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 VIOLIN MASTERY
 
 ErtiKNK YSAYE 
 
 
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 ,^,yX^^^ '^- y''^-
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 TALKS WITH MASTER VIOLINISTS 
 AND TEACHERS 
 
 COMPRISING INTERVIEWS WITH YSAYE, KREISLER, 
 
 EUIAN, AUER, THIBAUD, HEIPETZ, HARTMANN, 
 
 MAUD POWELL AND OTHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK H. MARTENS 
 
 WITH SIXTEEN POBTBAIIB 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 /^.
 
 Copyright, 1919, by 
 Frederick A. Stokes Company 
 
 All rights reserved, including that of translation 
 into foreign languages
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 The appreciation accorded Miss Harriette 
 Brower's admirable books on Piano Mastery 
 has prompted the present volume of intimate 
 Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers^ 
 in which a number of famous artists and in- 
 structors discuss esthetic and technical phases 
 of the art of violin playing in detail, their con- 
 cept of M'hat Violin Mastery means, and how 
 it may be acquired. Only limitation of space 
 has prevented the inclusion of numerous other 
 deserving artists and teachers, yet practically 
 all of the greatest masters of the violin now in 
 this country are represented. That the les- 
 sons of their artistry and experience will be 
 of direct benefit and value to every violin stu- 
 dent and every lover of violin music may be 
 accepted as a foregone conclusion. 
 
 Frederick H. Martens. 
 
 171 Orient Way, 
 Rutherford N. J.
 
 Foreword . . . 
 
 EucilNE YSATE . 
 
 Leopold Aubr . 
 Eddy Brown . . 
 
 MiscHA Elhan . . 
 
 Sahtjel Gardner . 
 Arthur Hartmann 
 Jascha Heifetz 
 
 David Hochstein . 
 
 Fritz Kreisler 
 Franz Kneisel 
 Adolfo Betti . 
 Hans Letz . 
 David Mannes 
 TivADAR Nach£z 
 Maximilian Pilzbr 
 Maud Powell . 
 
 Leon Sametini . 
 Alexander Saslavskt 
 
 ToscHA Seidel . 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAOE 
 V 
 
 . The Tools of Violin Mastery . . 1 
 . A Method without Secrets ... 14 
 . Hubay and Auer: Technic: Hints 
 
 to the Student 25 
 
 . Life and Color in Interpretation. 
 
 Technical Phases 38 
 
 . Technic and Musicianship ... 54 
 . The Problem of Technic ... 66 
 . The Danger of Practicing Too 
 
 Much. Technical Mastery and 
 
 Temperament 78 
 
 . The Violin as a Means of Expression 
 
 and Expressive Playing . . .91 
 
 , Personality in Art 99 
 
 . The Perfect String Ensemble . .110 
 . The Technic of the Modem Quartet 127 
 . The Technic of Bowing .140 
 
 . The Philosophy of Violin Teaching 146 
 . Joachim and Leonard as Teachers . 160 
 . The Singing Tone and the Vibrato . 177 
 . Technical Difficulties: Some Hints 
 
 for the Concert Player . . . 183 
 
 . Harmonics 198 
 
 . What the Teacher Can and Cannot 
 
 Do 210 
 
 . How to Study 219 
 
 vji
 
 Vlll 
 
 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . The Joachim Bowing and Others: 
 
 The Left Hand 227 
 
 . The Most Important Factor in the 
 
 Development of an Artist . . 2i0 
 . The Application of Bow Exercises 
 
 to the Study of Kreutzer . . 447 
 
 . The Ideal Program 259 
 
 . The Editor as a Factor in "Violin 
 
 Mastery" 277 
 
 Edmukd Severn . 
 
 Albert Spalding . 
 
 Theodore Spiering 
 
 Jacques Thibaud . 
 GusTAV Saenger .
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Eugene Ysaye Frontispiece 
 
 FACINQ 
 PAGE 
 
 Leopold Auer 14 
 
 Mischa Elman 38 
 
 Arthur Hartmann Q6 
 
 Jascha Heifetz 78 
 
 Fritz Kreisler 100 
 
 Franz Kneisel 110 
 
 Adolfo Betti 128 
 
 David Mannes 146 
 
 Tivadar Nach^z l60 
 
 Maud Powell 184 
 
 Toscha Seidel 220 
 
 Albert Spalding 240 
 
 Theodore Spiering 248 
 
 Jacques Thibaud 260 
 
 Gustav Saenger 278
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 EUGENE YSAYE 
 
 THE TOOLS OF VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 Who is there among contemporary masters 
 of the viohn whose name stands for more at 
 the present time than that of the great Bel- 
 gian artist, his "extraordinary temperamental 
 power as an interpreter" enhanced by a hun- 
 dred and one special gifts of tone and tech- 
 nic, gifts often alluded to by his admiring col- 
 leagues? For Ysaye is the greatest exponent 
 of that wonderful Belgian school of violin 
 playing which is rooted in his teachers Vieux- 
 temps and Wieniawski, and which as Ysaye 
 himself says, "during a period covering sev- 
 enty years reigned supreme at the Conserva- 
 toire in Paris in the persons of Massart, Remi, 
 Marsick, and others of its great interpreters." 
 
 What most impresses one who meets Ysaye 
 1
 
 Violin Mastery 
 
 and talks with him for the first time is the men- 
 tal breadth and vision of the man ; his kindness 
 and amiability; his utter lack of small vanity. 
 When the writer first called on him in New 
 York with a note of introduction from his 
 friend and admirer Adolfo Betti, and later at 
 Scarsdale where, in company with his friend 
 Thibaud, he was dividing his time between mu- 
 sic and tennis, Ysaye made him entirely at 
 home, and willingly talked of his art and its 
 ideals. In reply to some questions anent his 
 own study years, he said: 
 
 "Strange to say, my father was my very 
 first teacher — it is not often the case. I stud- 
 ied with him until I went to the Liege Con- 
 servatory in 1867, where I won a second prize, 
 sharing it with Ovide Musin, for playing Vi- 
 otti's 22d Concerto. Then I had lessons from 
 Wieniawski in Brussels and studied two years 
 with Vieuxtemps in Paris. Vieuxtemps was 
 a paralytic w^hen I came to him; yet a won- 
 derful teacher, though he could no longer play. 
 And I was already a concertizing artist when 
 I met him. He was a very great man, the 
 grandeur of whose tradition lives in the whole 
 'romantic school' of violin playing. Look at 
 his seven concertos — of course they are writ- 
 ten with an eye to effect, from the virtuoso's
 
 Eugene Ysaye 3 
 
 standpoint, yet how firmly and solidly they are 
 built up! How interesting is their working- 
 out: and the orchestral score is far more than 
 a mere accompaniment. As regards virtuose 
 effect only Paganini's music compares with 
 his, and Paganini, of course, did not play it as 
 it is now played. In wealth of technical de- 
 velopment, in true musical expressiveness 
 Vieuxtemps is a master. A proof is the fact 
 that his works have endured forty to fifty 
 years, a long life for compositions. 
 
 "Joachim, Leonard, Sivori, Wieniawski — 
 all admired Vieuxtemps. In Paganini's and 
 Locatelli's works the effect, comparatively 
 speaking, lies in the mechanics; but Vieux- 
 temps is the great artist who made the instru- 
 ment take the road of romanticism which 
 Hugo, Balzac and Gauthier trod in literature. 
 And before all the violin was made to charm, 
 to move, and Vieuxtemps knew it. Like 
 Rubinstein, he held that the artist must first 
 of all have ideas, emotional power — his tech- 
 nic must be so perfected that he does not have 
 to think of it! Incidentally, speaking of 
 schools of violin playing, I find that there is a 
 great tendency to confuse the Belgian and 
 French. This should not be. They are dis- 
 tinct, though the latter has undoubtedly been
 
 4f Violin Mastery 
 
 formed and influenced by the former. Many 
 of the great violin names, in fact, — Vieux- 
 temps, Leonard, Marsick, Remi, Parent, de 
 Bronx, Musin, Thomson, — are all Belgian." 
 
 ysaye's repertory 
 
 Ysaye spoke of Vieuxtemps's repertory — 
 only he did not call it that: he spoke of the 
 Vieuxtemps compositions and of Vieuxtemps 
 himself. "Vieuxtemps wrote in the grand 
 style ; his music is always rich and sonorous. If 
 his violin is really to sound, the violinist must 
 play Vieuxtemps, just as the 'cellist plays Ser- 
 vais. You know, in the Catholic Church, at 
 Vespers, whenever God's name is spoken, we 
 bow the head. And Wieniawski would always 
 bow his head when he said : 'Vieuxtemps is the 
 master of us all!' 
 
 "I have often played his Fifth Concerto j so 
 warm, brilliant and replete with temperament, 
 always full-sounding, rich in an almost un- 
 bounded strength. Of course, since Vieux- 
 temps wrote his concertos, a great variety of 
 fine modern works has appeared, the appre- 
 ciation of chamber-music has grown and de- 
 veloped, and with it that of the sonata. And 
 the modern violin sonata is also a vehicle for
 
 Eugene Ysaye 
 
 violin virtuosity in the very best meaning of 
 the word. The sonatas of Cesar Franck, 
 d'Indy, Theodore Dubois, Lekeu, Vierne, Ro- 
 partz, Lazarri — they are all highly expressive, 
 yet at the same time virtuose. The violin 
 parts develop a lovely song line, yet their tech- 
 nic is far from simple. Take Lekeu's splen- 
 did Sonata in G major; rugged and massive, 
 making decided technical demands — it yet has 
 a wonderful breadth of melody, a great ex- 
 pressive quality of song." 
 
 These works — those who have heard the 
 Master play the beautiful Lazarri sonata this 
 season will not soon forget it — are all dedi- 
 cated to Ysaye. And this holds good, too, of 
 the Cesar Franck sonata. As Ysaye says: 
 "Performances of these great sonatas call for 
 two artists — for their piano parts are some- 
 times very elaborate. Cesar Franck sent me 
 his sonata on September 26, 1886, my wedding 
 day — it was his wedding present! I cannot 
 complain as regards the number of works, 
 really important works, inscribed to me. There 
 are so many — by Chausson (his symphony), 
 Ropartz, Dubois (his sonata — one of the best 
 after Franck), d'Indy (the Istar variations 
 and other works), Gabriel Faure (the Quin- 
 tet), Debussy (the Quartet)! There are
 
 Violin Mastery 
 
 more than I can recall at the moment — violin 
 sonatas, symphonic music, chamber-music, 
 choral works, compositions of every kind! 
 
 "Debussy, as you know, wrote practically 
 nothing originally for the violin and piano — 
 with the exception, perhaps, of a work pub- 
 lished by Durand during his last illness. Yet 
 he came very near writing something for me. 
 Fifteen years ago he told me he was compos- 
 ing a 'Nocturne' for me. I went off on a con- 
 cert tour and was away a long time. When I 
 returned to Paris I wrote to Debussy to find 
 out what had become of my 'Nocturne.* And 
 he replied that, somehow, it had shaped itself 
 up for orchestra instead of a violin solo. It 
 is one of the Trois Nocturnes for orchestra. 
 Perhaps one reason why so much has been in- 
 scribed to me is the fact that as an interpreting 
 artist, I have never cultivated a 'specialty.' I 
 have played everything from Bach to Debussy, 
 for real art should be international!" 
 
 Ysaye himself has an almost marvelous 
 right-arm and fingerboard control, which en- 
 ables him to produce at will the finest and most 
 subtle tonal nuances in all bowings. Then, 
 too, he overcomes the most intricate mechan- 
 ical problems with seemingly effortless ease. 
 And his tone has well been called "golden."
 
 Eugene Ysaye 
 
 His own definition of tone is worth recording. 
 He says it should be "In music what the heart 
 suggests, and the soul expresses!" 
 
 THE TOOLS OF VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "With regard to mechanism," Ysaye con- 
 tinued, "at the present day the tools of violin 
 mastery, of expression, technic, mechanism, are 
 far more necessary than in days gone by. In 
 fact they are indispensable, if the spirit is to 
 express itself without restraint. And the 
 greater mechanical command one has the less 
 noticeable it becomes. All that suggests ef- 
 fort, awkwardness, difficulty, repels the lis- 
 tener, who more than anything else delights 
 in a singing violin tone. Vieuxtemps often 
 said: Pas de trait pour le trait — chantez, chan- 
 tez! (Not runs for the sake of runs — sing, 
 sing ! ) 
 
 "Too many of the technicians of the present 
 day no longer sing. Their difficulties — they 
 surmount them mo^;e or less happily; but the 
 effect is too apparent, and though, at times, 
 the listener may be astonished, he can never be 
 charmed. Agile fingers, sure of themselves, 
 and a perfect bow stroke are essentials; and 
 they must be supremely able to carry along the
 
 8 Violin Mastery 
 
 rhythm and poetic action the artist desires. 
 Mechanism becomes, if anything, more acces- 
 sible in proportion as its domain is enriched 
 by new formulas. The violinist of to-day 
 commands far greater technical resources than 
 did his predecessors. Paganini is accessible 
 to nearly all players: Vieuxtemps no longer 
 offers the difficulties he did thirty years ago. 
 Yet the wood-wind, brass and even the string 
 instruments subsist in a measure on the herit- 
 age transmitted by the masters of the past. 
 I often feel that violin teaching to-day endeav- 
 ors to develop the esthetic sense at too early a 
 stage. And in devoting itself to the head it 
 forgets the hands, with the result that the 
 young soldiers of the violinistic army, full of 
 ardor and courage, are ill equipped for the 
 great battle of art. 
 
 "In this connection there exists an excellent 
 set of Etudes-Capiices by E. Chaumont, 
 which offer the advanced student new elements 
 and formulas of development. Though in 
 some of them 'the frame is too large for the 
 picture,' and though difficult from a violinistic 
 point of view, 'they lie admirably well up the 
 neck,' to use one of Vieuxtemps's expressions, 
 and I take pleasure in calling attention to 
 them.
 
 Eugene Ysaye 
 
 "When I said that the string instruments, 
 inckiding the vioHn, subsist in a measure on 
 the heritage transmitted by the masters of the 
 past, I spoke with special regard to technic. 
 Since Vieuxtemps there has been hardly one 
 new passage written for the violin; and this 
 has retarded the development of its technic. 
 In the case of the piano, men like Godowsky 
 have created a new technic for their instru- 
 ment; but although Saint-Saens, Bruch, Lalo 
 and others have in their works endowed the 
 violin with much beautiful music, music itself 
 was their first concern, and not music for the 
 violin. There are no more concertos written 
 for the solo flute, trombone, etc. — as a result 
 there is no new technical material added to the 
 resources of these instruments. 
 
 "In a way the same holds good of the violin 
 — new works conceived only from the musical 
 point of view bring about the stagnation of 
 technical discovery, the invention of new pas- 
 sages, of novel harmonic wealth of combina- 
 tion is not encouraged. And a violinist owes 
 it to himself to exploit the great possibilities 
 of his own instrument. I have tried to find 
 new technical ways and means of expression in 
 my own compositions. For example, I have 
 written a Divertiment for violin and orchestra
 
 10 Violin Mastery 
 
 in which I believe I have embodied new 
 thoughts and ideas, and have attempted to give 
 viohn technic a broader scope of life and vigor. 
 
 "In the days of Viotti and Rode the har- 
 monic possibilities were more limited — they 
 had only a few chords, and hardly any chords 
 of the ninth. But now harmonic material for 
 the development of a new violin technic is 
 there: I have some violin studies, in ms., which 
 I may publish some day, devoted to that end. 
 I am always somewhat hesitant about publish- 
 ing — there are many things I might publish, 
 but I have seen so much brought out that was 
 banal, poor, unworthy, that I have always been 
 inclined to mistrust the value of my own cre- 
 ations rather than fall into the same error. We 
 have the scale of Debussy and his successors 
 to draw upon, their new chords and succes- 
 sions of fourths and fifths — for new technical 
 formulas are always evolved out of and fol- 
 low after new harmonic discoveries — though 
 there is as yet no violin method which gives a 
 fingering for the whole-tone scale. Perhaps 
 we will have to wait until Kreisler or I will 
 have written one which makes plain the new 
 flowering of technical beauty and esthetic de- 
 velopment which it brings the violin. 
 
 "As to teaching violin, I have never taught
 
 Eugene Ysaye 11 
 
 violin in the generally accepted sense of the 
 phrase. But at Godinne, where I usually 
 spent my summers when in Europe, I gave a 
 kind of traditional course in the works of 
 Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski and other masters to 
 some forty or fifty artist-students who would 
 gather there — the same course I look forward 
 to giving in Cincinnati, to a master class of 
 very advanced pupils. This was and will be a 
 labor of love, for the compositions of Vieux- 
 temps and Wieniawski especially are so in- 
 spiring and yet, as a rule, they are so badly 
 played — without grandeur or beauty, with no 
 thought of the traditional interpretation — 
 that they seem the piecework of technic fac- 
 tories ! 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "When I take the whole history of the 
 violin into account I feel that the true in- 
 wardness of 'Violin JNIastery' is best expressed 
 by a kind of threefold group of great artists. 
 First, in the order of romantic expression, we 
 have a trinity made up of Corelli, Viotti and 
 Vieuxtemps. Then there is a trinity of me- 
 chanical perfection, composed of Locatelli, 
 Tartini and Paganini or, a more modern 
 equivalent, Cesar Thomson, Kubelik and Bur-
 
 12 Violin Mastery 
 
 meister. And, finally, what I might call in 
 the order of lyric expression, a quartet com- 
 prising Ysaye, Thibaud, Mischa Elman and 
 Sametini of Chicago, the last-named a wonder- 
 fully fine artist of the lyric or singing type. 
 Of course there are qualifications to be made. 
 Locatelli was not altogether an exponent of 
 technic. And many other fine artists besides 
 those mentioned share the characteristics of 
 those in the various groups. Yet, speaking in 
 a general way, I believe that these groups of 
 attainment might be said to sum up what 
 'Violin Mastery' really is. And a violin mas- 
 ter? He must be a violinist, a thinker, a poet, 
 a human being, he must have known hope, love, 
 passion and despair, he must have run the 
 gamut of the emotions in order to express them 
 all in his playing. He must play his violin as 
 Pan played his flute !" 
 
 In conclusion Ysaye sounded a note of warn- 
 ing for the too ambitious young student and 
 player. "If Art is to progress, the technical 
 and mechanical element must not, of course, be 
 neglected. But a boy of eighteen cannot ex- 
 pect to express that to which the serious stu- 
 dent of thirty, the man who has actually lived, 
 can give voice. If the violinist's art is truly a 
 great art, it cannot come to fruition in the art-
 
 Eugene Ysaye V6 
 
 ist's 'teens. His accomplishment then is no 
 more than a promise — a promise which finds 
 its reahzation in and by life itself. Yet Amer- 
 icans have the brains as well as the spiritual 
 endowment necessary to understand and ap- 
 preciate beauty in a high degree. They can 
 already point with pride to violinists who em- 
 phatically deserve to be called artists, and an- 
 other quarter-century of artistic striving may 
 well bring them into the front rank of violin- 
 istic achievement!"
 
 II 
 LEOPOLD AUER 
 
 A METHOD WITHOUT SECRETS 
 
 When that celebrated laboratory of budding 
 musical genius, the Petrograd Conservatory, 
 closed its doors indefinitely owing to the dis- 
 turbed political conditions of Russia, the fa- 
 mous violinist and teacher Professor Leopold 
 Auer decided to pay the visit to the United 
 States which had so repeatedly been urged on 
 him by his friends and pupils. His fame, ow- 
 ing to such heralds as Efrem Zimbalist, Mischa 
 Elman, Kathleen Parlow, Eddy Brown, Fran- 
 cis MacMillan, and more recently Sascha 
 Heifetz, Toscha Seidel, and Max Rosen, had 
 long since preceded him ; and the reception ac- 
 corded him in this country, as a soloist and one 
 of the greatest exponents and teachers of his 
 instrument, has been one justly due to his au- 
 thority and preeminence. 
 
 It was not easy to have a heart-to-heart talk 
 with the Master anent his art, since every min- 
 
 14
 
 Leopold Aueb
 
 Leopold Auer 15 
 
 ute of his time was precious. Yet ushered into 
 his presence, the writer discovered that he had 
 laid aside for the moment other preoccupa- 
 tions, and was amiabi^^ responsive to all ques- 
 tions, once their object had been disclosed. 
 Naturally, the first and burning question in 
 the case of so celebrated a pedagogue was: 
 "How do you form such wonderful artists? 
 What is the secret of your method?" 
 
 A METHOD WITHOUT SECRETS 
 
 *'I know," said Professor Auer, "that there 
 is a theory somewhat to the effect that I make 
 a few magic passes with the bow by way of il- 
 lustration and — presto — you have a Zimbalist 
 or a Heifetz! But the truth is I have no 
 method — unless you want to call purely nat- 
 ural lines of development, based on natural 
 principles, a method — and so, of course, there 
 is no secret about my teaching. The one great 
 point I lay stress on in teaching is never to 
 kill the individuality of my various pupils. 
 Each pupil has his own inborn aptitudes, his 
 own personal qualities as regards tone and in- 
 terpretation. I always have made an individ- 
 ual study of each pupil, and given each pupil 
 individual treatment. And always, always I
 
 16 Violin Mastery 
 
 have encouraged them to develop freely in 
 their own way as regards inspiration and 
 ideals, so long as this was not contrary to es- 
 thetic principles and those of my art. My 
 idea has always been to help bring out what 
 nature has already given, rather than to use 
 dogma to force a student's natural inclinations 
 into channels I myself might prefer. And 
 another great principle in my teaching, one 
 which is productive of results, is to demand as 
 much as possible of the pupil. Then he will 
 give you something! 
 
 "Of course the whole subject of violin teach- 
 ing is one that I look at from the standpoint 
 of the teacher who tries to make what is already 
 excellent perfect from the musical and artistic 
 standpoint. I insist on a perfected technical 
 development in every pupil who comes to me. 
 Art begins where technic ends. There can be 
 no real art development before one's technic is 
 firmly established. And a great deal of tech- 
 nical work has to be done before the great 
 works of violin literature, the sonatas and con- 
 certos, may be approached. In Petrograd my 
 own assistants, who were familiar with my 
 ideas, prepared my pupils for me. And in my 
 own experience I have found that one cannot 
 teach by word, by the spoken explanation.
 
 Leopold Auer 17 
 
 alone. If I have a point to make I explain it ; 
 but if my explanation fails to explain I take 
 my violin and bow, and clear up the matter be- 
 yond any doubt. The word lives, it is true, but 
 often the word must be materialized by action 
 so that its meaning is clear. There are always 
 things which the pupil must be shown liter- 
 ally, though explanation should always sup- 
 plement illustration. I studied with Joachim 
 as a boy of sixteen — it was before 1866, when 
 there was still a kingdom of Hanover in ex- 
 istence — and Joachim alwaj^s illustrated his 
 meaning with bow and fiddle. But he never 
 explained the technical side of what he illus- 
 trated. Those more advanced understood 
 without verbal comment; yet there were some 
 who did not. 
 
 *'As regards the theory that you can tell who 
 a violinist's teacher is by the way in which he 
 plays, I do not believe in it. I do not believe 
 that you can tell an Auer pupil by the manner 
 in which he plays. And I am proud of it since 
 it shows that my pupils have profited by my 
 encouragement of individual development, and 
 that they become genuine artists, each with a 
 personality of his own, instead of violinistic 
 automats, all bearing a marked family resem- 
 blance."
 
 18 Violin Mastery 
 
 Questioned as to how his various pupils re- 
 flected different phases of his teaching ideals, 
 Professor Auer mentioned that he had long 
 since given over passing final decisions on his 
 pupils. "I could express no such opinions 
 without unconsciously implying comparisons. 
 And so few comparisons really compare! 
 Then, too, mine would be merely an individual 
 opinion. Therefore, as has been my custom 
 for years, I will continue to leave any ultimate 
 decisions regarding my pupils' playing to the 
 public and the press." 
 
 HOURS OF PRACTICE 
 
 "How long should the advanced pupil prac- 
 tice?" Professor Auer was asked. "The right 
 kind of practice is not a matter of hours," he 
 replied. "Practice should represent the ut- 
 most concentration of brain. It is better to 
 play with concentration for two hours than to 
 practice eight without. I should say that 
 four hours would be a good maximum practice 
 time — I never ask more of my pupils — and 
 that during each minute of the time the brain 
 be as active as the fmgers.
 
