks—memory crutches, or memor y associations. Fo r instance, if I met a man named Brown, I should associate him with something brow n in color, or think of him as being-brown, etc., etc., with complications ad nauseam. This started me reading books on psychology, and I foun d that the psychologists, after many tests and ex -periments, have foun d that "it is fro m eight to ten times as easy to commit to memor y significant material as material without meaning." This said to me, "if yo u want to learn anything g o right ahead and learn it. Don't g o beating about the bush hunting up mem -ory crutches." Anothe r discovery I made was that these "memor y tricks" simply don't wor k with music. Th e only really successful way is to get right dow n to the memorizing by playing a passage over and over again, constantly testing yourself to see whether you have made any progress or not in memorizing.
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