 Leopold A uer 19 
 
 NATIONALITY TEBSUS THE CONSERVATORY 
 SYSTEM 
 
 "I think there is more value in the idea of 
 a national conservatory than in the idea of na- 
 tionahty as regards violin playing. No mat- 
 ter what his birthplace, there is only one way in 
 which a student can. become an artist — and 
 that is to have a teacher who can teach! In 
 Europe the best teachers are to be found in 
 the great national conservatories. Thibaud, 
 Ysaye — artists of the highest type — are prod- 
 ucts of the conservatory system, with its splen- 
 did teachers. So is Kreisler, one of the gi'eat- 
 est artists, who studied in Vienna and Paris. 
 Eddy Brown, the brilliant American viohnist, 
 finished at the Budapest Conservatory. In 
 the Paris Conservatory the number of pupils 
 in a class is strictly limited ; and from these pu- 
 pils each professor chooses the very best — who 
 may not be able to pay for their course — for 
 free instruction. At the Petrograd Conserva- 
 tory, where AVieniawski preceded me, there 
 w^ere hundreds of free scholarships available. 
 If a really big talent came along he always had 
 his opportunity. We took and taught those 
 less talented at the Conservatory in order to
 
 20 Violin Mastery 
 
 be able to give scholarships to the deserving of 
 limited means. In this way no real violinistic 
 genius, whom poverty might otherwise have 
 kept from ever realizing his dreams, was de- 
 prived of his chance in life. Among the pu- 
 pils there in my class, having scholarships, were 
 Kathleen Parlow, Elman, Zimbalist, Heifetz 
 and Seidel. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Violin mastery? To me it represents the 
 sum total of accomplishment on the part of 
 those who live in the history of the Art. All 
 those who may have died long since, yet the 
 memory of whose work and whose creations 
 still lives, are the true masters of the violin, 
 and its mastery is the record of their accom- 
 plishment. As a child I remember the well- 
 known composers of the day were Marsclmer, 
 Hiller, Nicolai and others — yet most of what 
 they have written has been forgotten. On the 
 other hand there are Tartini, Nardini, Paga- 
 nini, Kreutzer, Dont and Rode — they still 
 live; and so do Ernst, Sarasate, Vieuxtemps 
 and Wieniawski. Joachim (incidentally the! 
 only great German violinist of whom I know 
 — and he was a Hungarian!), though he had
 
 Leopold Auer 21 
 
 but few great pupils, and composed but little, 
 will alwaj's be remembered because he, to- 
 gether with David, gave violin virtuosity a no- 
 bler trend, and introduced a higher ideal in the 
 music played for violin. It is men such as 
 these who always will remain violin 'masters,' 
 just as Viohn mastery' is defined by what they 
 have done." 
 
 THE BACH VIOLIN SONATAS AND OTHER COMPO- 
 SITIONS 
 
 Replying to a question as to the value of the 
 Bach violin sonatas. Professor Auer said: 
 "My pupils always have to play Bach. I have 
 published my own revision of them with a New 
 York house. The most impressive thing about 
 these Bach solo sonatas is they do not need an 
 accompaniment: one feels it would be super- 
 fluous. Bach composed so rapidly, he wrote 
 with such ease, that it would have been no 
 trouble for him to supply one had he felt it 
 necessary. But he did not, and he was right. 
 And they still must be played as he has writ- 
 ten them. We have the 'modern' orchestra, 
 the 'modern' piano, but, thank heaven, no 
 'modern' violin! Such indications as I have 
 made in my edition with regard to bowing, fin-
 
 22 Violin Mastery 
 
 gering, nuances of expression, are more or less 
 in accord with the spirit of the times; but not 
 a single note that Bach has written has been 
 changed. The sonatas are technically among 
 tlie most difficult things wi-itten for the violin, 
 excepting Ernst and Paganini. Not that 
 they are hard in a modern wny. Bach knew 
 nothing of harmonics, pizzicati, scales in oc- 
 taves and tenths. But his counterpoint, his 
 fugues — to play them well when the principal 
 theme is sometimes in the outer voices, some- 
 times in the inner voices, or moving from one 
 to the other — is supremely difficult! In the 
 last sonatas there is a larger number of small 
 movements — but this does not make them any 
 easier to play. 
 
 "I have also edited the Beethoven sonatas 
 together with Rudolph Ganz. He worked at 
 the piano parts in New York, while I studied 
 and revised the violin parts in Petrograd and 
 Norwaj^ where I spent my summers during 
 the war. There was not so much to do," said 
 Professor Auer modestly, "a little fingering, 
 some bowing indications and not much else. 
 No reviser needs to put any indications for 
 nuance and shading in Beethoven. He was 
 quite able to attend to all that himself. There 
 is no composer who shows such refinement of
 
 Leopold Auer 23 
 
 nuance. Yoii need only to take his quartets 
 or these same sonatas to convince yourself of 
 the fact. In my Bralims revisions I have sup- 
 plied really needed fingerings, howings, and 
 other indications! Important compositions 
 on which I am now at work include Ernst's 
 fine Concerto, Op. 23, the Mozart violin con- 
 certos, and Tartini's Trille du diahle, with a 
 special cadenza for my pupil, Toscha Seidel. 
 
 AS REGARDS "PRODIGIES" 
 
 "Prodigies?" said Professor Auer. "The 
 word 'prodigy' when applied to some youthful 
 artist is always used with an accent of re- 
 proach. Public and critics are inclined to re- 
 gard them with suspicion. Why? After all, 
 the important thing is not their youth, but their 
 artistry. Examine the history of music — you 
 will discover that any number of great masters, 
 great in •the maturity of their genius, were 
 great in its infancy as well. There are Mo- 
 zart, Beethoven, Liszt, Rubinstein, d'Albert, 
 Ilofmann, Scriabine, Wieniawski — they were 
 all 'infant prodigies,' and certainly not in any 
 objectionable sense. Not that I wish to claim 
 that every prodigy necessarily becomes a great 
 master. That does not always follow. But I
 
 24 Violin Mastery 
 
 believe that a musical prodigy, instead of being 
 regarded with suspicion, has a right to be 
 looked upon as a striking example of a pro- 
 nounced natural predisposition for musical art. 
 Of course, full mental development of artistic 
 power must come as a result of the maturing 
 processes of life itself. But I firmly believe 
 that every prodigy represents a valuable 
 musical phenomenon, one deserving of the 
 keenest interest and encouragement. It does 
 not seem right to me that when the art of the 
 prodigy is incontestably great, that the mere 
 fact of his youth should serve as an excuse to 
 look upon him wdth prejudice, and even with 
 a certain degree of distrust."
 
 Ill 
 EDDY BROWN 
 
 HUBAY AND AUER: TECHNIC: 
 HINTS TO THE STUDENT 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Eddy 
 Brown was born in Chicago, 111., and that he 
 is so great a favorite with concert audiences 
 in the land of his birth, the gifted violinist hesi- 
 tates to qualify himself as a strictly "Amer- 
 ican" violinist. As he expresses it: "Musically 
 I was altogether educated in Europe — I never 
 studied here, because I left this country at the 
 age of seven, and only returned a few years 
 ago. So I would not like to be placed in the 
 position of claiming anything under false pre- 
 tenses ! 
 
 HUBAY AND AUERI SOME COMPARISONS 
 
 "With whom did I study? With two fa- 
 mous masters; by a strange coincidence both 
 Hungarians. First with Jeno Hubay, at the 
 
 25
 
 2G Violin Mastery 
 
 National Academy of IMusic in Budapest, 
 later with Leopold Auer in Petrograd. Hu- 
 bay had been a pupil of Vieuxtemps in Brus- 
 sels, and is a justly celebrated teacher, very 
 thorough and painstaking in explaining to his 
 pupils how to do things; but the great differ- 
 ence between Hubay and Auer is that while 
 Hubay tells a student how to do things, Auer, 
 a temperamental teacher, literally drags out 
 of him whatever there is in him, awakening la- 
 tent powers he never knew he possessed. Hu- 
 bay is a splendid builder of virtuosity, and has 
 a fine sense for phrasing. For a year and a 
 half I worked at nothing but studies with him, 
 giving special attention to technic. He did 
 not believe in giving too much time to left hand 
 development, when without adequate bow tech- 
 nic finger facilitj^ is useless. Here he was in 
 accord with Auer, in fact with every teacher 
 seriously deserving of the name. Hubay was 
 a first-class pedagog, and imder his instruction 
 one could not help becoming a well-balanced 
 and musicianly player. But there is a higher 
 ideal in violin playing than mere correctness, 
 and Auer is an inspiring teacher. Hubay has 
 written some admirable studies, notably 
 twelve studies for the right hand, though he 
 never stressed technic too greatly. On the
 
 Eddy Brox£ii 27 
 
 other hand, Auer's most notable contributions 
 to violin literature are his revisions of such 
 Avorks as the Bach sonatas, the Tschaikovsky 
 Concerto, etc. In a way it points the differ- 
 ence in their mental attitude: Hubay more con- 
 cerned with the technical educational means, 
 one which cannot be overlooked; Auer more 
 interested in the interpretative, artistic educa- 
 tional end, which has always claimed his at- 
 tention. Hubay personally was a grand seig- 
 neur, a multi-millionaire, and married to an 
 Hungarian countess. He had a fine ear for 
 phrasing, could improvise most interesting 
 violin accompaniments to whatever his pupils 
 played, and beside Rode, Kreutzer and Fior- 
 illo I studied the concertos and other repertory 
 Morks with him. Then there were the con- 
 servatory lessons ! Attendance at a European 
 conservatory is verj'' broadening musically. 
 Xot only does the individual violin pupil, for 
 example, profit by listening to his colleagues 
 play in class: he also studies theory, musical 
 history, the piano, ensemble playing, chamber- 
 music and orchestra. I was concertmaster of 
 the conservatory orchestra while studying with 
 Hubay. There should be a national conserva- 
 tory of music in this country; music in general 
 would advance more rapidly. And it would
 
 28 Violin Mastery 
 
 help teach American students to approach the 
 art of violin playing from the right point of 
 view. As it is, too many want to study abroad 
 under some renowned teacher not, primarily, 
 with the idea of becoming great artists ; but in 
 the hope of drawing great future commercial 
 dividends from an initial financial investment. 
 In Art the financial should always be a sec- 
 ondary consideration. 
 
 "It stands to reason that no matter how 
 great a student's gifts may be, he can profit 
 by study with a great teacher. This, I think, 
 applies to all. After I had already appeared 
 in concert at Albert Hall, London, in 1909, 
 where I played the Beethoven Concerto with 
 orchestra, I decided to study with Auer. When 
 I first came to him he wanted to know why I 
 did so, and after hearing me play, told me that 
 I did not need any lessons from him. But I 
 knew that there was a certain 'something' 
 which I wished to add to my violinistic make- 
 up, and instinctively felt that he alone could 
 give me what I wanted. I soon found that in 
 many essentials his ideas coincided with those 
 of Hubay. But I also discovered that Auer 
 made me develop my individuality uncon- 
 sciously, placing no undue restrictions whatso- 
 ever upon my manner of expression, barring,
 
 Eddy Brown 29 
 
 of course, unmusicianly tendencies. When he 
 has a really talented pupil the Professor gives 
 him of his best. I never gave a thought to 
 technic while I studied with him — the great 
 things w^ere a singing tone, bowing, interpre- 
 tation! I studied Brahms and Beethoven, and 
 though Hubay always finished with the Bach 
 sonatas, I studied them again carefully with 
 Auer. 
 
 TECHNIC : SOME HINTS TO THE STUDENT 
 
 "At the bottom of all technic lies the scale. 
 And scale practice is the ladder by means of 
 which all must climb to higher proficiency. 
 Scales, in single tones and intervals, thirds, 
 sixths, octaves, tenths, with the incidental 
 changes of position, are the foundation of tech- 
 nic. They should be practiced slowly, always 
 with the development of tone in mind, and not 
 too long a time at any one session. No one 
 can lay claim to a perfected technic who has 
 not mastered the scale. Better a good tone, 
 even though a hundred mistakes be made in 
 producing it, than a tone that is poor, thin and 
 without quality. I find the Singer Fin- 
 geruhungen are excellent for muscular devel- 
 opment in scale work, for imparting the great
 
 30 Violin Mastery 
 
 strength which is necessary for the fingers to 
 have; and the Kreutzer etudes are indispen- 
 sable. To secure an absokite legato tone, a 
 true singing tone on the viohn, one should play 
 scales with a perfectly well sustained and 
 steady bow, in whole notes, slowly and mezzo- 
 forte, taking care that each note is clear and 
 pure, and that its volume does not vary during 
 the stroke. The quality of tone must be equal- 
 ized, and each whole note should be 'sung' with 
 a single bowing. The change from up-bow to 
 down-bow and viee versa should be made with- 
 out a break, exclusively through skillful manip- 
 ulation of the wrist. To accomplish this un- 
 broken change of bow one should cultivate a 
 loose wrist, and do special work at the extreme 
 ends, nut and tip. 
 
 "The vibrato is a great tone beautifier. Too 
 rapid or too slow a vibrato defeats the object 
 desired. There is a happy medium of tempo, 
 rather faster than slower, which gives the best 
 results. Carl Flesch has some interesting the- 
 ories about vibration which are worth investi- 
 gating. A slow and a moderately rapid vi- 
 brato, from the wrist, is best for practice, and 
 the underlying idea while working must be 
 tone, and not fingerwork. 
 
 ''Staccato is one of the less important
 
 Eddy Brown 31 
 
 branches of bow technic. There is a knack in 
 doing it, and it is purely pyrotechnical. Stac- 
 cato passages in quantity are only to be found 
 in solos of the virtuoso type. One never meets 
 with extended staccato passages in Beethoven, 
 Brahms, Bruch or Lalo. And the Saint- 
 Saens's violin concerto, if I remember rightly, 
 contains but a single staccato passage. 
 
 "Spiccato is a very different matter from 
 staccato: violinists as a rule use the middle of 
 the bow for spiccato: I use the upper third of 
 the bow, and thus get most satisfactory results, 
 in no matter what tempo. This question as 
 to what portion of the bow to use for spiccato 
 each violinist must decide for himself, however, 
 through experiment. I have tried both ways 
 and find that by the last mentioned use of the 
 bow I secure quicker, cleaner results. Stu- 
 dents while practicing this bowing should take 
 care that the wrist, and never the arm, be used. 
 Hubay has written some very excellent studies 
 for this form of 'springing bow.' 
 
 "The trill, when it rolls quickly and evenly, 
 is a trill indeed ! I never had any difficulty in 
 acquiring it, and can keep on trilling indefi- 
 nitely without the slightest unevenness or 
 slackening of speed. Auer himself has as- 
 sured me that I have a trill that runs on and
 
 32 Violin Mastery 
 
 on without a sign of fatigue or uncertainty. 
 The trill has to be practiced very slowly at 
 first, later with increasing rapidity, and always 
 with a firm pressure of the fingers. It is a 
 very beautiful embellishment, and one much 
 used; one finds it in Beethoven, Mendelssohn, 
 Brahms, etc. 
 
 "Double notes never seemed hard to me, but 
 harmonics are not as easily acquired as some 
 of the other violin eif ects. I advise pressing 
 down the first finger on the strings inordi- 
 nately, especially in the higher positions, when 
 playing artificial harmonics. The higher the 
 fingers ascend on the strings, the more firmly 
 they should press them, otherwise the harmon- 
 ics are apt to grow shrill and lose in clearness. 
 The majority of students have trouble with 
 their harmonics, because they do not practice 
 them in this way. Of course the quality of the 
 harmonics produced varies with the quality of 
 the strings that produce them. First class 
 strings are an absolute necessity for the pro- 
 duction of pure harmonics. Yet in the case 
 of the artist, he himself is held responsible, and 
 not his strings. 
 
 "Octaves? Occasionally, as in Auer's 
 transcript of Beethoven's Dance of the Der^ 
 visheSj or in the closing section of the Ernst
 
 Eddy Brown 33 
 
 Concerto, when they are used to obtain a cer- 
 tain weird effect, they sound well. But ordi- 
 narily, if cleanly played, they sound like one- 
 note successions. In the examples mentioned, 
 the so-called 'fingered octaves,' which are very 
 difficult, are employed. Ordinary octaves are 
 not so troublesome. After all, in octave play- 
 ing we simply double the notes for the purpose 
 of making them more powerful. 
 
 "As regards the playing of tenths, it seems 
 to me that the interval always sounds con- 
 strained, and hardly ever euphonious enough 
 to justify its difficulty, especially in rapid pas- 
 sages. Yet Paganini used this awkward in- 
 terval very freely in his compositions, and one 
 of his 'Caprices' is a variation in tenths, which 
 should be played more often than it is, as it 
 is very effective. In this connection change 
 of position, which I have already touched on 
 with regard to scale playing, should be so 
 smooth that it escapes notice. Among special 
 effects the glissando is really beautiful when 
 properly done. And this calls for judgment. 
 It might be added, though, that the glissando 
 is an effect which should not be overdone. The 
 portamento — gliding from one note to an- 
 other — is also a lovely effect. Its proper and
 
 34 Violin Mastery 
 
 timely application calls for good judgment and 
 sound musical taste. 
 
 A SPANISH VIOLIN 
 
 "I usually play a 'Strad,' but very often turn 
 to my beautiful 'Guillami,' " said Mr. Brown 
 when asked about his violins. "It is an old 
 Spanish violin, made in Barcelona, in 1728, 
 with a tone that has a distinct Stradivarius 
 character. In appearance it closely resembles 
 a Guadagnini, and has often been taken for 
 one. When the dealer of whom I bought it 
 first showed it to me it was complete — but in 
 four distinct pieces! Kubelik, who was in 
 Budapest at the time, heard of it and wanted 
 to buy it; but the dealer, as was only right, 
 did not forget that my offer represented a 
 prior claim, and so I secured it. The Guadag- 
 nini, which I have played in all my concerts 
 here, I am very fond of — it has a Stradivarius 
 tone rather than the one we usually associate 
 with the make." Mr. Brown showed the 
 writer his Grancino, a beautiful little instru- 
 ment about to be sent to the repair shop, since 
 exposure to the damp atmosphere of the sea- 
 shore had opened its seams — and the rare and
 
 Eddy Brotcn .35 
 
 valuable Simon bow, now his, which had once 
 been the property of Sivori. INIr. Brown has 
 used a wire E ever since he broke six gut 
 strings in one hour while at Seal Harbor, 
 Maine. "A wire string, I find, is not only 
 easier to play, but it has a more brilliant qual- 
 ity of tone than a gut string; and I am now 
 so accustomed to using a wire E, that I would 
 feel ill at ease if I did not have one on my in- 
 strument. Contrary to general belief, it does 
 not sound 'metallic,' unless the string itself is 
 of very poor quality. 
 
 PROGRAMS 
 
 "In making up a recital program I try to 
 arrange it so that the first half, approximately, 
 may appeal to the more specifically musical 
 part of my audience, and to the critics. In the 
 second half I endeavor to remember the gen- 
 eral public; at the same time being careful to 
 include nothing which is not really musical. 
 This (Mr. Brown found one of his recent pro- 
 grams on his desk and handed it to me) rep- 
 resents a logical compromise between the 
 strictly artistic and the more general taste :"
 
 36 Violin Mastery 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 I. Beethoven Sonata, Op. 47 (dedicated to 
 
 Kreutzer) 
 II. Bruch Concerto (G minor) 
 
 III. (a) Beethoven .... Ron>ance (in G major) 
 
 (b) Beethoven-Auer . . Chorus of -the Dervishes 
 
 (c) Brown Rondino (on a Cramer theme) 
 
 (d) Arbos Tango 
 
 IV. (a) Kreisler La Gitana 
 
 (Arabo-Spanish Gipsy Dance of the 18th Century) 
 
 (b) Cui Orientale 
 
 (c) Bazzini La Ronde des Lutins 
 
 "As you see there are two extended serious 
 works, followed by two smaller 'groups' of 
 pieces. And these have also been chosen with 
 a view to contrast. The finale of the Bruch 
 concerto is an allegro energico : I follow it with 
 a Beethoven Romance, a slow movement. The 
 second group begins with a taking Kreisler 
 novelty, which is succeeded by another slow 
 number ; but one very effective in its working- 
 up ; and I end my program with a brilliant vir- 
 tuoso number. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "My own personal conception of violin mas- 
 tery," concluded Mr. Brown, "might be de-
 
 Eddy Brotcn 37 
 
 fined as follows: 'An individual tone produc- 
 tion, or rather tone quality, consummate musi- 
 cianship in phrasing and interpretation, abil- 
 ity to rise above all mechanical and intellectual 
 effort, and finally the power to express that 
 which is dictated by one's imagination and 
 emotion, with the same natural simplicity and 
 spontaneity with which the thought of a really 
 great orator is expressed in the easy, uncon- 
 strained flow of his language.' "
 
 IV 
 MISCHA ELMAN 
 
 LIFE AND COLOR IN INTERPRETATION. 
 TECHNICAL PHASES 
 
 To hear Mischa Elman on the concert plat- 
 form, to listen to him play, "with all that 
 wealth of tone, emotion and impulse which 
 places him in the very foremost rank of liv- 
 ing violinists," should be joy enough for any 
 music lover. To talk with him in his own 
 home, however, gives one a deeper insight into 
 his art as an interpreter; and in the pleasant 
 intimacy of familiar conversation the writer 
 learned much that the serious student of the 
 violin will be interested in knowing. 
 
 MANNERISMS IN PLAYING 
 
 We all know that Elman, when he plays in 
 public, moves his head, moves his body, sways 
 in time to the music; in a word there are cer- 
 tain mannerisms associated with his playing 
 
 38
 
 Mischa Elman 39 
 
 which critics have on occasion mentioned with 
 grave suspicion, as evidences of sensationalism. 
 Half fearing to insult him by asking whether 
 he was "sincere," or whether his motions were 
 "stage business" carefully rehearsed, as had 
 been implied, I still ventured the question. 
 He laughed boyishly and was evidently much 
 amused. 
 
 "No, no," he said. "I do not study up any 
 'stage business' to help out my playing! I do 
 not know whether I ought to compare myself 
 to a dancer, but the appeal of the dance is in 
 all musical movement. Certain rhythms and 
 musical combinations affect me subcon- 
 sciously. I suppose the direct influence of the 
 music on me is such that there is a sort of emo- 
 tional reflex: I move with the music in an un- 
 conscious translation of it into gesture. It is 
 all so individual. The French violinists as a 
 rule play very correctly in public, keeping 
 their eye on finger and bow. And this appeals 
 to me strongly in theory. In practice I seem 
 to get away from it. It is a matter of temper- 
 ament I presume. I am willing to believe I'm 
 not graceful, but then — I do not know whether 
 I move or do not move! Some of my friends 
 have spoken of it to me at various times, so I 
 suppose I do move, and sway and all the rest ;
 
 40 Violin Mastery 
 
 but any movements of the sort must be uncon- 
 scious, for I myself know nothing of them. 
 And the idea that they are 'prepared' as 'stage 
 effects' is dehghtfuH" And again Ehnan 
 laughed. 
 
 LIFE AND COLOR IN INTERPRETATION 
 
 "For that matter," he continued, "every real 
 artist has some mannerisms when playing, I 
 imagine. Yet more than mannerisms are 
 needed to impress an American audience. Life 
 and color in interpretation are the true secrets 
 of great art. And beauty of interpretation 
 depends, first of all, on variety of color. Tech- 
 nic is, after all, only secondary. No matter 
 how well played a composition be, its perform- 
 ance must have color, nuance, movement, life ! 
 Each emotional mood of the moment must be 
 fully expressed, and if it is its appeal is sure. 
 I remember when I once played for Don Man- 
 uel, the young ex -king of Portugal, in Lon- 
 don, I had an illustration of the fact. He was 
 just a pathetic boy, verj^ democratic, and per- 
 sonally very likeable. He was somewhat neg- 
 lected at the time, for it is well known and not 
 altogether unnatural, that royalty securely es- 
 tablished finds 'kings in exile' a bit embarrass-
 
 Mischa Elman 41 
 
 ing. Don Manuel was a music-lover, and es- 
 pecially fond of Bach. I had had long talks 
 with the young king at various times, and my 
 sympathies had been aroused in his behalf. On 
 the evening of which I speak I played a Cho- 
 pin Nocturne^ and I know that into my play- 
 ing there went some of my feeling for the 
 pathos of the situation of this young stranger 
 in a strange land, of my own age, eating the 
 bitter bread of exile. When I had finished, 
 the Marchioness of Ripon touched my arm: 
 'Look at the King!' she whispered. Don Man- 
 uel had been moved to tears. 
 
 "Of course the purely mechanical must al- 
 ways be dominated by the artistic personality 
 of the player. Yet technic is also an impor- 
 tant part of inter jjretation : knowing exactly 
 how long to hold a bow, the most delicate in- 
 flections of its pressure on the strings. There 
 must be perfect sympathy also with the com- 
 poser's thought; his si)irit must stand behind 
 the personality of the artist. In the case of 
 certain famous compositions, like the Bee- 
 thoven concerto, for instance, this is so well es- 
 tablished that the artist, and never the com- 
 poser, is held responsible if it is not well 
 played. But too rigorous an adherence to 
 'tradition' in playing is also an extreme. I
 
 42 Violin Mastery 
 
 once played privately for Joachim in Berlin: 
 it was the Bach Chaconne. Now the edition 
 I used was a standard one: and Joachim was 
 extremely reverential as regards traditions. 
 Yet he did not hesitate to indicate some 
 changes which he thought should be made in 
 the version of an authoritative edition, because 
 'they sounded better.' And 'How does it 
 sound?' is really the true test of all interpre- 
 tation." 
 
 ABSOLUTE PITCH THE FIRST ESSENTIAL OF A 
 PERFECTED TECHNIC 
 
 "What is the fundamental of a perfected 
 violin technic?" was a natural question at this 
 point. "Absolute pitch, first of all," replied 
 Elman promptly. "Many a violinist plays a 
 difficult passage, sounding every note ; and yet 
 it sounds out of tune. The first and second 
 movements of the Beethoven concerto have no 
 double-stops; yet they are extremely difficult 
 to play. Why? Because they call for abso- 
 lute pitch : they must be played in perfect tune 
 so that each tone stands out in all its fullness 
 and clarity like a rock in the sea. And with- 
 out a fundamental control of pitch such a mas- 
 ter work will always be beyond the violinist's
 
 Mischa Elman 43 
 
 reach. Many a player has the facihty; but 
 without perfect intonation he can never attain 
 the highest perfection. On the other hand, 
 any one who can play a single phrase in abso- 
 lute pitch has the first and great essential. 
 Few artists, not barring some of the greatest, 
 play with perfect intonation. Its control de- 
 pends first of all on the ear. And a sensitive 
 ear finds differences and shading; it bids the 
 violinist play a trifle sharper, a trifle flatter, 
 according to the general harmonic color of the 
 accompaniment; it leads him to observe a dif- 
 ference, when the harmonic atmosphere de- 
 mands it, between a C sharp in the key of E 
 major and a D flat in the same key. 
 
 TECHNICAL PHASES 
 
 "Every player finds some phases of technic 
 easy and others difficult. For instance, I have 
 never had to work hard for quality of tone — 
 when I wish to get certain color effects they 
 come: I have no difficulty in expressing my 
 feelings, my emotions in tone. And in a tech- 
 nical way spiccato bowing, which many find so 
 hard, has always been easy to me. I have 
 never had to work for it. Double-stops, on 
 the contrarv, cost me hours of intensive work
 
 44 Violin Mastery 
 
 before I played them with ease and facility. 
 What did I practice? Scales in double-stops 
 — they give color and variety to tone. And 
 I gave up a certain portion of my regular prac- 
 tice time to passages from concertos and so- 
 natas. There is wonderful work in double- 
 stops in the Ernst concerto and in the Paga- 
 nini l^tudes, for instance. With octaves and 
 tenths I have never had any trouble : I have a 
 broad hand and a wide stretch, which accounts 
 for it, I suppose. 
 
 "Then there are harmonics, flageolets — I 
 have never been able to understand why they 
 should be considered so difficult ! They should 
 not be white, colorless; but call for just as 
 much color as any other tones (and any one 
 who has heard Mischa Elman play harmonics 
 knows that this is no mere theory on his part) . 
 I never think of harmonics as 'harmonics,' but 
 try to give them just as much expressive qual- 
 ity as the notes of any other register. The 
 mental attitude should influence their produc- 
 tion — too many vioHnists think of them only 
 as incidental to pyrotechnical display. 
 
 "And fingering? Fingering in general 
 seems to me to be an individual matter. A 
 concert artist may use a certain fingering for 
 a certain passage which no pupil should use.
 
 Mischa Elman 45 
 
 and be entirely justified if he can thus secure 
 a certain effect. 
 
 "I do not — speaking out of my own experi- 
 ence — believe much in methods: and never to 
 the extent that they be allowed to kill the stu- 
 dent's individuality. A clear, clean tone 
 should always be the ideal of his striving. And 
 to that end he must see that the up and down 
 bows in a passage like the following from the 
 Bach sonata in A minor (and Mr. Elman hast- 
 ily jotted down the subjoined) are absolutely 
 
 even, and of the same length, played with the 
 same strength and length of bow, otherwise 
 the notes are swallowed. In light spiccato 
 and staccato the detached notes should be 
 played always with a single stroke of the bow. 
 Some players, strange to say, find staccato 
 notes more difficult to play at a moderate 
 tempo than fast. I believe it to be altogether 
 a matter of control — if proper control be there 
 the tempo makes no difference. Wieniawski, 
 I have read, could only play his staccati at a 
 high rate of speed. Spiccato is generally held 
 to be more difficult than staccato; yet I myself 
 find it easier.
 
 46 Violin Mastery 
 
 PROPORTION IN PRACTICE 
 
 "To influence a clear, singing tone with the 
 left hand, to phrase it properly with the bow 
 hand, is most important. And it is a matter 
 of proportion. Good phrasing is spoiled by 
 an ugly tone: a beautiful singing tone loses 
 meaning if improperly phrased. When the 
 student has reached a certain point of tech- 
 nical development, technic must be a second- 
 ary — yet not neglected — consideration, and he 
 should devote himself to the production of a 
 good tone. Many violinists have missed their 
 career by exaggerated attention to either bow 
 or violin hand. Both hands must be watched 
 at the same time. And the question of pro- 
 portion should always be kept in mind in prac- 
 ticing studies and passages : pressure of fingers 
 and pressure of bow must be equalized, co- 
 ordinated. The teacher can only do a cer- 
 tain amount: the pupil must do the rest. 
 
 AUER AS A TEACHER 
 
 "Take Auer for example. I may call my- 
 self the first real exponent of his school, in the 
 sense of making his name widely known. Auer
 
 Mischa El man 47 
 
 is a great teacher, and leaves much to the in- 
 dividuahty of his pupils. He first heard me 
 play at the Imperial JMusic School in Odessa, 
 and took me to Petrograd to study with him, 
 which I did for a year and four months. And 
 he could accomplish wonders! That one year 
 he had a little group of four pupils each one 
 better than the other — a very stimulating sit- 
 uation for all of them. There was a mag- 
 netism about him: he literally hypnotized his 
 pupils into doing better than their best — 
 though in some cases it was evident that once 
 the support of his magnetic personality was 
 withdrawn, the pupil fell back into the level 
 from which he had been raised for the time 
 being. 
 
 "Yet Auer respected the fact that tempera- 
 mentally I was not responsive to this form of 
 appeal. He gave me of his best. I never 
 practiced more than two or three hours a day 
 — just enough to keep fresh. Often I came 
 to my lesson unprepared, and he would have 
 me play things — sonatas, concertos — which I 
 had not touched for a year or more. He was a 
 severe critic, but always a just one. 
 
 "I can recall how proud I was when he sent 
 me to beautiful music-loving Helsingfors, in 
 Finland — where all seems to be bloodshed and
 
 48 Violin Mastery 
 
 confusion now — to plaj^ a recital in his own 
 stead on one occasion, and how proud he was 
 of my success. Yet Auer had his Httle pe- 
 cuharities. I have read somewhere that the 
 great fencing-masters of the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries were very jealous of the 
 secrets of their famous feints and ripostes, and 
 only confided them to favorite pupils who 
 promised not to reveal them. Auer had his 
 little secrets, too, with which he was loth to 
 part. When I was to make my debut in Ber- 
 lin, I remember, he was naturally enough in- 
 terested — since I was his pupil — in my scor- 
 ing a triumph. And he decided to part with 
 some of his treasured technical thrusts and par- 
 ries. And when I was going over the Tschai- 
 kovsky D minor concerto (which I was to 
 play), he would select a passage and say: 
 'Now I'll play this for you. If you catch it, 
 well and good ; if not it is your own fault !' I 
 am happy to say that I did not fail to 'catch' 
 his meaning on any occasion. Auer really has 
 a wonderful intellect, and some secrets well 
 worth knowing. That he is so great an artist 
 himself on the instrument is the more remark- 
 able, since physically he was not exceptionally 
 favored. Often, when he saw me, he'd say 
 with a sigh: 'Ah, if I only had your hand!'
 
 Mischa Elm an 49 
 
 "Auer was a great virtuoso player. He 
 held a unique place in the Imperial Ballet. 
 You know in many of the celebrated ballets, 
 Tschaikovsky's for instance, there occur beau- 
 tiful and difficult solos for the violin. They 
 call for an artist of the first rank, and Auer 
 was accustomed to play them in Petrograd. 
 In Russia it was considered a decided honor 
 to be called upon to play one of those ballet 
 solos ; but in London it was looked on as some- 
 thing quite incidental. I remember when 
 Diaghilev presented Tschaikovsky's Lac des 
 Cygnes in London, the Grand-Duke Andrew 
 Vladimirev (who had heard me play), an ami- 
 able young boy, and a patron of the arts, re- 
 quested me — and at that time the request of 
 a Romanov was still equivalent to a command 
 — to play the violin solos which accompany the 
 love scenes. It was not exactly easy, since 
 I had to play and watch dancers and conduc- 
 tor at the same time. Yet it was a novelty for 
 London, however; everybody was pleased and 
 the Grand-Duke presented me with a hand- 
 some diamond pin as an acknowledgment. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "You ask me what I understand by 'Violin 
 Mastery' ? Well, it seems to me that the artist
 
 50 Violin Mastery 
 
 who can present anything he plays as a dis- 
 tinct picture, in every detail, framing the com- 
 poser's idea in the perfect beauty of his plastic 
 rendering, with absolute truth of color and 
 proportion — he is the artist who deserves to 
 be called a master ! 
 
 "Of course, the instrument the artist uses is 
 an important factor in making it possible for 
 him to do his best. My violin? It is an au- 
 thentic Strad — dated 1722. I bought it of 
 Willy Burmester in London. You see he did 
 not care much for it. The German style of 
 playing is not calculated to bring out the tone 
 beauty, the quality of the old Italian fiddles. 
 I think Burmester had forced the tone, and it 
 took me some time to make it mellow and 
 truly responsive again, but now . . ." Mr. 
 Elman beamed. It was evident he was satisfied 
 with his instrument. "As to strings," he con- 
 tinued, "I never use wire strings — they have 
 no color, no quality! 
 
 WHAT TO STUDY AND HOW 
 
 "For the advanced student there is a wealth 
 of study material. No one ever wrote more 
 beautiful violin music than Haendel, so rich in
 
 Mischa Elman 51 
 
 invention, in harmonic fullness. In Beethoven 
 there are more ideas than tone — but such ideas ! 
 Schubert — all genuine, spontaneous! Bach is 
 so gigantic that the violin often seems inade- 
 quate to express him. That is one reason why 
 I do not play more Bach in public. 
 
 "The study of a sonata or concerto should 
 entirely absorb the attention of the student to 
 such a degree that, as he is able to play it, it 
 has become a part of him. He should be able 
 to play it as though it were an improvisation 
 — of course without doing violence to the com- 
 poser's idea. If he masters the composition in 
 the way it should be mastered it becomes a 
 portion of himself. Before I even take up my 
 violin I study a piece thoroughly in score. I 
 read and reread it until I am at home with 
 the composer's thought, and its musical bal- 
 ance and proportion. Then, when I begin to 
 play it, its salient points are already memo- 
 rized, and the practicing gives me a kind of 
 photographic reflex of detail. After I have 
 not played a number for a long time it fades 
 from my memory — like an old negative — but I 
 need only go over it once or twice to have a 
 clear mnemonic picture of it once more.
 
 52 Violin Mastery 
 
 TRANSCRIPTIONS 
 
 1 
 
 "Yes, I believe in transcriptions for the vio- 
 lin — with certain provisos," said Mr. Elman, in 
 reply to another question. "First of all the 
 music to be transcribed must lend itself nat- 
 urally to the instrument. xVhnost any really 
 good melodic line, especially a cantilena, will 
 sound with a fitting harmonic development. 
 Violinists of former days like Spohr, Rode and 
 Paganini were more intent on composing music 
 out of the violin! The modern idea lays stress 
 first of all on the idea in music. In transcrib- 
 ing I try to forget I am a violinist, in order 
 to form a perfect picture of the musical idea — 
 its violinistic development must be a natural, 
 subconscious working-out. If you will look 
 at some of my recent transcripts — the Albaniz 
 Tango, the negro melody Deep River and 
 Amani's fine Orientate — you will see what I 
 mean. They are conceived as pictures — I have 
 not tried to analyze too much — and while so 
 conceiving them their free harmonic back- 
 ground shapes itself for me without strain oi^ 
 effort.
 
 Mischa Elman 53 
 
 A REMINISCENCE OF COLONNE 
 
 "Conductors with whom I have played? 
 There are many: Hans Richter, who was a 
 master of the baton ; Nikisch, one of the great- 
 est in conducting the orchestral accompani- 
 ment to a violin solo number ; Colonne of Paris, 
 and many others. I had an amusing experience 
 with Colonne once. He brought his orchestra 
 to Russia while I was with Auer, and was 
 giving a concert at Pavlovsk, a summer resort 
 near Petrograd. Colonne had a perfect hor- 
 ror of 'infant prodigies,' and Auer had ar- 
 ranged for me to play with his orchestra with- 
 out telling him my age — I was eleven at the 
 time. When Colonne saw me, violin in hand, 
 ready to step on the stage, he drew himself 
 up and said with emphasis: 'I play with a 
 prodigy! Never!' Nothing could move him, 
 and I had to play to a piano accompaniment. 
 After he had heard me play, though, he came 
 over to me and said: 'The best apolog;y' I can 
 make for what I said is to ask you to do me the 
 honor of playing with the Orchestre Colonne 
 in Paris.' He was as good as his word. Four 
 months later I went to Paris and played the 
 JNIendelssohn concerto for him with great suc- 
 cess."
 
 V 
 SAMUEL GARDNER 
 
 TECHNIC AND MUSICIANSHIP 
 
 Samuel Gardner^ though born in Jelisavet- 
 grad, Cherson province, in Southern Russia, 
 in 1891, is to all intents and purposes an 
 American, since his family, fleeing the tj^r- 
 anny of an Imperialistic regime of "po- 
 groms" and "Black Hundreds," brought him 
 to this country when a mere child ; and here in 
 the United States he has become, to quote 
 Richard Aldrich, "the serious and accom- 
 plished artist," whose work on the concei-t 
 stage has given such pleasure to lovers of violin 
 music at its best. The j'^oung violinist, who in 
 the course of the same week had just won two 
 prizes in composition — the Pulitzer Prize 
 (Columbia) for a string quartet, and the Loeb 
 Prize for a symphonic poem — was amiably 
 willing to talk of his study experience for the 
 benefit of other students. 
 
 5i
 
 Samuel Gardner 55 
 
 CHARLES MARTIN LOEFFLER AND FELIX WINTER- 
 NITZ AS TEACHERS 
 
 *'I took up the study of the violin at 
 the age of seven, and when I was nine I 
 went to Charles Martin Loeffler and really 
 began to work seriously. Loeffler was a very 
 strict teacher and very exacting, but he 
 achieved results, for he had a most original 
 way of making his points clear to the student. 
 He started off with the Sevcik studies, laying 
 great stress on the proper finger articulation. 
 And he taught me absolute smoothness in 
 change of position when crossing the strings. 
 For instance, in the second book of Sevcik's 
 'Technical Exercises,' in the third exercise, 
 the bow crosses from G to A, and from D to E, 
 leaving a string between in each crossing. Well, 
 I simply could not manage to get to the second 
 string to be played without the string in be- 
 tween sounding! Loeffler showed me what ev- 
 ery good fiddler must learn to do: to leap from 
 the end of the down-bow to the up-bow and 
 vice versa and then hesitate the fraction of a 
 moment, thus securing a smooth, clean-cut 
 tone, without any vibration of the intermediate 
 string. Loeffler never gave a pupil any rest
 
 56 Violin Mastery 
 
 until lie came up to his requirements. I know 
 when I played the seventh and eighth Kreut- 
 zer studies for him — they are trill studies — he 
 said : 'You trill like an electric bell, but not fast 
 enough!' And he kept at me to speed up my 
 tempo without loss of clearness or tone-vol- 
 ume, until I could do justice to a rapid trill. 
 It is a great quality in a teacher to be literally 
 able to enforce the pupil's progress in certain 
 directions; for though the latter may not ap- 
 preciate it at the time, later on he is sure to do 
 so. I remember once when he was trying to 
 explain the perfect crescendo to me, fire-en- 
 gine bells began to ring in the distance, the 
 sound gradually drawing nearer the house in 
 Charles Street w^here I was taking my lesson. 
 'There you have it!' Loeffler cried: 'There's 
 your ideal crescendo! Play it like that and I 
 will be satisfied!' I remained with Loeffler a 
 year and a half, and when he went to Paris be- 
 gan to study with Felix Winternitz. 
 
 "Felix Winternitz was a teacher who al- 
 lowed his pupils to develop individuality. *I 
 care nothing for theories,' he used to saj^ 'so 
 long as I can see something original in your 
 work!' He attached little importance to the 
 theory of technic, but a great deal to technical 
 development along individual lines. And he
 
 Samuel Gardner 57 
 
 always encouraged me to express myself freely, 
 within my limitations, stressing the musical 
 side of my w ork. With him I played through 
 the concertos which, after a time, I used foi^ 
 technical material, since every phase of technic 
 and bowing is covered in these great works. I 
 was only fifteen when I left Winternitz and 
 still played by instinct rather than intellect- 
 ually. I still used my bow arm somewhat 
 stiffly, and did not think much about j)hrasing. 
 I instinctively phrased whatever the music it- 
 self made clear to me, and what I did not un- 
 derstand I merely played. 
 
 kneisel's teaching methods 
 
 "But when I came to Franz Kneisel, my last 
 teacher, I began to work with my mind. 
 Kneisel showed me that I had to think when I 
 played. At first I did not realize why he kept 
 at me so insistently about phrasing, interpreta- 
 tion, the exact observance of expression marks ; 
 but eventually it dawned on me that he waSt 
 teaching me to read a soul into each composi- 
 tion I studied. 
 
 "I practiced hard, from four to five hours 
 a day. Fortunately, as regards technical equip- 
 ment, I was ready for Kneisel's instruction.
 
 58 Violiri Mastery 
 
 The first thing he gave me to study was, not a 
 brilHant virtuoso piece, but the Bach concerto 
 in E major, and then the Viotti concerto. In 
 the beginning, until Kneisel showed me, I did 
 not know what to do with them. This was 
 music whose notes in themselves were easj^ and 
 whose difficulties were all of an individual or- 
 der. But intellectual analysis, interpretation, 
 are Kneisel's great points. A strict teacher, I 
 worked with him for five years, the most re- 
 markable years of all my violin study. 
 
 "Kneisel knows how to develop technical 
 perfection without using technical exercises. 
 I had already played the Mendelssohn, Bruch 
 and Lalo concertos with Winternitz, and these 
 I now restudied with Kneisel. In interpreta- 
 tion he makes clear every phrase in its relation 
 to every other phrase and the movement as a 
 whole. And he insists on his pupils studying 
 theory and composition — something I had 
 formerly not been inclined to take seriously. 
 
 "Some teachers are satisfied if the student 
 plays his notes correctly, in a general way. 
 With Kneisel the very least detail, a trill, a 
 scale, has to be given its proper tone-color and 
 dynamic shading in absolute proportion with 
 the balancing harmonies. This trill, in the
 
 Samuel Gardner 59 
 
 first movement of the Beethoven concerto — 
 (and Mr. Gardner jotted it down) 
 
 Kneisel kept me at during the entire lesson, 
 till I was able to adjust its tone-color and 
 nuances to the accompanying harmony. Then, 
 though many teachers do not know it, it is a 
 tradition in the orchestra to make a diminuendo 
 in the sixth measure, before the change of key 
 to C major, and this diminuendo should, of 
 course, be observed by the solo instrument as 
 well. Yet you will hear well-known artists 
 play the trill throughout with a loud, brilliant 
 tone and no dynamic change ! 
 
 "Kneisel makes it a point to have all his 
 pupils play chamber music because of its truly 
 broadening influence. And he is unexcelled 
 in taking apart structurally the Beethoven, 
 Brahms, Tschaikovsky and other quartets, in 
 analyzing and explaining the wonderful plan- 
 ning and building up of each movement. I 
 had the honor of playing second violin in the 
 Kneisel Quartet from September to February 
 (1914-1915), at the outbreak of the war, a
 
 60 Violin Mastery 
 
 most interesting experience. The musicianship 
 Kneisel had given me ; I was used to his style 
 and at home with his ideas, and am happy to 
 think that he was satisfied. A year later as 
 assistant concertmaster in the Chicago Sym- 
 phony Orchestra, I had a chance to become 
 practically acquainted with the orchestral 
 works of Strauss, d'Indy and other moderns, 
 and enjoy the Beethoven, Brahms and Tschai- 
 kovsky symphonies as a performer. 
 
 TECHNIC AND MUSICIANSHIP 
 
 "How do I regard technic now? I think of 
 it in the terms of the music itself. Music should 
 dictate the technical means to be used. The 
 composition and its phrases should determine 
 bowing and the tone quality employed. One 
 should not think of down-bows or up-bows. 
 In the Brahms concerto you can find many 
 long phrases: they cannot be played with one 
 bow ; yet there must be no apparent change of 
 bow. If the player does not know what the 
 phrase means; how to interpret it, how will 
 he be able to bow it correctly? 
 
 "And there are so many different nuances, 
 especially in legato. It is as a rule produced 
 by a slurred bow ; yet it may also be produced
 
 Samuel Gardner 61 
 
 by other bowings. To secure a good legato 
 tone watch the singer. The singer can estab- 
 hsh the perfect smoothness that legato calls 
 for to perfection. To secure a like effect the 
 violinist should convey the impression that 
 there is no point, no frog, that the bow he uses 
 is of indefinite length. And the violinist should 
 never think: T must play this up-bow or down- 
 bow.' Artists of the German school are more 
 apt to begin a phrase with a down-bow; the 
 French start playing a good deal at the point. 
 Up or down, both are secondary to finding out, 
 first of all, what quality, what balance of tone 
 the phrase demands. The conductor of a sym- 
 phonic orchestra does not care how, technically, 
 certain effects are produced by the violins, 
 whether they use an up-bow or a down-bow. 
 He merely says: 'That's too heavy: give me 
 less tone!' The result to be achieved is al- 
 ways more important than the manner of 
 achievement. 
 
 "All phases of technical accomplishment, if 
 rightly acquired, tend to become second nature 
 to the player in the course of time : staccato, a 
 brilliant trick ; spiccato, the reiteration of notes 
 played from the wrist, etc. The martellato, a^ 
 nuance of spiccato, should be played with a 
 firm bowing at the point. In a very broad
 
 62 Violin Mastery 
 
 spiccato, the arm may be brought into play; 
 but otherwise not, since it makes rapid play- 
 ing impossible. Too many amateurs try to 
 play spiccato from the arm. And too many 
 teachers are contented with a trill that is 
 merely brilliant. Kneisel insists on what he 
 calls a 'musical trill,' of which Kreisler's beauti- 
 ful trill is a perfect example. The trill of some 
 violinists is invariably brilliant, whether bril- 
 liancy is appropriate or not. Brilliant trills 
 in Bach always seem out of place to me; while 
 in Paganini and in Wieniawski's Carnaval de 
 Venise a high brilliant trill is very effective. 
 
 "As to double-stops — Edison once said that 
 violin music should be written only in double- 
 stops — I practice them playing first the single 
 notes and then the two together, and can 
 recommend this mode of practice from per- 
 sonal experience. Harmonics, where clarity is 
 the most important thing, are mainly a matter 
 of bowing, of a sure attack and sustaining by 
 the bow. Of course the harmonics themselves 
 are made by the fingers ; but their tone quality, 
 rests altogether with the bow. 
 
 EDISON AND OCTAVES 
 
 "The best thing I've ever heard said of oc- 
 taves was Edison's remark to me that 'They
 
 Samuel Gardner 63 
 
 are merely a nuisance and should not be^ 
 played!' I was making some records for him 
 during the experimental stage of the disk rec- 
 ord, when he was trying to get an absolutely 
 smooth legato tone, one that conformed to 
 Loeffler's definition of it as 'no breaks' in the 
 tone. He had had Schubert's Ave Maria re- 
 corded by Flesch, MacMillan and others, and 
 wanted me to play it for him. The records 
 were all played for me, and whenever he came 
 to the octave passages Edison would say: 
 'Listen to them! How badly they sound!' Yet 
 the octaves were absolutely in tune ! 'Why do 
 they sound so badly?' I inquired. 
 
 "Then Edison explained to me that accord- 
 ing to the scientific theory of vibration, the 
 vibrations of the higher tone of the octaves 
 should be exactly twice those of the lower note. 
 'But here,' he continued, 'the vibrations of the 
 notes all vary.' 'Yet how can the player con- 
 trol his fingers in the vibrato bej^ond playing 
 his octaves in perfect tune?' I asked. 'Well, 
 if he cannot do so,' said Edison, 'octaves are 
 merely a nuisance, and should not be played at 
 all.' I experimented and found that by simply 
 pressing down the fingers and playing without 
 any vibrato, I could come pretty near secur- 
 ing the exact relation between the vibrations
 
 64 Violin Mastery 
 
 of the upper and lower notes but — they 
 sounded dreadful! Of course, octaves sound 
 well in ensemble, especially in the orchestra, 
 because each player plays but a single note. 
 And tenths sound even better than octaves 
 when two people play them. 
 
 WIRE AND GUT STRINGS 
 
 "You ask about my violin? It belonged to 
 the famous Hawley collection, and is a Giovan- 
 ni Baptista Guadignini, made in 1780, in 
 Turin. The back is a single piece of maple- 
 wood, having a broadish figure extending 
 across its breadth. The maple-wood sides 
 match the back. The top is formed of a very 
 choice piece of spruce, and it is varnished a 
 deep golden-red. It has a remarkably fine 
 tone, very vibrant and with great carrying 
 power, a tone that has all that I can ask for as 
 regards volume and quality. 
 
 *T think that wire strings are largely used 
 now-a-days because gut strings are hard to 
 obtain — not because thej^ are better. I do not 
 use wire strings. I have tried them and find 
 them thin in tone, or so brilliant that their tone 
 is too piercing. Then, too, I find that the use 
 of a wire E reduces the volume of tone of the
 
 Samuel Gardner 65 
 
 other strings. No wire string has the quality 
 of a fine gut string; and I regard them only 
 as a substitute in the case of some people, and 
 a convenience for lazy ones. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Violin Mastery? Off-hand I might say the 
 phrase stands for a life-time of effort with its 
 highest aims unattained. As I see it the achieve- 
 ment of violin mastery represents a combina- 
 tion of 90 per cent, of toil and 10 per cent, of 
 talent or inspiration. Goetschius, with whom 
 I studied composition, once said to me: 'I do 
 not congratulate you on having talent. That 
 is a gift. But I do congratulate you on being 
 able to work hard!' The same thing applies 
 to the fiddle. It seems to me that only by keep- 
 ing everlastingly at it can one become a mas- 
 ter of the instrument."
 
 VI 
 ARTHUR HARTMANN 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF TECHNIC 
 
 Arthur Hartmann is distinctly and un- 
 mistakably a personality. He stands out even 
 in that circle of distinguished contemporary 
 violinists which is so largely made up of per- 
 sonalities. He is a composer — not only of 
 violin pieces, but of symphonic and choral 
 works, chamber music, songs and piano num- 
 bers. His critical analysis of Bach's Chaconne, 
 translated into well-nigh every tongue, is prob- 
 ably the most complete and exhaustive study 
 of "that triumph of genius over matter" writ- 
 ten. And besides being a master of his own in- 
 strument he plays the viola d'amore, that 
 sweet-toned survival, with sympathetic strings, 
 of the 17th century viol family, and the Hun- 
 garian czimhalom. Nor is his mastery of the 
 last-named instrument "out of drawing," for 
 we must remember that Mr. Hartmann was 
 born in Mate Szalka, in Southern Hungary. 
 
 66
 
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 Arthur Hartmann
 
 Arthur Hartmann 67 
 
 Then, too, IVIr. Hartmann is a genial and orig- 
 inal thinker, a litterateur of no mean ability, 
 a bibliophile, the intimate of the late Claude 
 Debussj^, and of many of the great men of 
 musical Europe. Yet from the reader's stand- 
 point the interest he inspires is, no doubt, 
 mainly due to the fact that not onlj^ is he a 
 great interpreting artist — but a great artist 
 doubled by a great teacher, an unusual com- 
 bination. 
 
 Characteristic of ]?.Ir. Hartmann's hospital- 
 ity (the writer had passed a pleasant hour with 
 him some years before, but had not seen him 
 since ) , was the fact that he insisted in brewing 
 Turkish coffee, and making his caller feel quite 
 at home before even allowing him to broach the 
 subject of his visit. And when he learned 
 that its purpose was to draw on his knowledge 
 and experience for information which would 
 be of value to the serious student and lover of 
 his art, he did not refuse to respond. 
 
 WHAT VIOLIN PLAYING REALLY IS 
 
 "Violin playing is really no abstract mys- 
 tery. It's as clear as geography in a way: one 
 might say the whole art is bounded on the 
 South by the G string, on the North by the E
 
 68 Violin Mastery 
 
 string, on the West by the string hand — and 
 that's about as far as the comparison may be 
 carried out. The point is, there are definite 
 boundaries, whose technical and esthetic hmits 
 may be extended, and territorial annexations 
 made through brain power, mental control. To 
 me 'Violin Mastery' means taking this little 
 fiddle-box in hand [and Mr. Hartmann suited 
 action to word by raising the lid of his violin- 
 case and drawing forth his beautiful 1711 
 Strad], and doing just what I want with it. 
 And that means having the right finger on the 
 right place at the right time — but don't forget 
 that to be able to do this you must have for- 
 gotten to think of your fingers as fingers. They 
 should be simply unconscious slaves of the 
 artist's psychic expression, absolutely sub- 
 servient to his ideal. Too many people reverse 
 the process and become slaves to their fingers. 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF TECHNIC 
 
 "Technic, for instance, in its mechanical 
 sense, is a much exaggerated microbe of Ma- 
 teria musica. All technic must conform to its 
 instrument.* The violin was made to suit the 
 
 * This is the idea which underlies my system for ear-trainins: 
 and absolute pitch, "Arthur Hartraann's System," as I call it, 
 which I have published. A. H.
 
 Arthur Hartmann 69 
 
 hand, not the hand to suit the violin, hence its 
 technic must be based on a natural logic of 
 hand movement. The whole problem of tech- 
 nical control is encountered in the first change 
 of position on the violin. If we violinists could 
 play in but one position there would be no 
 technical problem. The solution of this prob- 
 lem means, speaking broadly, the ability to 
 play the violin — for there is only one way of 
 playing it — with a real, full, singing Violin' 
 tone. It's not a question of a method, but 
 just a process based on pure reason, the work- 
 ing out of rational principles. 
 
 "What is the secret of this singing tone? 
 Well, you may call it a secret, for many of my 
 pupils have no inkling of it when they first 
 come here, though it seems verj^ much of an 
 'open secret' to me. The finished beauty of the 
 violin 'voice' is a round, sustained, absolutely 
 smooth cantahile tone. Now [Mr. Hartmann 
 took up his Strad], I'll play you the scale of 
 G as the average violin student plays it. You 
 see — each slide from one tone to the next, a 
 break — a rosary of lurches! How can there 
 be a round, harmonious tone when the fingers 
 progress by jerks? Shifting position must not 
 be a continuous movement of effort, but a con- 
 tinuous movement in which effort and relaxa-i
 
 70 Violin Mastery 
 
 tion — that of dead weight — alternate. As an 
 illustration, when we walk we do not con- 
 sciously set down one foot, and then swing for- 
 ward the other foot and leg with a jerk. The 
 forward movement is smooth, unconscious, co- 
 ordinated: in putting the foot forward it car- 
 ries the weight of the entire body, the move- 
 ment becomes a matter of instinct. And the 
 same applies to the progression of the fingers 
 in shifting the position of the hand. Now, 
 playing the scale as I now do — only two fingers 
 should be used — 
 
 i 
 
 m±^ 
 
 ^j= iyJz^^^^ ^F=l^«)^^=^ 
 
 "t^'^^r-^ 
 
 i 
 
 -f-rm 
 
 i T-*^ 
 
 Ktspi 
 
 -J^=M=:S. 
 
 1 — I — r = ^* ><* ^-r - 
 
 -g-*- :3: 
 
 I prepare every shift. Absolute accuracy of 
 intonation and a singing legato is the result. 
 These guiding notes indicated are merely a 
 test to prove the scientific spacing of the violin ; 
 they are not sounded once control of the hand 
 has been obtained. Tliey serve only to accus- 
 tom the fingers to keep moving in the direc- 
 tion in which they are going. 
 
 "The tone is produced by the left hand, by
 
 Arthur Hartmann 71 
 
 the weight of the fingers plus an undercur- 
 rent of sustained effort. Now, you see, if in 
 the moment of sliding you prepare the bow for 
 the neoct string, the slide itself is lost in the 
 crossing of the how. To carry out consistently 
 this idea of effort and relaxation in the down- 
 ward progression of the scale, you will find 
 that when you are in the third position, the po- 
 sition of the hand is practically the same as in 
 the first position. Hence, in order to go down 
 from third to first position with the hand in 
 what might be called a 'block' position, an-[ 
 other movement is called for to bridge over this 
 space (between third and first position), and 
 this movement is the function of the thumb. 
 The thumb, preceding the hand, relaxes the 
 wrist and helps draw the hand back to first 
 position. But great care must be taken that 
 the thumb is not moved until the first finger 
 will have been played ; otherwise there will be^ 
 a tendency to flatten. In the illustration the 
 indication for the thumb is placed after the 
 note played by the first finger. 
 
 "The inviolable law of beautiful playing is 
 that there must be no angles. As I have shown 
 you, right and left hand coordinate. The fiddle 
 hand is preparing the change of position, while 
 the change of strings is prepared by the right
 
 72 Violin Mastery 
 
 hand. And always the slides in the left hand 
 are prepared by the last played finger — the 
 last played finger is the true guide to smooth 
 progression — just as the bow hand prepares 
 the slides in the last played bowing. There 
 should be no such thing as jumping and trust- 
 ing in Providence to land right, and a curse 
 ought to be laid on those who let their fingers 
 leave the fingerboai'd. None who develop this 
 fundamental aspect of all good playing lose 
 the perfect control of position. 
 
 "Of course there are a hundi-ed nuances of 
 technic (into which the quality of good taste 
 enters largely) that one could talk of at 
 length: phrasing, and the subtle things hap- 
 pening in the bow arm that influence it; spic- 
 cato, whose whole secret is finding the right 
 point of balance in the bow and, with light 
 finger control, never allowing it to leave the 
 string. I've never been able to see the virtue 
 of octaves or the logic of double-stops. Like 
 tenths, one plays or does not play them. But 
 do they add one iota of beauty to violin music? 
 I doubt it! And, after all, it is the poetry of 
 playing that counts. All violin playing in its 
 essence is the quest for color; its perfection, 
 that subtle art which hides art, and which is 
 so rarely understood."
 
 Arthur Hartmann 73 
 
 "Could you give me a few guiding rules, a 
 few Beatitudes, as it were, for the serious 
 student to follow?" I asked Mr. Hartmann. 
 Though the artist smiled at the idea of Beati- 
 tudes for the violinist, yet he was finally 
 amiable enough to give me the following, tell- 
 ing me I would have to take them for what 
 they were worth : 
 
 NINE BEATITUDES FOR VIOLINISTS 
 
 "Blessed are they who early in life approach 
 Bach, for their love and veneration for music 
 will multiply with the years. 
 
 "Blessed are they who remember their own 
 early struggles, for their merciful criticism will 
 help others to a greater achievement and fur- 
 therance of the Divine Art. 
 
 "Blessed are they who know their own limi- 
 tations, for they shall have joy in the accom- 
 plishment of others. 
 
 "Blessed are they who revere the teachers — 
 their own or those of others — and who remem- 
 ber them with credit. 
 
 "Blessed are they who, revering the old mas- 
 ters, seek out the newer ones and do not be- 
 grudge them a hearing or two. 
 
 "Blessed are they who work in obscurity,
 
 74 Violin Mastery 
 
 nor sound the trumpet, for Art has ever been 
 for the few, and shuns the vulgar blare of ig- 
 norance. 
 
 "Blessed are they whom men revile as fu- 
 turists and modernists, for Art can evolve only 
 through the medium of iconoclastic spirits. 
 
 "Blessed are they who unflinchingly serve 
 their Ai't, for thus only is their happiness to 
 be gained. 
 
 "Blessed are they who have many enemies, 
 for square pegs will never fit into round holes." 
 
 AERANGING VERSUS TRANSCRIBING 
 
 Arthur Hartmann, like Kreisler, Elman, 
 Maud Powell and others of his colleagues, has 
 enriched the literature of the violin with some 
 notably fine transcriptions. And it is a sub- 
 ject on which he has well-defined opinions and 
 regarding which he makes certain distinctions : 
 "An 'arrangement,' " he said, "as a rule, is a 
 purely commercial affair, into which neither art 
 nor aesthetics enter. It usually consists in 
 writing off the melody of a song — in other 
 words, playing the 'tune' on an instrument in- 
 stead of hearing it sung with words — or in the 
 case of a piano composition, in writing off the 
 upper voice, leaving the rest intact, regardless
 
 Arthur Hartmann 75 
 
 of sonority, tone-color or even effectiveness, 
 and, furthermore, without consideration of the 
 idiomatic principles of the instrument to which 
 the adaptation was meant to fit. 
 
 "A 'transcription,' on the other hand, can be 
 raised to the dignity of an art-work. Indeed, 
 at times it may even surpass the original, in 
 the quality of thought brought into the work, 
 the delicate and sympathetic treatment and 
 by the many subleties which an artist can in- 
 troduce to make it thoroughly a re-creation of 
 his chosen instrument. 
 
 "It is the transcriber's privilege — provid- 
 ing he be sufficiently the artist to approach the 
 personality of another artist with reverence — 
 to donate his own gifts of ingenuity, and to 
 exercise his judgment in either adding, omit- 
 ting, harmonically or otherwise embellishing 
 the work {ivhile preserving the original idea 
 and characteristics), so as to thoroughly re- 
 create it, so completely destroying the very 
 sensing of the original timbre that one involun- 
 tarily exclaims, 'Truly, this never was anything 
 but a violin piece !' It is this, the blending and 
 fusion of two personalities in the achievement 
 of an art-ideal, that is the result of a true 
 adaptation. 
 
 "Among the transcriptions I have most en-
 
 76 Violin Mastery 
 
 joyed making were those of Debussy's II 
 pleure dans mon coeur, and JLa Fille auw 
 cheveaux de lin, Debussy was my cherished 
 friend, and they represent a labor of love. 
 Though Debussy was not, generally speaking^ 
 an advocate of transcriptions, he liked these, 
 and I remember when I first played La Fille 
 atuv cheveauoc de lin for him, and came to a bit 
 of counterpoint I had introduced in the violin 
 melody, whistling the harmonics, he nodded ap- 
 provingly with a 'jpas bete fa!' (Not stupid, 
 that!) 
 
 Debussy's poeme for violin 
 
 "Debussy came near writing a violin piece 
 for me once!" continued Mr. Hartmann, and 
 brought out a folio containing letters the great 
 impressionist had written him. They were a 
 dehghtful revelation of the human side of 
 Debussy's character, and Mr. Hartmann 
 kindly consented to the quotation of one bear- 
 ing on the Poeme for violin which Debussy had 
 promised to write for him, and which, alas, ow- 
 ing to his illness and other reasons, never 
 actually came to be written : 
 
 "Dear Friend: 
 
 "Of course I am working a great deal now, because 
 I feel the need of writing music, and would find it diffi-
 
 Arthur Hartmann 77 
 
 cult to build an aeroplane; yet at times Music is ill- 
 natured, even toward those who love her most! Then I 
 take my little daughter and my hat and go walking in 
 the Bois de Boulogne, where one meets people who have 
 come from afar to bore themselves in Paris. 
 
 "I think of you, I might even say I am in need of 5'ou 
 (assume an air of exaltation and bow, if you please !) 
 As to the Poeme for violin, you may rest assured that I 
 will write it. Only at the present moment I am so pre- 
 occupied with the 'Fall of the House of Usher !' They 
 talk too much to me about it. I'll have to put an end to 
 all that or I will go mad. Once more I want to write it, 
 and above all on your account. And I believe you will be 
 the only one to play the Poeme. Others will attempt it, 
 and then quickly return to the Mendelssohn Concerto ! 
 
 "Believe me always your sincere friend, 
 
 "Claude Debussy." 
 
 "He never did write it," said Mr. Hart- 
 mann, "but it was not for want of good will. 
 As to other transcriptions, I have never done 
 any that I did not feel instinctively would make 
 good fiddle pieces, such as IMacDowell's To 
 a Wild Rose and others of his compositions. 
 And recently I have transcribed some fine 
 Russian things — Gretchaninoff's Chant dfAu- 
 tomne, Karagitscheff's Exaltation, Tschai- 
 kovsky*s Humoresque, Balakirew's Chant du 
 Pecheur, and Poldini's little Poupee valsante, 
 which Maud Powell plays so delightfully on 
 all her programs."
 
 VII 
 JASCHA HEIFETZ 
 
 THE DANGER OF PRACTICING TOO MUCH. 
 
 TECHNICAL MASTERY AND 
 
 TEMPERAMENT 
 
 Mature in virtuosity — the modern virtuos- 
 ity which goes so far beyond the mere technical 
 mastery that once made the term a reproach — 
 though young in years, Jascha Heifetz, when 
 one makes his acquaintance "off-stage," seems 
 singularly modest about the great gifts which 
 have brought him international fame. He is 
 amiable, unassuming and — the best proof, per- 
 haps, that his talent is a thing genuine and in- 
 born, not the result of a forcing process — he 
 has that broad interest in art and in life going 
 far beyond his own particular medium, the 
 violin, without which no artist may become 
 truly great. For Jascha Heifetz, with his 
 wonderful record of accomplishment achieved, 
 and with triumphs still to come before him, 
 does not believe in "all work and no play." 
 
 78
 
 Jascha Hkiketz
 
 Jascha Heifetz 79 
 
 THE DANGER OF PRACTICING TOO MUCH 
 
 He laughed when I put forward the theory 
 that he worked many hours a day, perhaps as 
 many as six or eight? "No," he said, "I do not 
 think I could ever have made any progress if 
 I had practiced six hours a day. In the first 
 place I have never believed in practicing too 
 much — it is just as bad as practicing too little! 
 And then there are so many other things I 
 like to do. I am fond of reading and I like 
 sport: tennis, golf, bicycle riding, boating, 
 swimming, etc. Often when I am supposed to 
 be practicing hard I am out with my camera, 
 taking pictures; for I have become what is 
 known as a 'camera fiend.' And just now I 
 have a new car, which I have learned to drive, 
 and which takes up a good deal of my time. 
 I have never believed in grinding. In fact I 
 think that if one has to work very hard to get 
 his piece, it will show in the execution. To in- 
 terpret music properly, it is necessary to 
 eliminate mechanical difficulty; the audience 
 should not feel the struggle of the artist witl^ 
 what are considered hard passages. I hardly 
 ever practice more than three hours a day on 
 an average, and besides, I keep my Sunday
 
 80 Violin Mastery 
 
 when I do not play at all, and sometimes I 
 make an extra holiday. As to six or seven 
 hours a day, I would not have been able to 
 stand it at all." 
 
 I implied that what ^Ir. Heifetz said might 
 shock thousands of aspiring young violinists 
 for whom he pointed a moral: "Of course," his 
 answer was, "you must not take me too lit- 
 erally. Please do not think because I do not 
 favor overdoing practicing that one can do 
 without it. I'm quite frank to say I could not 
 myself. But there is a happy medium. I 
 suppose that when I play in public it looks 
 easy, but before I ever came on the concert 
 stage I worked very hard. And I do yet — but 
 always putting the two things together, mental 
 work and physical work. And when a certain 
 point of effort is reached in practice, as in 
 ever}i;hing else, there must be relaxation. 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VIETUOSE TECHNIC 
 
 "Have I what is called a 'natural' technic? 
 It is hard for me to say, perhaps so. But if 
 such is the case I had to develop it, to assure 
 it, to perfect it. If you start playing at three, 
 as I did, with a little ^-iolin one-quarter of the 
 regular size, I suppose violin playing becomes
 
 Jascha Heifetz 81 
 
 second nature in the course of time. I was able 
 to find my way about in all seven positions 
 within a year's time, and could pLay the Kay- 
 ser etudes; but that does not mean to say I 
 was a virtuoso by any means, 
 
 ''^W first teacher ? 3Iy first teacher was my 
 father, a good violinist and concertmaster of 
 the Vilna Sj-mphony Orchestra. 3Iy first ap- 
 pearance in public took place in an over- 
 crowded auditorium of the Imperial ^lusic 
 School in Vilna. Russia, when I was not quite 
 five. I played the Fantaisie Pastorale with 
 piano accompaniment. Later, at the age of six, 
 I played the Mendelssohn concerto in Ko^tio 
 to a full house. Stage-fright? Xo, I cannot 
 say I have ever had it. Of course, something 
 may happen to upset one before a concert, 
 and one does not feel quite at ease when first 
 stepping on the stage; but then I hope that 
 is not stage-fright I 
 
 "At the Imperial Music School in Vilna, and 
 before, I worked at all the things every violinist 
 studies — I think that I played almost every- 
 thing. I did not work too hard, but I worked 
 hard enough. In Vilna my teacher was Mal- 
 kin, a pupil of Professor Auer, and when I 
 had graduated from the Vilna school I went to 
 Auer. Did I go directlv to his classes? Well,
 
 82 Violin Mastery 
 
 no, but I had only a very short time to wait 
 before I joined the classes conducted by Auer 
 personally. 
 
 PROFESSOR AUER AS A TEACHER 
 
 "Yes, he is a wonderful and an incompar- 
 able teacher ; I do not believe there is one in the 
 world who can possibly approach him. Do not 
 ask me just how he does it, for I would not 
 know how to tell you. But he is different with 
 each pupil — perhaps that is one reason he is 
 so great a teacher. I think I was with Pro- 
 fessor Auer about six years, and I had both 
 class lessons and private lessons of him, though 
 tovv^ard the end my lessons were not so regular. 
 I never played exercises or technical works of 
 any kind for the Professor, but outside of 
 the big things — the concertos and sonatas, and 
 the shorter pieces which he would let me pre- 
 pare — I often chose what I wanted. 
 
 "Professor Auer was a very active and 
 energetic teacher. He was never satisfied with 
 a mere explanation, unless certain it was un- 
 derstood. He could always show 5^ou himself 
 with his bow and violin. The Professor's pu- 
 pils were supposed to have been sufficiently 
 advanced in the technic necessary for them to
 
 Jascha Heifetz 83 
 
 profit by his wonderful lessons in interpreta- 
 tion. Yet there were all sorts of technical 
 finesses which he had up his sleeve, any num- 
 ber of fine, subtle points in playing as well as 
 interpretation which he would disclose to his 
 pupils. And tlie more interest and ability the 
 pupil showed, the more the Professor gave him 
 of himself! He is a very great teacher ! Bow- 
 ing, the true art of bowing, is one of the great- 
 est things in Professor Auer's teaching. I 
 know when I first came to the Professor, he 
 showed me things in bowing I had never 
 learned in Vilna. It is hard to describe in 
 words (Mr. Heifetz illustrated with some of 
 those natural, unstrained movements of arm 
 and wrist which his concert appearances have 
 made so familiar), but bowing as Professor 
 Auer teaches it is a very special thing; the 
 movements of the bow become more easy, 
 graceful, less stiff. 
 
 "In class there were usually from twenty- 
 five to thirty pupils. Aside from what we each 
 gained individually from the Professor's criti- 
 cism and correction, it was interesting to hear 
 the others who played before one's turn came, 
 because one could get all kinds of hints from 
 what Professor Auer told them. I know I al- 
 ways enjoyed listening to Poliakin, a very
 
 84 Violin Mastery 
 
 talented violinist, and Cecile Hansen, who at- 
 tended the classes at the same time I did. The 
 Professor was a stern and very exacting, but 
 a sympathetic, teacher. If our playing was 
 not just what it should be he alwa5^s had a fund 
 of kindly humor upon which to draw. He 
 would anticipate our stock excuses and say: 
 'Well, I suppose you have just had your bow 
 rehaired!' or 'These new strings are very try- 
 ing,' or 'It's the weather that is against you 
 again, is it not ?' or something of the kind. Ex- 
 aminations were not so easy: we had to show 
 that we were not only soloists, but also sight 
 readers of difficult music. 
 
 A DIFFICULTY OVERCOME 
 
 "The greatest technical difficulty I had when 
 I was studying?" Jascha Heifetz tried to 
 recollect, which was natural, seeing that it must 
 have been one long since overcome. Then he 
 remembered, and smiled: "Staccato playing. 
 To get a good staccato, when I first tried 
 seemed very hard to me. When I was younger, 
 really, at one time I had a very poor staccato!" 
 [I assured the young artist that any one who 
 heard him play here would find it hard to be- 
 lieve this.] "Yes, I did," he insisted, "but one
 
 Jascha Heifetz 85 
 
 morning, I do not know just how it was — I 
 was playing the cadenza in the first movement 
 of Wieniawski's F# minor concerto, — it is full 
 of staccatos and double stops — the right way 
 of playing staccato came to me quice suddenly, 
 especially after Professor Auer had shown me 
 his method. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Violin Mastery? To me it means the abil- 
 ity to make the violin a perfectly controlled 
 instrument guided by the skill and intelligence 
 of the artist, to compel it to respond in move- 
 ment to his every wish. The artist must al- 
 ways be superior to his instrument, it must be 
 his servant, one that he can do with what he 
 will. 
 
 TECHNICAL MASTERY AND TEMPERAMENT 
 
 "It appears to me that mastery of the tech- 
 nic of the violin is not so much of a mechanical 
 accomplishment as it is of mental nature. It 
 may be that scientists can tell us how through 
 persistency the brain succeeds in making the 
 fingers and the arms produce results through 
 the infinite variety of inexplicable vibrations. 
 The sweetness of tone, its melodiousness, its
 
 86 Violin Mastery 
 
 legatos, octaves, trills and harmonics all bear 
 the mark of the individual who uses his strings 
 like his vocal chords. When an artist is work- 
 ing over his harmonics, he must not be im- 
 patient and force purity, pitch, or the right 
 intonation. He must coax the tone, try it again 
 and again, seek for improvements in his finger- 
 ing as well as in his bowing at the same 
 time, and sometimes he may be surprised 
 how, quite suddenly, at the time when 
 he least expects it, the result has come. 
 More than one road leads to Rome! The 
 fact is that when you get it, you have it, 
 that's all! I am perfectly willing to disclose 
 to the musical profession all the secrets of the 
 mastery of violin technic; but are there anj'- 
 secrets in the sense that some of the uninitiated 
 take them? If an artist happens to excel in 
 some particular, he is at once suspected of 
 knowing some secret means of so doing. How- 
 ever, that maj^ not be the case. He does it 
 just because it is in him, and as a rule he ac- 
 complishes this through his mental faculties 
 more than through his mechanical abilities. I 
 do not intend to minimize the value of great 
 teachers who prove to be important factors in 
 the life of a musician; but think of the vast 
 army of pupils that a master teacher brings
 
 JascJia Heifetz 87 
 
 forth, and listen to the infinite variety of their 
 spiccatos, octaves, legatos, and trills! For the 
 successful masteiy of violin technic let each 
 artist study carefully his own individuality, let 
 him concentrate his mental energy on the 
 quality of pitch he intends to produce, and 
 sooner or later he will find his way of express- 
 ing himself. Music is not only in the fingers 
 or in the elbow. It is in that mysterious EGO 
 of the man, it is his soul ; and his body is like 
 his violin, nothing but a tool. Of course, the 
 great master must have the tools that suit him 
 best, and it is the happy combination that 
 makes for success. 
 
 *'By the vibrations and modulations of the 
 notes one may recognize the violinist as easily 
 as we recognize the singer by his voice. Who 
 can explain how the artist harmonizes the 
 trilling of his fingers with the emotions of his 
 soul? 
 
 "An artist will never become great through 
 mere imitation, and never will he be able to at- 
 tain the best results only by methods adopted 
 by others. He must have his own initiative, 
 although he will surely profit by the experience 
 of others. Of course there are standard ways 
 of approaching the study of violin technic; but 
 these are too well known to dwell upon them;
 
 88 Violin Mastery 
 
 as to the niceties of the art, they must come 
 from within. You can make a musician but 
 not an artist ! 
 
 REPERTORY AND PROGRAMS 
 
 "Which of the master works do I like best? 
 Well, that is rather hard to answer. Each 
 master work has its own beauties. Naturally 
 one likes best what one understands best. I 
 prefer to play the classics like Brahms, Bee- 
 thoven, Mozart, Bach, Mendelssohn, etc. How- 
 ever, I played Bruch's G minor in 1913 at the 
 Leipzig Gewandhouse with Nikisch, where 
 I was told that Joachim was the only other 
 violinist as young as myself to appear there 
 as soloist with orchestra; there is the Tschai- 
 kovsky concerto which I played in Berlin in 
 1912, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 
 with Nikisch. Alsa Bruch's D minor and 
 many more. I played the Mendelssohn con- 
 certo in 1914, in Vienna, with Safonoff as con- 
 ductor. Last season in Chicago I played the 
 Brahms concerto with a fine and very elabo- 
 rate cadenza by Professor Auer. I think the 
 Brahms concerto for violin is like Chopin's 
 music for piano, in a way, because it stands 
 technically and musically for something quite
 
 Jascha Heifetz 89 
 
 different and distinct from other violin music, 
 just as Chopin does from other piano music. 
 The Brahms concerto is not technically as 
 hard as, say, Paganini — but in interpretation! 
 . . . And in the Beethoven concerto, too, 
 there is a simplicity, a kind of clear beauty 
 which makes it far harder to play than many 
 other things technically more advanced. The 
 slightest flaw, the least difference in pitch, in 
 intonation, and its beauty suffers. 
 
 "Yes, there are other Russian concertos be- 
 sides the Tschaikovsky. There is the Glazounov 
 concerto and others. I understand that Zim- 
 balist was the first to introduce it in this coun- 
 try, and I expect to play it here next season. 
 
 "Of course one cannot always play concertos, 
 and one cannot always play Bach and Bee- 
 thoven. And that makes it hard to select pro- 
 grams. The artist can aWays enjoy the great 
 music of his instrument ; but an audience wants 
 variety. At the same time an artist cannot 
 play only just what the majority of the audi- 
 ence wants. I have been asked to play Schu- 
 bert's Ave Maria, or Beethoven's Chorus of 
 Dervishes at every one of my concerts, but I 
 simply cannot play them all the time. I am 
 afraid if program making were left altogether 
 to audiences the programs would become far
 
 90 Violin Mastery 
 
 too popular in character ; though audiences are 
 just as different as individuals. I try hard to 
 balance my programs, so that every one can 
 find something to understand and enjoy. I 
 expect to prepare some American composi- 
 tions for next season. Oh, no, not as a matter 
 of courtesy, but because they are really fine, 
 especially some smaller pieces by Spalding, 
 Cecil Burleigh and Grasse!" 
 
 On concluding our interview Mr. Heifetz 
 made a remark which is worth repeating, and 
 which many a music lover who is plus royalistc 
 que le roi might do well to remember: "After 
 all," he said, "much as I love music, I cannot 
 help feeling that music is not the only thing 
 in life. I really cannot imagine anything more 
 terrible than always to hear, think and make 
 music! There is so much else to know and ap- 
 preciate; and I feel that the more I learn and 
 know of other things the better artist I will 
 be!"
 
 VIII 
 
 DAVID HOCHSTEIN 
 
 THE VIOLIN AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSION 
 AND EXPRESSIVE PLAYING 
 
 The writer talked with Lieutenant David 
 Hochstein, whose death in the battle of the Ar- 
 gonne Forest was only reported toward the 
 end of January, while the distinguished young 
 violinist, then only a sergeant, was on the eve 
 of departure to France with his regiment and, 
 as he modestly said, his "thoughts on music 
 were rather scattered." Yet he spoke with keen 
 insight and authority on various phases of his 
 art, and much of what he said gains point from 
 his own splendid work as a concert violinist; 
 for Lieutenant Hochstein (whose standing has 
 been established in numerous European as 
 well as American recitals) could play what he 
 preached. 
 
 SEVCIK AND AUER: A CONTRAST IN TEACHING 
 
 Knowing that in the regimental band he was, 
 quite appropriately, a clarinetist, "the clarinet 
 
 01
 
 92 Violin Mastery 
 
 in the military band being the equivalent of the 
 violin in the orchestra" — and a scholarship pu- 
 pil of the Vienna Meisterscliule, it seemed 
 natural to ask him concerning his teachers. 
 And the interesting fact developed that he had 
 studied vi^ith the celebrated Bohemian pedagog 
 Sevcik and with Leopold Auer as well, two 
 teachers whose ideas and methods differ ma- 
 terially. "I studied with Sevcik for two years," 
 said the young violinist. "It was in 1909, 
 when a class of ten pupils was formed 
 for him in the Meisterscliule, at Vienna, that 
 I went to him. Sevcik was in many ways a 
 wonderful teacher, yet inclined to overempha- 
 size the mechanical side of the art. He literally 
 taught his pupils how to practice, how to de- 
 velop technical control by the most slow and 
 painstaking study. In addition to his own fine 
 method and exercises, he also used Gavinies, 
 Dont, Rode, Kreutzer, applying in their 
 studies ideas of his own. 
 
 "Auer as a teacher I found altogether dif- 
 ferent. Where Sevcik taught his pupils the 
 technic of their art by means of a system 
 elaborately worked out, Auer demonstrated 
 his ideas through sheer personality, mainly 
 from the interpretative point of view. Any 
 ambitious student could learn much of value
 
 David Hochstein 93 
 
 from either; yet in a general way one might 
 express the difference between them by saying 
 that Sevcik could take a pupil of medium talent 
 and — at least from the mechanical standpoint 
 — make an excellent violinist of him. But Auer 
 is an ideal teacher for the greatly gifted. And 
 he is especially skilled in taking some student 
 of the violin while his mind is still plastic and 
 susceptible and molding it — supplying it 
 with lofty concepts of interpretation and ex- 
 pression. Of course Auer ( I studied with him 
 in Petrograd and Dresden) has been espe- 
 cially fortunate as regards his pupils, too, be- 
 cause active in a land like Russia, where 
 musical genius has almost become a common-^ 
 place. 
 
 "Sevcik, though an admirable teacher, per- 
 sonally is of a reserved and reflective type, 
 quite different from Auer, who is open and 
 expansive. I might recall a little instance 
 which shows Sevcik's cautious nature, the care 
 he takes not to commit himself too unre- 
 servedly. When I took leave of him — it was 
 after I had graduated and won my prize — I 
 naturally (like all his pupils) asked him for 
 his photo. Several other pupils of his were in 
 the room at the time. He took up his pen (I
 
 04 Violin Mastery 
 
 was looking over his shoulder), commenced to 
 write Meinem best. . . . And then he stopped, 
 glanced at the other pupils in the room, and 
 wrote over the best ... he had already writ- 
 ten, the word liebsten. But though I would, of 
 course, have preferred the first inscription, 
 had Sevcik completed it, I can still consolej 
 myself that the other, even though I value it, 
 was an afterthought. But it was a char- 
 acteristic thing for him to do! 
 
 THE VIOLIN AS A MEANS OF EXPRESSION 
 
 "What is my idea of the violin as a medium 
 of expression? It seems to me that it is that 
 of any other valid artistic medium. It is not 
 so much a question of the violin as of the vio- 
 linist. A great interpreter reveals his inner- 
 most soul through his instrument, whatever it 
 may be. INIost people think the violin is more 
 expressive than any other instrument, but this 
 is open to question. It may be that most peo- 
 ple respond more readily to the appeal made 
 by the violin. But genuine expression, expres- 
 sive playing, depends on the message the 
 player has to deliver far more than on the in- 
 strument he uses as a means. I have been as 
 much moved by some piano playing I have
 
 David Hochstein 95 
 
 heard as by the violin playing of some of the 
 greatest violinists. 
 
 "And variety, nuance in expressive playing, 
 is largely a matter of the player's mental at- 
 titude. Bach's Chaconne or Sicilienne calls for 
 a certain humility on the part of the artist .j 
 When I play Bach I do it reverentially; a 
 definite spiritual quality in my tone and ex- 
 pression is the result. And to select a com- 
 poser who in many ways is Bach's exact op- 
 posite, Wieniawski, a certain audacious bril- 
 liancy cannot help but make itself felt tonally, 
 if this music is to be played in character. The 
 mental and spiritual attitude directly influ- 
 ences its own mechanical transmission. No one 
 artist should criticize another for differences 
 in interpretation, in expression, so long as they 
 are justified by larger concepts of art. In- 
 dividuality is one of the artist's most precious 
 possessions, and there are always a number of 
 different angles from which the interpreta- 
 tion of an art work may be approached. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Violin mastery? There have been only 
 three violinists within my own recollection, 
 whom I would call masters of the violin. These
 
 96 Violin Mastery 
 
 are Kubelik (when at his best), Franz von 
 Vecsey, Hubay's pupil, whom I heard abroad, 
 and Heifetz, with his cameo-hke perfection 
 of technic. These I would call masters of the 
 violin, as an instrument, since they have mas- 
 tered every intricacy of the instrument. But 
 I could name several others who are greater 
 musicians, and whose playing and interpreta- 
 tion, to say nothing of tone, I prefer. 
 
 TONE production: rhythm 
 
 "In one sense true violin mastery is a ques- 
 tion of tone production and rhythm. And I 
 believe that tone production depends princi- 
 pally upon the imaginative ear of the player. 
 This statement may seem somewhat ambigu- 
 ous, and one might ask, 'What is an imagina- 
 tive ear?' My ear, for instance, demands of 
 my violin a certain quality of tone, which varies 
 according to the music I am playing. But be- 
 fore I think of playing the music, I already 
 know from reading it what I want it to sound 
 like: that is to say, the quality of the tone I 
 wish to secure in each principal phrase. 
 Rhythm is perhaps the greatest factor in in- 
 terpretation. Every good musician has a 'good 
 sense of rhythm' (that much abused phrase).
 
 David Hochsio.. 97 
 
 But it is only the great musician wlio makes 
 so striking and individual an application of 
 rhythm that his playing may be easily dis- 
 tinguished by his use of it. 
 
 "There is not much to tell you as regards my 
 method of work. I usually work directly upon 
 a program which has been previously mapped 
 out. If I have been away from my violin for 
 more than a week or two I begin by practicing 
 scales, but ordinarily I find my technical work 
 in the programs I am preparing." 
 
 Asked about his band experiences at Camp 
 Upton, Sergeant Hochstein was enthusiastic. 
 "No violinist could help but gain much from 
 work with a military band at one of the 
 camps," he said. "For instance, I had a more 
 or less theoretical knowledge of wind instru- 
 ments before I went to Camp Upton. Now 
 I have a practical working knowledge of them. 
 I have already scored a little violin composi- 
 tion of mine, a 'Minuet in Olden Style' for 
 full band, and have found it possible by the 
 right manipulation to preserve its original 
 dainty and graceful character, in spite of the 
 fact that it is played by more than forty mili- 
 tary bandsmen. 
 
 "Then, too," he said in conclusion, "I have 
 organized a real orchestra of twenty-one play-
 
 98 Violin M aster ij 
 
 ers, strings, brass, wood-wind, etc., which I 
 hope is going to be of real use on the other 
 side during our training period in France. 
 You see, 'over there' the soldier boys' chances 
 for leave are limited and we will have to de- 
 pend a good deal on our own selves for amuse- 
 ment and recreation. I hope and believe my 
 orchestra is not only going to take its place as 
 one of the most enjoyable features of our army 
 life ; but also that it will make propaganda of 
 the right sort for the best music in a broad, 
 catholic sense of the word!" 
 
 It is interesting to know that this patriotic 
 young officer found opportunities in camp and 
 in the towns of France of carrying out his wish 
 to "make propaganda of the right sort for the 
 best music" before he gave his life to further 
 the greater purpose which had called him over- 
 seas.
 
 IX 
 FRITZ KREISLER 
 
 PERSONALITY IN ART 
 
 The influence of the artist's personality in 
 his art finds a most striking exemplification in 
 the case of Fritz Kreisler. Some time before 
 the writer called on the famous violinist 
 to get at first hand some of his opinions 
 with regard to his art, he had already 
 met him under particularly interesting cir- 
 cumstances. The question had come up of 
 writing text-poems for two song-adaptations 
 of Viennese folk-themes, airs not unattractive 
 in themselves; but which Kreisler's personal 
 touch, his individual gift of harmonization had 
 lifted from a lower plane to the level of the 
 art song. Together with the mss. of his own 
 beautiful transcript, Mr. Kreisler in the one 
 instance had given me the printed original 
 which suggested it — frankly a "popular" song, 
 clumsily harmonized in a "four-square" man- 
 ner (though written in 3/4 time) with nothing 
 
 99
 
 100 Violin Mastery 
 
 to indicate its latent possibilities. I compared it 
 with his mss. and, lo, it had been transformed I 
 Gone was the clmnsiness, the vulgar and ob- 
 vious harmonic treatment of the melody — 
 Kreisler had kept the melodic dutline, but 
 etherealized, spiritualized it, given it new 
 rhythmic contours, a deeper and more expres- 
 sive meaning. And his rich and subtle har- 
 monization had lent it a quality of distinction 
 that justified a comparison between the grub 
 and the butterfly. In a small way it was an 
 illuminating glimpse of how the personality of 
 a true artist can metamorphose what at first 
 glance might seem something quite negligible, 
 and create beauty where its possibilities alone 
 had existed before. 
 
 It is this personal, this individual, note in 
 all that Fritz Kreisler does — when he plays, 
 when he composes, when he transcribes — that 
 gives his art-effort so great and unique a 
 quality of appeal. 
 
 Talking to him in his comfortable sitting- 
 room in the Hotel Wellington — Homer and^ 
 Juvenal ( in the original ) ranked on the piano- 
 top beside De Vere Stackpole novels and other 
 contemporary literature called to mind that 
 though Brahms and Beethoven violin concertos 
 are among his favorites, he does not disdain to
 
 Fritz Kreisler
 
 Fritz Kreisler 101 
 
 play a Granados Spanish Dance — it seemed 
 natural to ask him how he came to make those 
 adaptations and transcripts which have been so 
 notable a feature of his programs, and which 
 have given such pleasure to thousands. 
 
 HOW KREISLER CAME TO COMPOSE AND ARRANGE 
 
 He said: "I began to compose and arrange 
 as a young man. I wanted to create a reper- 
 tory for myself, to be able to express through 
 my medium, the violin, a great deal of beautiful 
 music that had first to be adapted for the in- 
 strument. What I composed and arranged 
 was for my own use, reflected my own musical 
 tastes and preferences. In fact, it was not 
 till years after that I even thought of publish- 
 ing the pieces I had composed and arranged. 
 For I was very diffident as to the outcome of 
 such a step. I have never written anything 
 with the commercial idea of making it 'play- 
 able.' And I have always felt that anything 
 done in a cold-blooded way for purely mer- 
 cenary considerations somehow cannot be good. 
 It cannot represent an artist's best.'*
 
 102 Violin Mastery 
 
 AT THE VIENNA CONSERVATORY 
 
 In reply to another query Mr. Kreisler re- 
 verted to the days when as a boy he studied at 
 the Vienna Conservatory. "I was only seven 
 when I attended the Conservatory and was 
 much more interested in playing in the park, 
 where my boy friends would be waiting for 
 me, than in taking lessons on the violin. And 
 yet some of the most lasting musical impres- 
 sions of my life were gathered there. Not so 
 much as regards study itself, as with respect to 
 the good music I heard. Some very great 
 men played at the Conservatory when I was 
 a pupil. There were Joachim, Sarasate in 
 his prime, Hellmesberger, and Rubinstein, 
 whom I heard play the first time he came to 
 Vienna. I really believe that hearing Joachim 
 and Rubinstein play was a greater event in my 
 life and did more for me than five years of 
 study!" 
 
 "Of course you do not regard technic as 
 the main essential of the concert violinist's 
 equipment?" I asked him. "Decidedly not. 
 Sincerity and personality are the first main es- 
 sentials. Technical equipment is something 
 which should be taken for granted. The vir-
 
 Fritz Kreisler 103 
 
 tuoso of the type of Ole Bull, let us say, has 
 disappeared. The 'stunt' ^jlayer of a former 
 day with a repertory of three or four bravura 
 pieces was not far above the average music- 
 hall 'artist.' The modern virtuoso, the true 
 concert artist, is not worthy of the title unless 
 his art is the outcome of a completely uni- 
 fied nature. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "I do not believe that any artist is truly a 
 master of his instrument unless his control of 
 it is an integral part of a whole. The musician 
 is born — his medium of expression is often a 
 matter of accident. I believe one may be in- 
 tended for an artist prenatally; but whether 
 violinist, 'cellist or pianist is partly a matter 
 of circumstance. Violin mastery, to my mind, 
 still falls short of perfection, in spite of the 
 completest technical and musical equipment, 
 if the artist thinks only of the instrument he 
 plays. After all, it is just a single medium of 
 expression. The true musician is an artist with 
 a special instrument. And every real artist 
 has the feeling for other forms and mediums 
 of expression if he is truly a master of his own.
 
 104 Violin Mastery 
 
 TECHNIC VERSUS IMAGINATION 
 
 "I think the technical element in the artist's 
 education is often unduly stressed. Remem- 
 ber," added Mr. Kreisler, with a smile, "I am 
 not a teacher, and this is a purely personalj 
 opinion I am giving you. But it seems to me 
 that absolute sincerity of effort, actual impos- 
 sibility 7wt to react to a genuine musical im- 
 pulse are of great importance. I firmly be- 
 lieve that if one is destined to become an artist 
 the technical means find themselves. The ne- 
 cessity of expression will follow the line of 
 least resistance. Too great a manual equip- 
 ment often leads to an exaggeration of the 
 technical and tempts the artist to stress it un- 
 duly. 
 
 "I have worked a great deal in my life, but 
 have always found that too large an amount of 
 purely technico-musical work fatigued me and 
 reacted unfavorably on my imagination. As a 
 rule I only practice enough to keep my fingers 
 in trim; the nervous strain is such that doing 
 more is out of the question. And for a con- 
 cert-violinist when on tour, pla5ang every day, 
 the technical question is not absorbing. Far 
 more important is it for him to keep himself
 
 Fritz Kreisler 105 
 
 mentally and phj^sically fresh and in the right 
 mood for his work. For myself I have to en- 
 joy whatever I play or I cannot play it. And 
 it has often done me more good to dip my 
 finger-tips in hot water for a few seconds be- 
 fore stepping out on the platform than to 
 spend a couple of hours practicing. But I 
 should not wish the student to draw any de- 
 ductions from what I saj'^ on this head. It is 
 purely personal and has no general applica- 
 tion. 
 
 "Technical exercises I use very moderately. 
 I wish my imagination to be responsive, my in- 
 terest fresh, and as a rule I have found that 
 too much work along routine channels does not 
 accord with the best development of my Art. 
 I feel that technic should be in the plaj^er's 
 head, it should be a mental picture, a sort of 
 'master record.' It should be a matter of will 
 power to which the manual possibilities should 
 be subjected. Technic to me is a mental and 
 not a manual thing. 
 
 MENTAL technic: ITS DRAWBACK AND ITS AD- 
 VANTAGE 
 
 "The technic thus achieved, a technic whose 
 controlling power is chiefly mental, is not per-
 
 106 Violin Mastery 
 
 feet — I say so frankly — because it is more or 
 less dependent on the state of the artist's 
 nervous system. Yet it is the one and only 
 kind of technic that can adequately and com- 
 pletely express the musician's every instinct, 
 wish and emotion. Every other form of tech- 
 nic is stiff, unpliable, since it cannot entirely 
 subordinate itself to the individuahty of the 
 artist." 
 
 PRACTICE HOURS FOR THE ADVANCED STUDENT 
 
 Mr. Kreisler gives no lessons and hence re- 
 ferred this question in the most amiable man- 
 ner to his boyhood friend and fellow-student 
 Felix Winternitz, the well-known Boston vio- 
 lin teacher, one of the faculty of the New Eng- 
 land Conservatory of Music, who had come in 
 while we were talking. Mr. Winternitz did 
 not refuse an answer: "The serious student, 
 in my opinion, should not practice less than 
 four hours a day, nor need he practice more 
 than five. Other teachers may demand more. 
 Sevcik, I know, insists that his pupils practice 
 eight and ten hours a day. To do so one must 
 have the constitution of an ox, and the results 
 are often not equal to those produced by four 
 hours of concentrated work. As Mr. Kreis-
 
 Fritz Kreisler 107 
 
 ler intimated with regard to technic, practice 
 calls for brain power. Concentration in it- 
 self is not enough. There is only one way to 
 work and if the pupil can find it he can cover 
 the labor of weeks in an hour." 
 
 And turning to me, Mr. Winternitz added : 
 *'You must not take Mr. Kreisler too seriously 
 when he lays no stress on his own practicing. 
 During the concert season he has his violin in 
 hand for an hour or so nearly every day. He 
 does not call it practicing, and j'^ou and I would 
 consider it playing and great playing at that. 
 But it is a genuine illustration of what I meant 
 when I said that one who knew how could cover 
 the work of weeks in an hour's time." 
 
 AN EXPLANATION BY MR. WINTERNITZ 
 
 I tried to draw from the famous violinist 
 some hint as to the secret of the abiding popu- 
 larity of his own compositions and transcripts 
 but — as those who know him are aware — Kreis- 
 ler has all the modesty of the truly great. He 
 merely smiled and said: "Frankly, I don't 
 know." But Mr. Winternitz' comment 
 (when a 'phone call had taken Kreisler from 
 the room for a moment) was, "It is the touch 
 given by his accompaniments that adds so
 
 108 Violin Mastery 
 
 much: a harmonic treatment so rich in design 
 and coloring, and so varied that melodies were 
 never more beautifully set off." Mr. Kreisler, 
 as he came in again, remarked: "I don't mind 
 telling you that I enjoyed very much writing 
 my Tamhourin Chinois.* The idea for it 
 came to me after a visit to the Chinese thea- 
 ter in San Francisco — not that the music there 
 suggested any theme, but it gave me the im- 
 pulse to write a free fantasy in the Chinese 
 manner." 
 
 STYLE, INTERPRETATION AND THE ARTISTIC 
 IDEAL 
 
 The question of style now came up. *'I am 
 not in favor of 'labeling' the concert artist, of 
 calling him a 'lyric' or a 'dramatic' or some 
 other kind of a player. If he is an artist in 
 the real sense he controls all styles." Then, 
 in answer to another question: "Nothing 
 can express music but music itself. Tradition 
 in interpretation does not mean a cut-and- 
 
 * It is interesting to note that Nikolai SokoIofF, conductor 
 of the San Francisco Philharmonic, returning from a tour of 
 the American and French army camps in France, some time 
 ago, said: "My most popular number was Kreisler's Tambonnn 
 Chinois. Invariably I had to repeat that." A strong indorse- 
 ment of the internationalism of Art by the actual fighter in the 
 trenches.
 
 Fritz Kreisler 109 
 
 dried set of rules handed down ; it is, or should 
 be, a matter of individual sentiment, of inner 
 conviction. What makes one man an artist 
 and keeps another an amateur is a God-given 
 instinct for the artistically and musically right. 
 It is not a thing to be explained, but to be felt. 
 There is often only a narrow line of demarca- 
 tion between the artistically right and wrong. 
 Yet nearly every real artist will be found to 
 agree as to when and when not that boundary 
 has been overstepped. Sincerity and person- 
 ality as well as disinterestedness, an expression 
 of himself in his art that is absolutely honest, 
 these, I believe, are ideals which every artist 
 should cherish and try to realize. I believe, 
 furthermore, that these ideals will come more 
 and more into their own; that after the war 
 there will be a great uplift, and that Art will 
 realize to the full its value as a humanizing 
 factor in life." And as is well known, no great 
 artist of our day has done more toward the 
 actual realization of these ideals he cherishes 
 than Fritz Kreisler himself.
 
 X 
 FRANZ KNEISEL 
 
 THE PERFECT STRING ENSEMBLE 
 
 Is there a lover of chamber music unfamiliar 
 with Franz Kneisel's name? It may be 
 doubted. After earlier European triumphs 
 the gifted Roumanian violinist came to this 
 country (1885), and aside from his activities 
 in other directions — as a solo artist he was the 
 first to play the Brahms and Goldmark violin 
 concertos, and the Cesar Franck sonata in this 
 country — organized his famous quartet. And, 
 until his recent retirement as its director and 
 first violin, it has been perhaps the greatest 
 single influence toward stimulating apprecia- 
 tion for the best in chamber music that the 
 country has known. Before the Flonzaley 
 was, the Kneisels were. They made plain how 
 much of beauty the chamber music repertory 
 offered the amateur string player; not only in 
 the classic repertory — Haydn, Mozart, Bee- 
 thoven, Spohr; in Schubert, Schumann, 
 
 110
 
 
 Fbanz Knkisgl
 
 Franz Kneisel 111 
 
 Brahms; but in Smetana, Dvorak and Tschai- 
 kovsky; in Cesar Franck, Debussy and Ravel. 
 Not the least among Kneisel's achievements is, 
 that while the professional musicians in the 
 cities in which his organization played attended 
 its concerts as a matter of course, the average 
 music lover who played a string instrument 
 came to them as well, and carried away with 
 him a message delivered with all the authority 
 of superb musicianship and sincerity, one 
 which bade him "go and do likewise," in so 
 far as his limitations permitted. And the 
 many excellent professional chamber music or- 
 ganizations, trios, quartets and ensembles of 
 various kinds which have come to the fore since 
 they began to play offer eloquent testimony 
 with regard to the cultural work of Kneisel 
 and his fellow artists. 
 
 A cheery grate fire burned in the comfort- 
 able study in Franz Kneisel's home; the auto- 
 graphed — in what affectionate and apprecia- 
 tive terms — pictures of great fellow artists 
 looked down above the book-cases which hold 
 the scores of those masters of what has been 
 called "the noblest medium of music in exist- 
 ence," whose beauties the famous quartet has 
 so often disclosed on the concert stage. And 
 Mr. Kneisel was amiability personified when
 
 112 Violin Mastery 
 
 I asked him to give me his theorj'^ of the per- 
 fect string ensemble, and the part virtuosity 
 played in it. 
 
 "the artist ranks the virtuoso in cham- 
 ber music" 
 
 "The artist, the Tonkiinstler, to use a for- 
 eign phrase, ranks the virtuoso in chamber mu- 
 sic. Joachim vi^as no virtuoso, he did not stress 
 technic, the less important factor in ensemble 
 playing. Sarasate was a virtuoso in the best 
 sense of the word; and yet as an ensemble 
 music player he fell far short of Joachim. As 
 I see it Virtuoso' is a kind of flattering title, 
 no more. But a Tonkiinstler, a 'tone-artist,' 
 though he must have the virtuoso technic in or- 
 der to play Brahms and Beethoven concertos, 
 needs besides a spiritual insight, a deep concept 
 of their nobility to do them justice — the mere 
 technic demanded for a virtuoso show piece is 
 not enough. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY IN THE STRING QUARTET 
 
 "You ask me what 'Violin Mastery' means 
 in the string quartet. It has an altogether 
 different meaning to me, I imagine, than to the
 
 Franz Kneisel 113 
 
 violin virtuoso. Violin mastery in the string 
 ensemble is as much mastery of self as of tech- 
 nical means. The artist must sink his identity 
 completelj^ in that of the work he plays, and 
 though the last Beethoven quartets are as dif- 
 ficult as many violin concertos, they are poly- 
 phony, the combination and interweaving of 
 individual melodies, and they call for a mas- 
 tery of repression as well as expression. I 
 realized how keenly alive the musical listener 
 is to this fact once when our quartet had played 
 in Alma-Tadema's beautiful London home, for 
 the great English painter was also a music- 
 lover and a very discriminating one. He had 
 a fine piano in a beautifully decorated case, 
 and it was an open secret that at his musical 
 evenings, after an artist had played, the lid 
 of the piano was raised, and Sir Lawrence 
 asked him to pencil his autogi'aph on the soft 
 white wood of its inner surface — hut only if he 
 thought the compliment deserved. There were 
 some famous names written there — Joachim, 
 Sarasate, Paderewski, Neruda, Piatti, to men- 
 tion a few. Naturally an artist playing at 
 Alma-Tadema's home for the first time could 
 not help speculating as to his chances. Many 
 were called, but comparatively few were 
 chosen. We were guests at a dinner given by
 
 114 Violin Mastery 
 
 Sir Lawrence. There were some fifty people 
 prominent in London's artistic, musical and 
 social world present, and we had no idea of be- 
 ing asked to play. Our instruments were at 
 our hotel and we had to send for them. We 
 played the Schubert quartet in A minor and 
 Dvorak's 'American' quartet and, of course, 
 my colleagues and myself forgot all about the 
 piano lid the moment we began to play. Yet, 
 I'm free to confess, that when the piano lid 
 was raised for us we appreciated it, for it was 
 no empty compliment coming from Sir Law- 
 rence, and I have been told that some very 
 distinguished artists have not had it extended 
 to them. And I know that on that evening 
 the phrase 'Violin Mastery' in an ensemble 
 sense, as the outcome of ceaseless striving for 
 coordination in expression, absolute balance, 
 and all the details that go to make up the per- 
 fect ensemble J seemed to us to have a very defi- 
 nite color and meaning. 
 
 THE FIRST VIOLIN IN THE STRING QUARTET 
 
 "What exactly does the first violin repre- 
 sent?" Mr. Kneisel went on in answer to an- 
 other question. "The first violin might be 
 called the chairman of the string meeting. His
 
 Franz Kneisel 115 
 
 is the leading voice. Not that he should be an 
 autocrat, no, but he must hold the reins of 
 discipline. Many think that the four string 
 players in a quartet have equal rights. First 
 of all, and above all, are the rights of the com- 
 poser, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, — 
 as the case may be. But from the standpoint 
 of interpretation the first violin has some sev- 
 enty per cent, of the responsibility as com- 
 pared with thirty per cent, for the remaining 
 voices. In all the famous quartet organiza- 
 tions, Joachim, Hellmesberger, etc., the first 
 violin has been the directing instrimient and 
 has set the pace. As chairman it has been his 
 duty to say when second violin, viola and 'cello 
 were entitled to hold the fioor. Hellmesber- 
 ger, in fact, considered himself the whole quar- 
 tet." Mr. Kneisel smiled and showed me a 
 little book of Hellmesberger's Vienna pro- 
 grams. Each program was headed : 
 
 HELLMESBERGER QUARTET 
 
 with the assistance of 
 
 MESSRS. MATH. DURST, CARL HEISSLER, 
 CARL SCHLESINGER 
 
 "In other words, Hellmesberger was the 
 quartet himself, the other three artists merely
 
 116 Violin Mastery 
 
 'assisted,' which, after all, is going too far! 
 *'Of course, quartets differ. Just as we have 
 operas in which the alto solo role is the most 
 important, so we have quartets in which the 
 'cello or the viola has a more significant part. 
 Mozart dedicated quartets to a King of 
 Prussia, who played 'cello, and he was careful 
 to make the 'cello part the most important. 
 And in Smetana's quartet Aus meinem Leben, 
 tKe viola plays a most important role. Even 
 the second violin often plays themes introduc- 
 ing principal themes of the first violin, and it 
 has its brief moments of prominence. Yet, 
 though the second violin or the 'cellist may be, 
 comparatively speaking, a better player than 
 the first violin, the latter is and must be the 
 leader. Practically every composer of cham- 
 ber music recognizes the fact in his composi- 
 tions. He, the first violin, should not com- 
 mand three slaves, though ; but guide three as- 
 sociates, and do it tactfully with regard to their 
 individuality and that of their instruments. 
 
 "ensemble" rehearsing 
 
 "You ask what are the essentials of ensem- 
 ble practice on the part of the artists? Real 
 reverence, untiring zeal and punctuality at re-
 
 Franz Kneisel 117 
 
 hearsals. And then, an absolute sense of 
 rhythm. I remember rehearsing a Volkmann 
 quartet once with a new second violinist." 
 [Mr. Kneisel crossed over to his bookcase and 
 brought me the score to illustrate the rhythmic 
 point in question, one slight in itself yet as dif- 
 ficult, perhaps, for a player without an abso- 
 lute sense of rhj-thm as "perfect intonation" 
 would be for some others.] "He had a lovely 
 tone, a big technic and was a prize pupil of 
 the Vienna Conservatory. We went over this 
 two measure phrase some sixteen times, until 
 I felt sure he had grasped the proper accentua- 
 tion. And he was most amiable and willing 
 about it, too. But when we broke up he 
 pointed to the passage and said to me with a 
 smile : 'After all, whether you play it this way, 
 or that way, what's the difference?' Then I 
 realized that he had stressed his notes cor- 
 rectly a few times by chance, and that his own 
 sense of rhythm did not tell him that there 
 were no two ways about it. The rhythmic and 
 tonal nuances in a quartet cannot be marked 
 too perfectly in order to secure a beautiful and 
 finished performance. And such a violinist as 
 the one mentioned, in spite of his tone and tech- 
 nic, was never meant for an ensemble player. 
 "I have never believed in a quartet getting
 
 118 Violin Mastery 
 
 together and 'reading' a new work as a prep- 
 aration for study. As first violin I have al- 
 ways made it my business to first study the 
 work in score, myself, to study it until I knew 
 the whole composition absolutely, until I had 
 a mental picture of its meaning, and of the in- 
 terrelation of its four voices in detail. Thirty- 
 two years of experience have justified my the- 
 ory. Once the first violin knows the work the 
 practicing may begin; for he is in a position 
 gradually and tactfully to guide the working- 
 out of the interpretation without losing time 
 in the struggle to correct faults in balance 
 which are developed in an unprepared 'read- 
 ing' of the work. There is always one impor- 
 tant melody, and it is easier to find it studying 
 the score, to trace it with eye and mind in its 
 contrapuntal web, than by making voyages of 
 discovery in actual playing. 
 
 "Every player has his own qualities, every 
 instrument its oAvn advantages. Certain pas- 
 sages in a second violin or viola part may be 
 technically better suited to the hand of the 
 plaj^er, to the nature of the instrument, and — 
 they will sound better than others. Yet from 
 the standpoint of the composition the passages 
 that 'lie well' are often not the more impor- 
 tant. This is hard for tlie player — what is easy
 
 Franz Kneisel 119 
 
 for him he unconsciously is inclined to stress, 
 and he must be on his guard against it. This 
 is another strong argument in favor of a thor- 
 ough preliminary study on the part of the lead- 
 ing violin of the construction of the work." 
 
 THE FIRST VIOLIN IN CHAMBER MUSIC VERSUS 
 THE ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR 
 
 The comparison which I asked Mr. Kneisel 
 to make is one which he could establish with 
 authority. Aside from his experience as di- 
 rector of his quartet, he has been the concert- 
 meister of such famous foreign orchestras as 
 Bilse's and that of the Hofhurg Theater in 
 Vienna and, for eighteen years, of the Boston 
 Symphony Orchestra in this country. He has 
 also conducted over one hundred concerts of 
 the Boston Symphony, and was director of the 
 Worcester Music Festivals. 
 
 "Nikisch once said to me, after he had heard 
 us play the Schumann A minor quartet in Bos- 
 ton: 'Kneisel, it was beautiful, and I felt that 
 you had more difficulty in developing it than I 
 have with an orchestral score." And I think 
 he was right. First of all the symphonic con- 
 ductor is an autocrat. There is no appeal 
 from the commands of his baton. But the
 
 120 Violin Mastery 
 
 first violin of a quartet is, in a sense, only the 
 'first among peers.' The velvet glove is an 
 absolute necessity in his case. He must gain 
 his art ends by diplomacy and tact, he must 
 always remember that his fellow artists are 
 solo players. If he is arbitrary, no matter how 
 right he may be, he disturbs that fine feeling 
 of artistic fellowship, that delicate balance of 
 individual temperaments harmonized for and 
 by a single purpose. In this connection I do 
 not mind confessing that though I enjoy a 
 good game of cards, I made it a rule never to 
 play cards with my colleagues during the hours 
 of railroad traveling involved in keeping our 
 concert engagements. I played chess. In 
 chess the element of luck does not enter. Each 
 player is responsible for what he does or leaves 
 undone. And defeat leaves no such sting as 
 it does when all may be blamed on chance. In 
 an ensemble that strives for perfection there 
 must be no undercurrents of regret, of dissat- 
 isfaction — nothing that interferes with the 
 sympathy and good will which makes each in- 
 dividual artist do his best. And so I have 
 never regretted giving cards the go-by!"
 
 Franz Kneisel 121 
 
 HINTS TO THE SERIOUS VIOLIN STUDENT 
 
 Of late years Mr. Kneisel's activity as a 
 teacher has added to his reputation. Few 
 teachers can point to a galaxy of artist pupils 
 which includes such names as Samuel Gard- 
 ner, Sascha Jacobsen, Breskin, Helen Jeffry 
 and Olive Meade (who perpetuates the ideals 
 of his great string ensemble in her own quar- 
 tet). "AVhat is the secret of your method?" 
 I asked him first of all. "Method is hardly 
 the word," he told me. "It sounds too cut- 
 and-dried. I teach according to principles, 
 which must, of course, vary in individual cases ; 
 yet whose foundation is fixed. And like Joa- 
 chim, or Leschetiszky, I have preparatory 
 teachers. 
 
 THE GENERAL FAULT 
 
 "My experience has shown me that the fun- 
 damental fault of most pupils is that they do 
 not know how to hold either the bow or the 
 violin. Here in America the violin student 
 as a rule begins serious technical study too 
 late, contrary to the European practice. It is 
 a great handicap to begin really serious work 
 at seventeen or eighteen, when the flexible
 
 122 Violin Master^/ 
 
 bones of childhood have hardened, and have not 
 the phabihty needed for vioHn gymnastics. It 
 is a case of not bending the twig as you want 
 the tree to grow in time. And those who 
 study professionally are often more interested 
 in making money as soon as possible than in 
 bending all their energies on reaching the 
 higher levels of their art. Many a promising 
 talent never develops because its possessor at 
 seventeen or eighteen is eager to earn money 
 as an orchestra or 'job' player, instead of sac- 
 rificing a few years more and becoming a true 
 artist. I've seen it happen time and again: a 
 young fellow really endowed who thinks he can 
 play for a living and find time to study and 
 practice 'after hours.' And he never does! 
 
 "But to return to the general fault of the 
 violin student. There is a certain angle at 
 which the bow should cross the strings in order 
 to produce those vibrations which give the 
 roundest, fullest, most perfect tone [he took 
 his own beautiful instrument out of its case to 
 illustrate the point], and the violin must be so 
 held that the bow moves straight across the 
 strings in this manner. A deviation from the 
 correct attack produces a scratchy tone. And 
 it is just in the one fundamental thing: the 
 holding of the violin in exactly the same posi-
 
 Franz Kneisel 123 
 
 tion when it is taken up by the player, never 
 varying by so much as half-an-inch, and the 
 correct attack by the bow, in which the ma j or- 
 ity of pupils are deficient. If the violin is not 
 held at the proper angle, for instance, it is just 
 as though a piano were to stand on a sloping 
 floor. Too many students play 'with the vio- 
 lin' on the bow, instead of holding the violin 
 steady, and letting the bow play. 
 
 "And in beginning to study, this apparently 
 simple, yet fundamentally important, princi- 
 ple is often overlooked or neglected. Joachim, 
 when he studied as a ten-year-old boy under 
 Hellmesberger in Vienna, once played a part 
 in a concerto by Maurer, for four violins and 
 piano. His teacher was displeased: 'You'll 
 never be a fiddler!' he told him, 'you use your 
 bow too stiffly !' But the boy's father took him 
 to Bohm, and he remained with this teacher 
 for three years, until his fundamental fault 
 was completely overcome. And if Joachim 
 had not given his concentrated attention to 
 his bowing while there was still time, he would 
 never have been the great artist he later be- 
 came.
 
 124 Violin Mastery 
 
 THE ART OF THE BOW 
 
 "You see," he continued, "the secret of 
 really beautiful violin playing lies in the bow. 
 A Blondin crossing Niagara finds his wire 
 hard and firm where he first steps on it. But 
 as he progresses it vibrates with increasing in- 
 tensity. And as the tight-rope walker knows 
 how to control the vibrations of his wire, so 
 the violinist must master the vibrations of his 
 strings. Each section of the string vibrates 
 with a different quality of tone. Most pupils 
 think that a big tone is developed by pressure 
 with the bow — yet much depends on what part 
 of the string this pressure is applied. Finger- 
 ing is an art, of course, but the great art is the 
 art of the bow, the 'art of bowing,' as Tartini 
 calls it. When a pupil understands it he has 
 gone far. 
 
 "Every pupil may be developed to a certain 
 degree without ever suspecting how important 
 a factor the manipulation of the bow will be in 
 his further progress. He thinks that if the 
 fingers of his left hand are agile he has gained 
 the main end in view. But then he comes to 
 a stop — his left hand can no longer aid him, 
 and he finds that if he wants to play with real
 
 Franz Kneisel 125 
 
 beauty of expression the bow supplies the only 
 true key. Out of a hundred who reach this 
 stage," Mr. Kneisel went on, rather sadly, 
 "only some five or six, or even less, become 
 great artists. They are those who are able to 
 control the bow as well as the left hand. All 
 real art begins with phrasing, and this, too, lies 
 altogether in the mastery of bow — the very 
 soul of the violin!" 
 
 I asked Mr. Kneisel how he came to write his 
 own "Advanced Exercises" for the instru- 
 ment. "I had an idea that a set of studies, in 
 which each single study presented a variety of 
 technical figures might be a relief from the 
 exercises in so many excellent methods, where 
 pages of scales are followed by pages of ar- 
 peggios, pages of double-notes and so forth. 
 It is very monotonous to practice pages and 
 pages of a single technical figure," he added. 
 "Most pupils simply will not do it!" He 
 brought out a copy of his "Exercises" and 
 showed me their plan. "Here, for instance, 
 I have scales, trills, arpeggios — all in the same 
 study, and the study is conceived as a musical 
 composition instead of a technical formula. 
 This is a study in finger position, with all pos- 
 sible bowings. My aim has been to concen- 
 trate the technical material of a whole violin
 
 126 Violin Mastery 
 
 school in a set of etudes with musical interest." 
 And he showed me the second book of the 
 studies, in ms., containing exercises in every 
 variety of scale, and trill, bowing, nuance, etc., 
 combined in a single musical movement. This 
 volume also contains his own cadenza to the 
 Beethoven violin concerto. In conclusion Mr. 
 Kneisel laid stress on the importance of the 
 student's hearing the best music at concert and 
 recital as often as possible, and on the value 
 and incentive supplied by a musical atmos- 
 phere in the home and, on leaving him, I could 
 not help but feel that what he had said in our 
 interview, his reflections and observations 
 based on an artistry beyond cavil, and an au- 
 thoritative experience, would be well worth 
 pondering by every serious student of the in- 
 strument. For Franz Kneisel speaks of what 
 he knows.
 
 XI 
 ADOLFO BETTI 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF THE MODERN QUARTET 
 
 What lover of chamber music in its more 
 perfect dispensations is not familiar with the 
 figure of Adolf o Betti, the guiding brain and 
 bow of the Flonzaley Quartet ? Born in Flor- 
 ence, he played his first public concert at the 
 age of six, yet as a youth found it hard to 
 choose between literature, for which he had 
 decided aptitude,* and music. Fortunately 
 for American concert audiences of to-day, he 
 finally inclined to the latter. An exponent of 
 what many consider the greatest of all violin- 
 istic schools, the Belgian, he studied for four 
 years with Cesar Thomson at Liege, spent four 
 more concertizing in Vienna and elsewhere, 
 and returned to Thomson as the latter's assist- 
 ant in the Brussels Conservatory, three years 
 before he joined the Flonzaleys, in 1903. 
 
 * M. Betti has published a number of critical articles in the 
 Guide Mueical of Brussels, the Bivista Mttsicale of Turin, etc. 
 
 127
 
 128 Violin Mastery 
 
 With pleasant recollections of earlier meetings 
 with this gifted artist, the writer sought him 
 out, and found him amiabty willing to talk 
 about the modern quartet and its ideals, ideals 
 which he personally has done so much to real- 
 ize. 
 
 THE MODERN QUARTET 
 
 "You ask me how the modern quartet dif- 
 fers from its predecessors?" said Mr. Betti. 
 "It differs in many ways. For one thing the 
 modern quartet has developed in a way that 
 makes its inner voices — second violin and viola 
 — much more important than they used to be. 
 Originally, as in Haydn's early quartets, we 
 have a violin solo with three accompanying in- 
 struments. In Beethoven's last quartets the 
 intermediate voices have already gained a 
 freedom and individuality which before him 
 had not even been suspected. In these last 
 quartets Beethoven has already set forth the 
 principle which was to become the basis of 
 modern polyphony: 'first of all to allow each 
 voice to express itself freely and fully, and 
 afterward to see what the relations were of one 
 to the other.' In fact, no one has exercised a 
 more revolutionary effect on the quartet than 
 Beethoven — no one has made it attain so great
 
 -/I PEP A i 
 
 - If- 
 
 J 
 
 Aduli'O Betti 

 
 Adolfo Beta 129 
 
 a degree of progress. And surely the dis- 
 tance separating the quartet as Beethoven 
 found it, from the quartet as he left it (Grand 
 Fugue, Op. 131, Op. 132), is greater than 
 that which lies between the Fugue Op. 132, 
 and the most advanced modern quartet, let us 
 say, for instance, Schonberg's Op. 7. Schon- 
 berg, by the way, has only applied and devel- 
 oped the principles established by Beethoven 
 in the latter's last quartets. But in the mod- 
 ern quartet we have a new element, one which 
 tends more and more to become preponderant, 
 and which might be called orchestral rather 
 than da camera. Smetana, Grieg, Tschaikov- 
 sky were the first to follow this path, in which 
 the majority of the moderns, including Franck 
 and Debussj^ have followed them. And in 
 addition, many among the most advanced mod- 
 ern composers strive for orchestral effects that 
 often lie outside the natural capabilities of the 
 strings! 
 
 "For instance Stravinsky, in the first of his 
 three impressionistic sketches for quartet 
 (which we have played), has the first violin 
 play ponticello throughout, not the natural 
 ponticello, but a quite special one, to produce 
 an effect of a bag-pipe sounding at a distance. 
 I had to try again and again till I found the
 
 130 Violin Mastery 
 
 right technical means to produce the effect de- 
 sired. Then, the 'cello is used to imitate the 
 drum; there are special technical problems for 
 the second violin — a single sustained D, with 
 an accompanying pizzicato on the open 
 strings — while the viola is required to suggest 
 the tramp of marching feet. And, again, \n 
 other modern quartets we find special tech- 
 nical devices undreamt of in earlier days. 
 Borodine, for instance, is the first to system- 
 atically employ successions of harmonics. In 
 the trio of his first quartet the melody is suc- 
 cessively introduced by the 'cello and the first 
 violin, altogether in harmonics. 
 
 THE MODERN QUARTET AND AMATEUR PLAYERS 
 
 "You ask me whether the average quartet 
 of amateurs, of lovers of string music, can get 
 much out of the more modern quartets. I 
 would say yes, but with some serious reserva- 
 tions. There has been much beautiful music 
 written, but most of it is complicated. In the 
 case of the older quartets, Haydn, Mozart, 
 etc., even if they are not played well, the per- 
 formers can still obtain an idea of the music, 
 of its thought content. But in the modern 
 quartets, unless each individual player has mas-
 
 Adolfo Betti 131 
 
 tered every technical difficulty, the musical 
 idea does not pierce through, there is no ef- 
 fect. 
 
 "I remember when we rehearsed the first 
 Schonberg quartet. It was in 1913, at a Chi- 
 cago hotel, and we had no score, but only the 
 separate parts. The results, at our first at- 
 tempt, were so dreadful that we stopped after 
 a few pages. It was not till I had secured a 
 score, studied it and again tried it that we be- 
 gan to see a light. Finally there was not one 
 measure which we did not understand. But 
 Schonberg, Reger, Ravel quartets make too 
 great a demand on the technical ability of the 
 average quartet amateur. 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF QUARTET PLAYING 
 
 "Naturally, the first violin is the leader, the 
 Conductor of the quartet, as in its early days, 
 although the 'star' system, with one virtuose 
 player and three satellites, has disappeared. 
 Now the quartet as a whole has established it- 
 self in the virtuoso field — using the word vir- 
 tuoso in its best sense. The Miiller quartet 
 (Hanover), 1845-1850, was the first to travel 
 as a chamber music organization, and the fa- 
 mous Florentiner Quartet the first to realize
 
 132 Violin Mastery 
 
 what could be done in the way of finish in 
 playing. As premier violiniste of the Flon- 
 zaley's I study and prepare the interpretation 
 of the works we are to play before any re- 
 hearsing is done. 
 
 "While the first violin still holds first place 
 in the modern quartet, the second violin has 
 become much more important than formerljs 
 it has gained in individuality. In many of the 
 newer quartets it is quite as important as the 
 first. In Hugo Wolf's quartet, for example, 
 first and second violins are employed as though 
 in a concerto for two violins. 
 
 "The viola, especially in modern French 
 works — Ravel, Debussy, Samazeuil — has a 
 prominent part. In the older quartets one 
 reason the viola parts are simple is because the 
 alto players as a rule were technically less 
 skillful. As a general thing they were violin- 
 ists who had failed — 'the refugees of the G 
 clef,' as Edouard Colonne, the eminent con- 
 ductor, once wittily said. But the reason 
 modern French composers give the viola spe- 
 cial attention is because France now is ahead 
 of the other nations in virtuose viola playing. 
 It is practically the only country which may 
 be said to have a 'school' of viola playing. In 
 the Smetana quartet the viola plays a most im-
 
 Adolfo Betti 133 
 
 portant part, and Dvorak, who himself played 
 viola, emphasized the instrument in his quar- 
 tets. 
 
 "Mozart showed what the 'cello was able to 
 do in the quartets he dedicated to the ' 'cellist 
 king,' Frederick William of Prussia. And 
 then, the 'cello has always the musical impor- 
 tance which attaches to it as the lower of the 
 two 'outer voices' of the quartet ensemble. 
 Like the second violin and viola, it has experi- 
 enced a technical and musical development be- 
 yond anything Haydn or Mozart would have 
 dared to write. 
 
 REHEARSING 
 
 "Realization of the Art aims of the modern 
 quartet calls for endless rehearsal. Few peo- 
 ple realize the hard work and concentrated ef- 
 fort entailed. And there are always new 
 problems to solve. After preparing a new 
 score in advance, we meet and establish its gen- 
 eral idea, its broad outlines in actual playing. 
 And then, gradually, we fill in the details. Or- 
 dinarily we rehearse three hours a day, less 
 during the concert season, of course; but al- 
 v/ays enough to keep absolutely in trim. And 
 we vary our practice programs in order to keep 
 mentally fresh as well as technically fit.
 
 134 Violin Mastery 
 
 INTONATION 
 
 "Perfect intonation is a great problem — one 
 practically unknown to the average amateur 
 quartet player. Four players may each one 
 of them be playing in tune, in pitch; yet their 
 chords may not be truly in tune, because of the 
 individual bias — a trifle sharp, a trifle flat — 
 in interpreting pitch. This individual bias 
 may be caused by the attraction existing be- 
 tween certain notes, by differences of register 
 and timhre, or any number of other reasons 
 — too many to recount. The true beauty of 
 the quartet tone cannot be obtained unless 
 there is an exact adjustment, a tempering of 
 the individual pitch of each instrument, till 
 perfect accordance exists. This is far more 
 difficult and complicated than one might at first 
 believe. For example, let us take one of the 
 simplest violin chords," said Mr. Betti [and he 
 rapidly set it down in pencil] . 
 
 » 
 
 M 
 
 "Now let us begin by fixing the B so that 
 it is perfectly in tune with the E, then without 
 at all changing the B, take the interval D-B.
 
 Adolf Bctti 135 
 
 You will see that the sixth will not be in tune. 
 Repeat the experiment, inverting the notes ; the 
 result will still be the same. Try it yourself 
 some time," added Mr. Betti with a smile, 
 "and you will see. What is the reason? It 
 is because the middle B has not been adjusted, 
 tempered! Give the same notes to the first 
 and second violins and the viola and you will 
 have the same result. Then, when the 'cello 
 is added, the problem is still more comphcated, 
 owing to the difference in timbre and register. 
 Yet it is a problem which can be solved, and 
 is solved in practically everything we play. 
 
 "Another difficulty, especially in the case of 
 some of the very daring chords encountered in 
 modern compositions, is the matter of balance 
 between the individual notes. There are 
 chords which only sound well if certain notes 
 are thrown into relief; and others only if 
 played very softly (almost as though they 
 were overtones). To overcome such difficul- 
 ties means a great deal of work, real musical 
 instinct and, above all, great familiarity with 
 the composer's harmonic processes. Yet with 
 time and patience the true balance of tone can 
 be obtained.
 
 136 Violin 31 aster y 
 
 TEMPO 
 
 *'A11 four individual players must be able 
 to feel the tempo they are playing in the same 
 way. I believe it was Mahler who once gave 
 out a beat very distinctly — one, two, three — 
 told his orchestra players to count the beat 
 silently for twenty measures and then stop. 
 As each felt the beat diiTerently from the 
 other, every one of them stopped at a differ- 
 ent time. So tempo, just like intonation, 
 must be 'tempered' by the four quartet players 
 in order to secure perfect rhythmic inflection. 
 
 DYNAMICS 
 
 "Modern composers have wonderfully im- 
 proved dynamic expression. Every little 
 shade of meaning they make clear with great 
 distinctness. The older composers, and occa- 
 sionally a modern like Emanuel Moor, do not 
 use expression marks. Moor says, 'If the per- 
 formers really have something to put into my 
 work the signs are not needed.' Yet this has 
 its disadvantages. I once had an entirely un- 
 marked Sonata by Sammartini. As most first 
 movements in the sonatas of that composer
 
 Adolfo Beta 137 
 
 are allegros I tried the beginning several times 
 as an allegro, but it sounded radically wrong. 
 Then, at last, it occurred to me to try it as a 
 largo and, behold, it was beautiful! 
 
 INTERPRETATION 
 
 "If the leader of the quartet has lived him- 
 self into and mastered a composition, together 
 with his associates, the result is sure. I must 
 live in the music I play just as an actor must 
 live the character he represents. All higher 
 interpretation depends on solving technical 
 problems in a way which is not narrowly me- 
 chanical. And while the ensemble spirit must 
 be preserved, the freedom of the individual 
 should not be too much restrained. Once the 
 style and manner of a modern composer are 
 familiar, it is easier to present his works : when 
 we first played the Reger quartet here some 
 twenty years ago, we found pages which at first 
 we could not at all understand. If one has 
 fathomed Debussy, it is easier to play Milhaud, 
 Koger-Ducasse, Samazeuil — for the music of 
 the modern French school has much in com- 
 mon. One great cultural value the profes- 
 sional quartet has for the musical community 
 is the fact that it gives a large circle a meas-
 
 138 Violin Mastery 
 
 ure of acquaintance with the mode of thought 
 and style of composers whose symphonic and 
 larger works are often an unknown quantity. 
 This applies to Debussy, Reger, the modern 
 Russians, Bloch and others. When we played 
 the Stravinsky pieces here, for instance, his 
 Petrovyschka and Firebird had not yet been 
 heard. 
 
 SOME IDEALS 
 
 "We try, as an organization, to be absolutely 
 catholic in taste. Nor do we neglect the older 
 music, because we play so much of the new. 
 This year we are devoting special attention 
 to the American composers. Formerly the 
 Kneisels took care of them, and now we feel 
 that we should assume this legacy. We have 
 already played Daniel Gregory Mason's fine 
 Intermezzo, and the other American numbers 
 we have played include David Stanley Smith's 
 Second Quartet, and movements from quartets 
 by Victor Kolar and Samuel Gardner. We 
 are also going to revive Charles Martin Loef- 
 fler's Rhapsodies for viola, oboe and piano. 
 
 *'I have been for some time making a col- 
 lection of sonatas a tre, two violins and 'cello 
 — delightful old things by Sammartini, Le- 
 clair, the Englishman Boyce, Friedemann
 
 Adolf o Beta 139 
 
 Bach and others. This is material from which 
 the amateur could derive real enjoyment and 
 profit. The Leclair sonata in D minor we 
 have played some three hundred times ; and its 
 slow movement is one of the most beautiful 
 largos I know of in all chamber music. The 
 same thing could be done in the way of tran- 
 scription for chamber music which Kreisler has 
 already done so charmingly for the solo vio- 
 lin. And I would dearly love to do it ! There 
 are certain 'primitives' of the quartet — Johann 
 Christian Bach, Gossec, Telemann, INIichel 
 Haydn — who have written music full of the 
 rarest melodic charm and freshness. I have 
 much excellent material laid by, but as you 
 know," concluded ISlr. Betti with a sigh, "one 
 has so little time for anything in America."
 
 XII 
 HANS LETZ 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF BOWING 
 
 Hans Letz, the gifted Alsatian violinist, is 
 well fitted to talk on any phase of his Art. xV 
 pupil of Joachim (he came to this country in 
 1908), he was for three years concertmaster 
 of the Thomas orchestra, appearing as a solo 
 artist in most of our large cities, and was not 
 only one of the Kneisels (he joined that organ- 
 ization in 1912), but the leader of a quartet 
 of his own. As a teacher, too, he is active in 
 giving others an opportunity to apply the les- 
 sons of his own experience. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 When asked for his definition of the term, 
 Mr. Letz said: "There can be no such thing 
 as an absolute mastery of the violin. Mastery 
 is a relative term. The artist is first of all 
 more or less dependent on circumstances which 
 
 140
 
 Hans Letz 141 
 
 he cannot control — his mood, the weather, 
 strings, a thousand and one incidentals. And 
 then, the nearer he gets to his ideal, the more 
 apt his ideal is to escape him. Yet, discount- 
 ing all objections, I should say that a master 
 should be able to express perfectly the com- 
 poser's idea, reflected by his own sensitive soul. 
 
 THE KEY TO INTERPRETATION 
 
 "The bow is the key to this mastery in ex- 
 pression, in interpretation: in a lesser degree 
 the left hand. The average pupil does not 
 realize this but believes that mere finger facil- 
 ity is the whole gist of technic. Yet the rich- 
 est color, the most delicate nuance^ is mainly a 
 matter of bowing. In the left hand, of course, 
 the vibrato gives a certain amount of color ef- 
 fect, the intense, dramatic tone quality of the 
 rapid vibrato is comparable on the violin to the 
 tremulando of the singer. At the same time 
 the vibrato used to excess is quite as bad as an 
 excessive tremulando in the voice. But con- 
 trol of the bow is the key to the gates of the 
 great field of declamation, it is the means of 
 articulation and accent, it gives character, com- 
 prising the entire scale of the emotions. In 
 fact, declamation with the violin bow is very
 
 142 Violin Mastery 
 
 much like declamation in dramatic art. And 
 the attack of the bow on the string should be 
 as incisive as the utterance of the first accented 
 syllable of a spoken word. The bow is em- 
 phatically the means of expression, but only 
 the advanced pupil can develop its finer, more 
 dehcate expressional possibilities. 
 
 THE TECHNIC OF BOWING 
 
 "Genius does many things by instinct, And 
 it sometimes happens that very great perform- 
 ers, trying to explain some technical function, 
 do not know how to make their meaning clear. 
 With regard to bowing, I remember that Joa- 
 chim (a master colorist with the bow) used 
 to tell his students to play largely with the 
 wrist. What he really meant was with an el- 
 bow-joint movement, that is, moving the bow, 
 which should always be connected with a move- 
 ment of the forearm by means of the elbow- 
 joint. The ideal bow stroke results from 
 keeping the joints of the right arm loose, and 
 at the same time firm enough to control each 
 motion made. A difficult thing for the student 
 is to learn to draw the bow across the strings 
 at a right angle, the only way to produce a 
 good tone. I find it helps my pupils to tell
 
 Hans Letz 
 
 143 
 
 them not to think of the position of the bow- 
 arm while drawing the bow across the strings, 
 but merely to follow with the tips of the fin- 
 gers of the right hand an imaginarj^ line run- 
 ning at a right angle across the strings. The 
 whole bow then moves as it should, and the arm 
 motions unconsciously adjust themselves. 
 
 EHYTHM AND COLOR 
 
 "Rhythm is the foundation of all music — not 
 rhythm in its metronomic sense, but in the 
 broader sense of proportion. I lay the great- 
 est stress on the development of rhythmic sen- 
 sibility in the student. Rhythm gives life to 
 every musical phrase." Mr. Letz had a 
 Brahms' quartet open on his music stand. 
 Playing the following passage, he said : 
 
 "In order to give this phrase its proper 
 rhythmic value, to express it clearly, plas- 
 tically, there must be a very slight separation 
 between the sixteenths and the eighth-note fol- 
 lowing them. This — the bow picked uj) a 
 trifle from the strings — throws the sixteenths 
 into relief. As I have already said, tone color
 
 144 Violin Master^/ 
 
 is for the main part controlled by the bow. If 
 I draw the bow above the fingerboard instead 
 of keeping it near the bridge, I have a decided 
 contrast in color. This color contrast may al- 
 ways be established: playing near the bridge 
 results in a clear and sharp tone, playing near 
 the fingerboard in a veiled and velvety one. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS IN TEACHING 
 
 "I find that, aside from the personal illus- 
 tration absolutely necessary when teaching, 
 that an appeal to the pupil's imagination usu- 
 ally bears fruit. In developing tone-quality, 
 let us say, I tell the pupil his phrases should 
 have a golden, mellow color, the tonal equiv- 
 alent of the hues of the sunrise. I vary my 
 pictures according to the circumstances and 
 the pupil, in most cases, reacts to them. In 
 fast bowings, for instance, I make three color 
 distinctions or rather sound distinctions. 
 There is the 'color of rain,' when a fast bow 
 is pushed gently over the strings, while not al- 
 lowed to jump; the 'color of snowflakes' pro- 
 duced when the hairs of the bow always touch 
 the strings, and the wood dances ; and 'the color 
 of hair (which seldom occurs in the classics).
 
 Hans Letz 145 
 
 when in the real characteristic spiccato the 
 whole bow leaves the string." 
 
 THE ART AND THE SCHOOLS 
 
 In reply to another question, Mr. Letz 
 added: "Great violin playing is great violin 
 playing, irrespective of school or nationality. 
 Of course the Belgians and French have 
 notable elegance, polish, finish in detail. The 
 French lay stress on sensuous beauty of tone. 
 The German temperament is perhaps broader, 
 neglecting sensuous beauty for beauty of idea, 
 developing the scholarly side. Sarasate, the 
 Spaniard, is a unique national figure. The 
 Slavs seem to have a natural gift for the vio- 
 lin — perhaps because of centuries of repres- 
 sion — and are passionately temperamental. 
 In their playing we find that melancholy, com- 
 bined with an intense craving for joy, which 
 runs through all Slavonic music and litera- 
 ture. Yet, all said and done, Art is and re- 
 mains first of all international, and the great 
 violinist is a great artist, no matter what his 
 native land."
 
 XIII 
 DAVID MANNES 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF VIOLIN TEACHING 
 
 That David IMannes, the well-known vio- 
 linist and conductor, so long director of the 
 New York Music School Settlement, would 
 be able to speak in an interesting and authori- 
 tative manner on his art, was a foregone con- 
 clusion in the writer's mind. A visit to the 
 educator's own beautiful "Music School" con- 
 firmed this conviction. In reply to some 
 questions concerning his own study years INIr, 
 Mannes spoke of his work with Heinrich de 
 Ahna, Karl Halir and Eugene Ysaye. "When 
 I came to de Ahna in Berlin, I was, unfortu- 
 nately, not yet ready for him, and so did not 
 get much benefit from his instruction. In the 
 case of Halir, to whom I went later, I was in 
 much better shape to take advantage of what 
 he could give me, and profited accordingly. 
 It is a point any student may well note — that 
 when he thinks of studying with some fa- 
 
 146
 
 David Manxes
 
 David Mamies 147 
 
 mous teacher he be technically and musically 
 equipped to take advantage of all that the lat- 
 ter may be able to give him. Otherwise it is 
 a case of love's labor lost on the part of both. 
 Karl Halir was a sincere and very thorough 
 teacher. He was a Spohr player par excel- 
 lence, and I have never found his equal in the 
 playing of Spohr's Gesangsscene. With him 
 I studied Kreutzer, Rode, Fiorillo; and to 
 know Halir as a teacher was to know him at 
 his best; since as a public performer — great 
 violinist as he was — he did not do himself jus- 
 tice, because he was too nervous and high- 
 strung. 
 
 STUDYING WITH YSAYE 
 
 "It was while sitting among the first violins 
 in the New York Symphony Orchestra that 
 I first heard Ysaye. And for the first time 
 in my life I heard a man with whom I fer- 
 vently wanted to study; an artist whose whole 
 attitude with regard to tone and sound repro- 
 duction embodied my ideals. 
 
 "I worked with Ysaye in Brussels and in 
 his cottage at Godinne. Here he taught much 
 as Liszt did at Weimar, a group of from ten 
 to twenty disciples. Early in the morning he 
 went fishing in the Meuse, then back to break-
 
 148 Violin 31 aster y 
 
 fast and then came the lessons : not more than 
 three or four a day. Those who studied drew 
 inspiration from him as the pianists of the 
 Weimar circle did from their Master. In 
 fact, Ysaye's standpoint toward music had a 
 good deal in common with Rubinstein's and 
 he often said he wished he could play the vio- 
 lin as Rubinstein did the piano. Ysaye is an 
 artist who has transcended his own medium — 
 he has become a poet of sound. And unless 
 the one studying with him could understand 
 and appreciate this fact he made a poor 
 teacher. But to me, in all humility, he was 
 and will always remain a wonderful inspira- 
 tion. As an influence in my career his mar- 
 velous genius is unique. In my own teach- 
 ing I have only to recall his tone, his playing 
 in his little cottage on the banks of the Meuse 
 which the tide of war has swept away, to real- 
 ize in a cumulative sense the things he tried to 
 make plain to me then. Ysaye taught the 
 technic of expression as against the expression 
 of technic. He gave the lessons of a thousand 
 teachers in place of the lessons of one. The 
 greatest technical development was required 
 by Ysaye of a pupil; and given this pre- 
 requisite, he could open up to him ever enlarg- 
 ing horizons of musical beauty.
 
 David Marines 149 
 
 "Nor did he think that the true beauty of 
 violin playing must depend upon six to eight 
 hours of daily practice work. I absolutely be- 
 lieve with Ysaye that unless a student can 
 make satisfactory progress with three hours of 
 practice a day, he should not attempt to play 
 the violin. Inability to do so is in itself a con- 
 fession of failure at the outset. Nor do I 
 think it possible to practice the violin inten- 
 sively more than three-quarters of an hour at 
 a time. In order to utilize his three hours of 
 practice to the best advantage the student 
 should divide them into four periods, with in- 
 tervals of rest between each, and these rest 
 periods might simply represent a transfer of 
 energy — which is a rest in itself — to reading 
 or some other occupation not necessarily ger- 
 mane to music, yet likely to stimulate interest 
 in some other art. 
 
 SOME INITIAL PRINCIPLES OF VIOLIN STUDY 
 
 "The violin student first and foremost 
 should accustom himself to practicing purely 
 technical exercises without notes. The scales 
 and arpeggios should never be played other- 
 wise and books of scales should be used only 
 as a reference. Quite as important as scale
 
 150 Violin Mastery 
 
 practice are broken chords. On the violin 
 these cannot be played solidly, as on the piano.; 
 but must be studied as arpeggios, in the most 
 exhaustive way, harmonically and technically. 
 Their great value lies in developing an innate 
 musical sense, in establishing an idea of tonal- 
 ity and harmony that becomes so deeply 
 rooted that every other key is as natural to the 
 player as is the key of C. Work of this kind 
 can never be done ideally in class. But every 
 individual student must himself come to real- 
 ize the necessity of doing technical work with- 
 out notes as a matter of dail}^ exercise, even 
 though his time be limited. Perhaps the most 
 difficult of all lessons is learning to hold the 
 violin. There are pupils to whom holding the 
 instrument presents insurmountable obstacles. 
 Such pupils, instead of struggling in vain with 
 a physical difficulty, might rather take up the 
 studj"- of the 'cello, whose weight rests on the 
 floor. That many a student was not intended 
 to be a violin player by nature is proved by 
 the various inventions, chin-rests, braces, in- 
 tended to suppty what nature has not sup- 
 plied. The study of the violin should never 
 be allowed if it is going to result in actual 
 physical deformity: raising of the left shoul- 
 der, malformation of the back, or eruptions
 
 David Marines 151 
 
 resulting from chin-rest pressure. These are 
 all eAadences of physical unfitness, or of incor- 
 rect teaching. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF VIOLIN TEACHING 
 
 "Class study is for the advanced student, 
 not the beginner. In the beginning only the 
 closest personal contact between the individ- 
 ual pupil and the teacher is desirable. To 
 borrow an analogy from nature, the student 
 may be compared to the young bird whose un- 
 trained wings will not allow him to take any 
 trial flights unaided by his natural guardian. 
 For the beginning violinist the principal 
 thing to do is to learn the 'voice placing' of the 
 violin. This goes hand in hand with the 
 proper — which is the easy and natural — man- 
 ner of holding the violin, bow study, and an 
 appreciation of the acoustics of the instru- 
 ment. The student's attention should at onc^ 
 be called to the marvelous and manifold quali- 
 ties of the violin tone, and he should at once 
 familiarize himself with the development of 
 those contrasts of stress and pressure, ease and 
 relaxation which are instrumental in its pro- 
 duction. The analogies between the violin 
 voice and the human voice should also be de-
 
 152 Violin Mastery 
 
 veloped. The violin itself must to all intents 
 become a part of the player himself, just as 
 the vocal chords are part of the human body. 
 It should not be considered a foreign tone- 
 producing instrument adjusted to the body of 
 the performer; but an extension, a projection 
 of his physical self. In a way it is easier for 
 the violinist to get at the chords of the violin 
 and make them sound, since they are all ex- 
 posed, which is not the case with the singer. 
 
 "There are two dangerous points in pres- 
 ent-day standards of violin teaching. One is 
 represented by the ver)^ efficient European 
 professional standards of technic, which may 
 result in an absolute failure of poetic musical 
 comprehension. These should not be trans- 
 planted here from European soil. The other 
 is the non-technical, sentimental, formless spe- 
 cies of teaching which can only result in emo- 
 tional enervation. Yet if forced to choose be- 
 tween the two the former would be preferable 
 since without tools it is impossible to carve 
 anything of beauty. The final beauty of the 
 violin tone, the pure legato, remains in the be- 
 ginning as in the end a matter of holding the 
 violin and bow. Together they 'place' the 
 tone just as the physical media in the throat 
 'place' the tone of the voice.
 
 David Mannes 153 
 
 "Piano teachers have made greater advances 
 in the tone developing technic of their instru- 
 ment than the viohn teachers. One reason is, 
 that as a class they are more intellectual. And 
 then, too, violin teaching is regarded too often 
 as a mj'stic art, an occult science, and one into 
 which only those specially gifted may hope to 
 be initiated. This, it seems to me, is a fal- 
 lacy. Just as a gift for mathematics is a spe- 
 cial talent not given to all, so a natural tech- 
 nical talent exists in relatively few people. 
 Yet this does not imply that the majority are 
 shut off from playing the violin and playing 
 it well. Any student who has music in his 
 soul may be taught to play simple, and even 
 relatively more difficult music with (beauty, 
 beaut}^ of expression and interpretation. 
 This he may be taught to do even though not 
 endowed with a natural technical facility 
 for the violin. A proof that natural tech- 
 nical facility is anything but a guarantee 
 of higher musicianship is shown in that the 
 musical weakness of many brilliant violinists, 
 hidden by the technical elaboration of virtuoso 
 pieces, is only apparent when they attempt to 
 play a Beethoven adagio or a simple Mozart 
 rondo. 
 
 "In a number of cases the unsuccessful solo
 
 154 Violin Mastery 
 
 player has a bad effect on violin teaching. 
 Usually the soloist who has not made a suc- 
 cess as a concert artist takes up teaching as a 
 last resort, without enthusiasm or the true vo- 
 cational instinct. The false standards he sets 
 up for his pupils are a natural result of his 
 own ineffectual worship of the fetish of vir- 
 tuosity — those of the musical mountebank of 
 a hundred years ago. Of course such false 
 prophets of the virtuose have nothing in com- 
 mon with such high-priests of public utterance 
 as Ysaye, Kreisler and others, whose virtuos- 
 ity is a true means for the higher development 
 of the musical. The encouragement of musi- 
 cianship in general suffers for the stress laid 
 on what is obviously technical impedimenta. 
 But more and more, as time passes, the playing 
 of such artists as those already mentioned, and 
 others like them, shows that the real musician 
 is the lover of beautiful sound, which technic 
 merely develops in the highest degree. 
 
 "To-day technic in a cumulative sense often 
 is a confession of failure. For technic does 
 not do what it so often claims to — produce the 
 artist. Most professional teaching aims to 
 prepare the student for professional life, the 
 concert stage. Hence there is an intensive 
 technical study of compositions that even if
 
 David Mannes 155 
 
 not wholly intended for display are primarily 
 and principally projected for its sake. It is 
 a well-known fact that few, even among gifted 
 players, can sit down to play chamber music 
 and do it justice. This is not because they 
 cannot grasp or understand it ; or because their 
 technic is insufficient. It is because their 
 whole violinistic education has been along the 
 line of solo playing; they have literally been 
 brought up, not to play with others, but to be 
 accompanied by others. 
 
 "Yet despite all this there has been a no- 
 table development of violin study in the direc- 
 tion of ensemble work with, as a result, an at- 
 titude on the part of the violinists cultivating 
 it, of greater humility as regards music in gen- 
 eral, a greater appreciation of the charm of 
 artistic collaboration: and — I insist — a technic 
 both finer and more flexible. Chamber music 
 — originally music written for the intimate 
 surroundings of the home, for a small circle 
 of listeners — carries out in its informal way 
 many of the ideals of the larger orchestral 
 ensemble. And, as regards the violinist, he is 
 not dependent only on the literature of the 
 string quartet; there are piano quintets and 
 quartets, piano trios, and the duos for violin 
 and piano. Some of the most beautiful instru-
 
 156 Violin Masterif 
 
 mental thoughts of the classic and modern 
 composers are to be found in the duo for 
 viohn and piano, mainly in the sonata form. 
 Amateurs — violinists who love music for its 
 own sake, and have sufficient facility to per- 
 form such works creditably — do not do nearly 
 enough ensemble playing with a pianist. It is 
 not always possible to get together the four 
 players needed for the string quartet, but a 
 pianist is apt to be more readily found. 
 
 "The combination of violin and piano is as 
 a rule obtainable and the literature is par- 
 ticularly rich. Aside from sonatas by Corelli, 
 Locatelli, Tartini, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, 
 Haendel, Brahms and Schumann, nearly all 
 the romantic and modern composers have con- 
 tributed to it. And this music has all been 
 written so as to show the character of each in- 
 strument at its best — the piano, harmonic in 
 its nature ; the violin, a natural melodic voice, 
 capable of every shade of nuance." That Mr. 
 Mannes, as an artist, has made a point of 
 "practicing what he preaches" to the student 
 as regards the ensemble of violin and piano will 
 be recalled by all who have enjoyed the 'Sonata 
 Recitals* he has given together with Mrs, 
 Mannes. And as an interpreting solo artist
 
 David Mannes 157 
 
 his views regarding the moot question of gut 
 versus wire strings are of interest. 
 
 GUT VERSUS WIRE STRINGS 
 
 "My own violin, a Maggini of more than the 
 usual size, dates from the year 1600. It 
 formerly belonged to Dr. Leopold Damrosch. 
 Which strings do I use on it? The whole ques- 
 tion as to whether gut or wire strings are to be 
 preferred maj^ in my opinion, be referred to 
 the violin itself for decision. What I mean is 
 that if Stradivarius, Guarnerius, Amati, INIag- 
 gini and others of the old-master builders of 
 violins had ever had wire strings in view, they 
 would have built their fiddles in accordance, 
 and they would not be the same we now possess. 
 First of all there are scientific reasons against 
 using the wire strings. They change the tone 
 of the instrument. The rigidity of tension of 
 the wire E string where it crosses the bridge 
 tightens up the sound of the lower strings. 
 Their advantages are: reliability under ad- 
 verse climatic conditions and the incontestable 
 fact that they make things easier technically. 
 They facilitate purity of intonation. Yet I 
 am willing to forgo these advantages when I 
 consider the wonderful pliability of the gut
 
 158 Violin Mastery 
 
 strings for which Stradivarius built his violins. 
 I can see the artistic retrogression of those wlio 
 are using the wire E, for when materially 
 things are made easier, spiritually there is a 
 loss. 
 
 CHIN RESTS 
 
 "And while we are discussing the physical 
 aspects of the instrument there is the 'chin 
 rest.' None of the great violin makers ever 
 made a 'chin rest.' Increasing technical de- 
 mands, sudden pyrotechnical flights into the 
 higher octaves brought the 'chin rest' into be- 
 ing. The 'chin rest' was meant to give the 
 player a better grasp of his instrument. I ab- 
 solutely disapprove, in theory, of chin rest, 
 cushion or pad. Technical reasons may be ad- 
 duced to justify their use, never artistic ones. 
 I admit that progress in violin study is in- 
 finitely slower without the use of the pad ; but 
 the more close and direct a contact with his 
 instrument the player can develop, the more 
 intimately expressive his playing becomes. 
 Students with long necks and thin bodies claim 
 they have to use a 'chin rest,' but tlie study of 
 physical adjustments could bring about a bet- 
 ter coordination between them and the instru- 
 ment. A thin pad may be used without much
 
 David Mamies 159 
 
 danger, yet I feel that the thicker and higher 
 the 'chin rest' the gi-eater the loss in expres- 
 sive rendering. The more we accustom our- 
 selves to mechanical aids, the more we will 
 come to rely on them. . . . But the question 
 you ask anent 'Violin INIastery' leads alto- 
 gether away from the material! 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "To me it signifies technical efficiency 
 coupled with poetic insight, freedom from con- 
 ventionally accepted standards, the attainment 
 of a more varied personal expression along in- 
 dividual lines. It may be realized, of course, 
 only to a degree, since the possessor of abso- 
 lute 'Violin ^Mastery' would be forever glori- 
 fied. As it is the violin master, as I conceive 
 him, represents the embodier of the greatest 
 intimacy between himself, the artist, and his 
 medium of expression. Considered in this light 
 Pablo Casals and his 'cello, perhaps, most 
 closely comply with the requirements of the 
 definition. And this is not as paradoxical as 
 it may seem, since all string instruments are 
 brethren, descended from the ancient viol, and 
 the 'cello is, after all, a variant of the violin!"
 
 XIV 
 
 TIVADAR NACHEZ 
 
 JOACHIM AND LEONARD AS TEACHERS 
 
 TiVADAR Nachez, the celebrated violin 
 virtuoso, is better known as a concertizing 
 artist in Europe, where he has played with all 
 the leading symphonic orchestras, than in this 
 country, to which he paid his first visit dur- 
 ing these times of war, and which he was about 
 to leave for his London home when the writer 
 had the pleasure of meeting him. Yet, though 
 he has not appeared in public in this country 
 (if we except some Red Cross concerts in Cali- 
 fornia, at which he gave his auditors of his 
 best to further our noblest war charity), his^ 
 name is familiar to every violinist. For is not 
 Mr. Nachez the composer of the "Gj'^psy 
 Dances" for violin and piano, which have made 
 him famous? 
 
 Genuinely musical, effective and largely suc- 
 cessful as they have been, however, as any one 
 who has played them can testify, the composer 
 
 160
 
 TlVADAR NaCHEZ 
 
 ^'^, /**M^ /fre' 
 

 
 Tivadar Nachez 161 
 
 of the "Gypsy Dances" regards them with 
 mixed feelings. "I have done other work that 
 seems to me, relatively, much more important," 
 said Mr. Nachez, "but when my name happens 
 to be mentioned, echo always answers 'Gypsy 
 Dances,' my little rubbishy 'Gypsy Dances!' 
 It is not quite fair. I have published thirty- 
 five works, among them a 'Requiem Mass,' 
 an orchestral overture, two violin concertos, 
 three rhapsodies for violin and orchestra, vari- 
 ations on a Swiss theme, Romances, a Polo- 
 naise (dedicated to Ysaye), and Evening 
 Song, three Poemes hongrois, twelve classical 
 master works of the 17th century — to say noth- 
 ing of songs, etc. — and the two concertos of 
 Vivaldi and Nardini which I have edited, prac- 
 tically new creations, owing to the addition of 
 the piano accompaniments and orchestral 
 score. I wrote the 'Gypsy Dances' as a mere 
 boy when I was studying with H. Leonard in 
 Paris, and really at his suggestion. In one of 
 my lessons I played Sarasate's 'Spanish 
 Dances,' which chanced to be published at the 
 time, and at once made a great hit. So Leonard 
 said to me: 'Why not write some Hungarian 
 Gypsy dances — there must be wonderful ma- 
 terial at hand in the music of the Tziganes of 
 Hungary. You should do something with it!'
 
 162 Violin Mastery 
 
 I took him at his word, and he liked my 
 'Dances' so well that he made me play them at 
 his musical evenings, which he gave often dur- 
 ing the winter, and which were always attended 
 by the musical Tout Paris! I may say that 
 during these last thirty years there has been 
 scarcely a violinist before the public who at 
 one time or the other has not played these 
 'Gypsy Dances.' Besides the original edition, 
 there are two (pirated!) editions in America 
 and six in Europe. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF A VIOLINISTIC CAKEERI 
 PLAYING WITH LISZT 
 
 *'No, Leonard was not my first teacher. I 
 took up violin work when a boy of five years 
 of age, and for seven years practiced from 
 eight to ten hours a day, studying with Sa- 
 bathiel, the leader of the Royal Orchestra in 
 Budapest, where I was born, though Eng- 
 land, the land of my adoption, in which I have 
 lived these last twenty-six years, is the land 
 where I have found all my happiness, and 
 much gratifying honor, and of which I have 
 been a devoted, ardent and loyal naturalized 
 citizen for more than a quarter of a century. 
 Sabathiel was an excellent routine teacher, and
 
 Tivadar Nachez 
 
 grounded me well in the fundamentals — good 
 tone production and technical control. Later 
 I had far greater teachers, and they taught me 
 much, but — in the last analysis, most of the 
 little I have achieved 1 owe to myself, to hard, 
 untiring work : I had determined to be a violin- 
 ist and I trust I became one. No serious 
 student of the instrument should ever forget 
 that, no matter who his teacher may be, he 
 himself must supply the determination, the 
 continued energy and devotion which will lead 
 him to success. 
 
 "Playing with Liszt — he was an intimate 
 friend of my father — is my most precious musi- 
 cal recollection of Budapest. I enjoyed it a 
 great deal more than my regular lesson work. 
 He would condescend to play with me some 
 evenings and you can imagine what rare musi- 
 cal enjoyment, what happiness there was in 
 playing with such a genius ! I was still a boy 
 when with him I played the Grieg F major 
 sonata, which had just come fresh from the 
 press. He played wifli me ihe. D minor sonata 
 of Schumann and introduced me to the mystic 
 beauties of the Beethoven sonatas. I can still 
 recall how in the Beethoven C minor sonata, in 
 the first movement, Liszt would bring out a 
 certain broken chromatic passage in the left
 
 164 Violin Mastery 
 
 hand, with a mighty crescendo, an effect of 
 melodious thunder, of enormous depth of tone, 
 and yet with the most exquisite regard for the 
 balance between the violin and his own instru- 
 ment. And there was not a trace of con- 
 descension in his attitude toward me; but al- 
 ways encouragement, a tender affectionate and 
 paternal interest in a young boy, who at that 
 moment was a brother artist. 
 
 "Through Liszt I came to know the great 
 men of Hungarian music of that time : Erkel, 
 Hans Richter, Robert Volkmann, Count 
 Geza Zichy, and eventually I secured a scholar- 
 ship, which the King had founded for music, 
 to stud}'^ with Joachim in Berlin, where I re- 
 mained nearly three years. Hubay was my 
 companion there; but afterward we separated, 
 he going to Vieuxtemps, while I went to 
 Leonard. 
 
 JOACHIM AS A TEACHER AND INTERPRETER 
 
 "Joachim was, perhaps, the most celebrated 
 teacher of his time. Yet it is one of the great- 
 est ironies of fate that when he died there was 
 not one of his pupils who was considered by 
 the German authorities 'great' enough to take 
 the place the Master had held. Henri Marteau,
 
 Tivadar Nachez 165 
 
 who was not his pupil, and did not even ex- 
 empHfy his stjde in playing, was chosen to 
 succeed him ! Henri Petri, a Vieuxtemps pupil 
 who went to Joachim, played just as well when 
 he came to him as when he left him. The same 
 might be said of Willy Burmester, Hess, Kes 
 and Halir, the latter one of those Bohemian 
 artists who had a tremendous 'Kubelik-like* 
 execution. Teaching is and always will be a 
 special gift. There are many minor artists 
 who are wonderful 'teachers,' and vice versa! 
 "Yet if Joachim may be criticized as regards 
 the way of imparting the secrets of technical 
 phases in his violin teaching, as a teacher of 
 interpretation he was incomparable! As an 
 interpreter of Beethoven and of Bach in par- 
 ticular, there has never been any one to equal 
 Joachim. Yet he never played the same Bach 
 composition twice in the same way. We were 
 four in our class, and Hubay and I used to 
 bring our copies of the sonatas with us, to 
 make marginal notes while Joachim played to 
 us, and these instantaneous musical 'snapshots* 
 remain very interesting. But no matter how 
 Joachim played Bach, it was always with a big 
 tone, broad chords of an organ-like effect. 
 There is no greater discrepancy than the edi- 
 tion of the Bach sonatas published (since his
 
 166 Violin Mastery 
 
 death ) by Moser, and which is supposed to em- 
 body Joachim's interpretation. Sweeping^ 
 chords, which Joachim always played with the 
 utmost breadth, are 'arpeggiated' in Moser's 
 edition! Why, if any of his pupils had ever 
 attempted to play, for instance, the end of the 
 Bouree in the B minor Partita of Bach a la 
 Moser, Joachim would have broken his bow 
 over their heads! 
 
 STUDYING WITH LEONARD 
 
 "After three years' study I left Joachim 
 and went to Paris. Liszt had given me letters of 
 introduction to various French artists, among 
 them Saint-Saens. One evening I happened 
 to hear Leonard play Corelli's La Folia in the 
 Salle Pleyel, and the liquid clarity and beauty 
 of his tone so impressed me that I decided I 
 must study with him. I played for him and 
 he accepted me as a pupil. I am free to admit 
 that my tone, which people seem to be pleased 
 to praise especially, I owe entirely to Leonard, 
 for when I came to him I had the so-called 
 'German tone' (son allemand), of a harsh, 
 rasping quality, which I tried to abandon ab- 
 solutely. Leonard often would point to his 
 ears while teaching and say : 'Ouvrez vos oreiU
 
 Tivadar Nachez 167 
 
 les: ecoutez la heaute du son!' ('Open your 
 ears, listen for beauty of sound!') . Most Joa- 
 chim pupils you hear (unless they have re- 
 formed ) attack a chord with the nut of the bow, 
 the German method, which unduly stresses the 
 attack. Leonard, on the contrary, insisted with 
 his pupils on the attack being made with such 
 smoothness as to be absolutely unobtrusive. 
 Being a nephew of Mme. Malibran, he attached 
 special importance to the 'singing' tone, and 
 advised his pupils to hear great singers, to 
 listen to them, and to try and reproduce their 
 hel canto on the violin. 
 
 "He was most particular in his observance 
 of every nuance of shading and expression. He 
 told me that when he played Mendelssohn's 
 concerto (for the first time) at the Leipsic 
 Gewandhaus, at a rehearsal, Mendelssohn him- 
 self conducting, he began the first phrase with 
 a full mezzo-forte tone. Mendelssohn laid his 
 hand on his arm and said : 'But it begins piano!' 
 In reply Leonard merely pointed with his bow 
 to the score — the p which is now indicated in 
 all editions had been omitted by some printer's 
 error, and he had been quite within his rights 
 in playing mezzo-forte. 
 
 "Leonard paid a great deal of attention 
 to scales and the right way to practice them.
 
 168 Violin Mastery 
 
 He would say, 'II faut filer les sons: c'est Vart 
 des mmtres.' ('One must spin out the tone: 
 that is the art of the masters.' ) He taught his 
 pupils to play the scales with long, steady 
 bowings, counting sixt\^ to each bow. Himself 
 a great classical violinist, he nevertheless paid 
 a good deal of attention to virtuoso pieces ; and 
 always tried to prepare his pupils for public 
 life. He had all sorts of wise hints for the 
 budding concert artist, and was in the habit 
 of saying: 'You must plan a program as you 
 would the menu of a dinner: there should be 
 something for every one's taste. And, espe- 
 cially, if you are playing on a long program, 
 together with other artists, offer nothing in- 
 digestible — let your number be a relief!' 
 
 SIVORI 
 
 "While studying with Leonard I met Sivori, 
 Paganini's only pupil (if vre except Catarina 
 Caleagno), for whom Paganini wrote a con- 
 certo and six short sonatas. Leonard took me 
 to see him late one evening at the Hotel de 
 Ilavane in Paris, where Sivori was staying. 
 When we came to his room we heard the sound 
 of slow scales, beautifully played, coming from 
 behind the closed door. We peered through
 
 Tivadar Nachez 169 
 
 the keyhole, and there he sat on his bed string- 
 ing his scale tones like pearls. He was a lit- 
 tle chap and had the tiniest hands I have ever 
 seen. Was this a drawback? If so, no one 
 could tell from his playing; he had a flawless 
 technic, and a really pearly quality of tone. He 
 was very jolly and amiable, and he and Leon- 
 ard were great friends, each always going to 
 hear the other whenever he played in concert. 
 My four years in Paris were in the main years 
 of storm and stress — plain living and hard, 
 very hard, concentrated work. I gave some ac- 
 companying lessons to help keep things going. 
 When I left Paris I went to London and then 
 began my public life as a concert violinist. 
 
 GREAT MOMENTS IN AN ARTIST's LIFE 
 
 "What is the happiest remembrance of my 
 career as a virtuoso? Some of the great mo- 
 ments in my life as an artist ? It is hard to say. 
 Of course some of my court appearances be- 
 fore the crowned heads of Europe are dear 
 to me, not so much because they were court 
 appearances, but because of the graciousness 
 and appreciation of the highly placed person- 
 ages for whom I played. 
 
 "Then, what I count a signal honor, I have
 
 170 Violin Mastery 
 
 played no less than three times as a solo artist 
 with the Royal Philharmonic Society of Lon- 
 don, the oldest symphonic society in Europe, 
 for whom Beethoven composed his immortal 
 IXth symphony (once under Sir Arthur Sul- 
 livan's baton; once imder that of Sir A. C. 
 Mackenzie, and once with Sir Frederick 
 Cowen as conductor — on this last occasion I 
 was asked to introduce my new Second con- 
 certo in B minor. Op. 36, at the time still in 
 ms.) Then there is quite a number of great 
 conductors with whom I have appeared, a few 
 among them being Liszt, Rubinstein, Brahms, 
 Pasdeloup, Sir August Manns, Sir Charles 
 Halle, L. Mancinelli, Weingartner and Hans 
 Richter, etc. Perhaps, as a violinist, what I 
 like best to recall is that as a boy I was in- 
 vited, by Richter to go with him to Bayreuth 
 and play at the foundation of the Bayreuth 
 festival theater, which howcA'^er my parents 
 would not permit owing to my tender age. I 
 also remember with pleasure an episode at 
 the famous Pasdeloup Concerts in the Cirque 
 d'hiver in Paris, on an occasion when I per- 
 formed the F sharp minor concerto of Ernst. 
 After I had finished, two ladies came to the 
 green room; they were in deep mourning, and, 
 one of them greatly moved, asked me to 'allow
 
 Tivadar Nachez 171 
 
 her to thank me' for the manner in which I had 
 played this concerto — she said: 'Z am the 
 widow of Ernst!' She also told me that since 
 his death she had never heard the concerto 
 played as I had played it! In presenting to 
 me her companion, the Marquise de Gallifet 
 (wife of the General de Gallifet who led the 
 brigade of the Chasseurs d'Afrique in the 
 heroic charge of General Margueritte's cavalry 
 division at Sedan, M^hich excited the admiration 
 of the old king of Prussia) , I had the honor 
 of meeting the once world famous violinist 
 IMlle. IMillanollo, as she was before her mar- 
 riage. ]Mme. Ernst often came to hear me 
 play her late husband's music, and as a part- 
 ing gift presented me with his beautiful 
 'Tourte' bow, and an autographed copy of the 
 first edition of Ernst's transcription for solo 
 violin of Schubert's 'Erlking.' It is so in- 
 credibly difncult to play with proper balance 
 of melody and accompaniment — I never heard 
 any one but Kubelik play it — ^that it is almost 
 impossible. It is so difficult, in fact, that it 
 should not be played! 
 
 VIOLINS AND STRINGS : SARASATE 
 
 "My violin? I am a Stradivarius player, 
 and possess two fine Strads, though I also have
 
 172 Violin Mastery 
 
 a beautiful Joseph Guarnerius. Ysaye, Thi- 
 baud and Caressa, when they lunched with me 
 not long ago, were enthusiastic about them. 
 My favorite Strad is a 1716 instrument — I 
 have used it for twenty-five years. But I can- 
 not use the wire strings that are now in such 
 vogue here. I have to have Italian gut strings. 
 The wire E cuts my fingers, and besides I no- 
 tice a perceptible difference in sound quality. 
 Of course, wire strings are practical; they do 
 not *snap' on the concert stage. Speaking of 
 strings that 'snap,' reminds me that the first 
 time I heard Sarasate play the Saint-Saens 
 concerto, at Frankfort, he twice forgot his 
 place and stopped. They brought him the 
 music, he began for the third time and then — 
 the E string snapped! I do not think any 
 other than Sarasate could have carried off these 
 successive mishaps and brought his concert to 
 a triumphant conclusion. He was a great 
 friend of mine and one of the most perfect 
 players I have ever known, as well as one of 
 the greatest grand seigneurs among violinists. 
 His rendering of romantic works, Saint-Saens, 
 Lalo, Bruch, was exquisite — I have never, 
 never heard them played as beautifully. On 
 the other hand, his Bach playing was excruciat- 
 ing — he played Bach sonatas as though they
 
 Tivadar Nachez 173 
 
 were virtuoso pieces. It made one think of 
 Hans von Biilow's mot when, in speaking of 
 a certain famous pianist, he said: 'He plays 
 Beethoven with velocity and Czerny wath ex- 
 pression.' But to hear Sarasate play roman- 
 tic music, his own 'Spanish Dances' for in- 
 stance, was all like glorious hirdsong and 
 golden sunshine, a lark soaring heavenwards! 
 
 THE NARDINI CONCERTO IN A 
 
 "You ask about my compositions? Well, 
 Eddy Brown is going to play my Second vio- 
 lin concerto, Op. 36 in B flat, which I wrote 
 for the London Philharmonic Society, next 
 season; Elman the Nardini concerto in A, 
 which M^as published only shortly before the 
 outbreak of the war. Thirty years ago I found, 
 by chance, three old Nardini concertos for 
 violin and bass in the composer's original ms., 
 in Bologna. The best was the one in A — a 
 beautiful work! But the bass was not even 
 figured, and the task of reconstructing the ac- 
 companiment for piano, as well as for orches- 
 tra, and reverently doing justice to the com- 
 poser's original intent and idea; while at the 
 same time making its beauties clearly and ex- 
 pressively available from the standpoint of
 
 174 Violin Mastery 
 
 the violinist of to-day, was not easy. Still, 
 I think I may say I succeeded." And Mr. 
 Nachez showed me some letters from famous 
 contemporaries who had made the acquaintance 
 of this Nardini concerto in A major. Auer, 
 Thibaud, Sir Hubert Parry (who said that he 
 had "infused the work with new life"), Pol- 
 lak, Switzerland's ranking fiddler, Carl Flesch, 
 author of the well-known Urstudien — all ex- 
 pressed their admiration. One we cannot for- 
 bear quoting a letter in part. It was from Otto- 
 kar Sevcik. The great Bohemian pedagogue is 
 usually regarded as the apostle of mechanism 
 in violin playing: as the inventor of an inex- 
 orably logical system of development, which 
 stresses the technical at the expense of the 
 musical. The following lines show him in 
 quite a different light : 
 
 "I would not be surprised if Nardini, Vivaldi and 
 their companions were to appear to you at the midnight 
 hour in order to thank the master for having given new 
 life to their works, long buried beneath the mold of 
 figured basses ; works whose vital, pulsating possibilities 
 these old gentlemen probably never suspected. Nardini 
 emerges from your alchemistic musical laboratory with 
 so fresh and lively a quality of charm that starving 
 fiddlers will greet him with the same pleasure with which 
 the bee greets the first honeyed blossom of spring."
 
 Tivadar Nachez 175 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "And now you want my definition of 'Violin 
 Mastery'? To me the whole art of playing 
 violin is contained in the reverent and respect- 
 ful interpretation of the works of the great 
 masters. I consider the artist only their mes- 
 senger, singing the message they give us. And 
 the more one realizes this, the greater becomes 
 one's veneration especially for Bach's creative 
 work. For twenty years I never failed to play 
 the Bach solo sonatas for violin every day of 
 my life — a violinist's 'daily prayer' in its truest 
 sense! Students of Bach are apt, in the be- 
 ginning, to play, say, the finale of the G minor 
 sonata, the final Allegro of the A minor 
 sonata, the Gigue of the B minor, or the Pre- 
 ludio of the E major sonata like a mechanical 
 exercise: it takes constant study to disclose 
 their intimate harmonic melodious conception 
 and poetry! One should always remember 
 that technic is, after all, only a means. It must 
 be acquired in order to be an unliampered 
 master of the instrument, as a medium for pre- 
 senting the thoughts of the great creators — but 
 these thoughts, and not their medium of ex- 
 pression, are the chief objects of the true and
 
 176 Violin Mastery 
 
 great artist, whose aim in life is to serve his 
 Art humbly, reverently and faithfully! You 
 remember these words: 
 
 " 'In the very torrent, tempest, and, as I 
 may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must 
 acquire and beget a temperance that may give 
 it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to 
 hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a 
 passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the 
 ears of the groundlings, who for the most part 
 are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb- 
 shows and noise !...'"
 
 XV 
 
 MAXIMILIAN PILZER 
 
 THE SINGING TONE AND THE VIBRATO 
 
 Maximilian Pilzer is deservedly promi- 
 nent among younger American concert violin- 
 ists. A pupil of Joachim, Shradieck, Gustav 
 Hollander, he is, as it has alreadj^ been pic- 
 turesquely put, "a graduate of the rock and 
 thorn university," an artist who owes his suc- 
 cess mainly to his own natural gifts plus an in- 
 finite capacity for taking pains. Though 
 primarily an interpreter his interlocutor yet 
 had the good fortune to happen on INIr. Pilzer 
 when he was giving a lesson. Essentially a 
 solo violinist, INIr. Pilzer nevertheless has the 
 born teacher's wish to impart, to share, where 
 talent justifies it, his own knowledge. He him- 
 self did not have to tell the listener this — the 
 lesson he was giving betrayed the fact. 
 
 It was Kreisler's Tambourin Chinois that 
 the student played. And as Mr. Pilzer il- 
 lustrated the delicate shades of nuance, of 
 
 177
 
 178 Violin Mastery 
 
 phrasing, of bowing, with instant rebuke for 
 an occasional lack of "warmth" in tone, the 
 improvement was instantaneous and unmis- 
 takable. The lesson over, he said : 
 
 THE SINGING TONE 
 
 "The singing tone is the ideal one, it is the 
 natural violin tone. Too many violin students 
 have the technical bee in their bonnet and neg- 
 lect it. And too many believe that speed is 
 brilliancy. When they see the black notes they 
 take for granted that they must 'run to beat 
 the band.' Yet often it is the teacher's fault if 
 a good singing tone is not developed. Where 
 the teacher's playing is cold, that of the pupil 
 is apt to be the same. Warmth, rounded full- 
 ness, the truly beautiful violin tone is more dif- 
 ficult to call forth than is generally supposed. 
 And, in a manner of speaking, the soul of this 
 tone quality is the vibrato, though the indi- 
 vidual instrument also has much to do with 
 the tone. 
 
 THE VIBRATO 
 
 "But not," Mr. Pilzer continued, "not as it 
 is too often mistakenly employed. Of course, 
 any trained player will draw his bow across
 
 Maximilian Pilzer 179 
 
 the strings in a smooth, even way, but that is 
 not enough. There must be an inner, emotional 
 instinct, an electric spark within the player 
 himself that sets the vibrato current in mo- 
 tion. It is an inner, psychic vibration which 
 should be reflected by the intense, rapid vibra- 
 tion in the fingers of the left hand on the 
 strings in order to give fluent expression to 
 emotion. The vibrato can not be used, 
 naturally, on the open strings, but otherwise ii^ 
 represents the true means for securing warmth 
 of expression. Of course, some decry the vi- 
 brato — but the reason is often because the vi- 
 brato is too slow. One need only listen to 
 Ysaye, Elman, Kreisler: artists such as these 
 employ the quick, intense vibrato with ideal 
 effect. An exaggerated vibrato is as bad as 
 what I call 'the sentimental slide,' a common 
 fault, which many violinists cultivate under the 
 impression that they are playing expressively. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY AND ITS ATTAINMENT 
 
 "Violin mastery expresses more or less the 
 aspiration to realize an ideal. It is a hope, a 
 prayer, rather than an actual fact, since noth- 
 ing human is absolutely perfect. Ysaye, per- 
 haps, with his golden tone, comes nearest to
 
 180 Violin Mastery 
 
 my idea of what violin mastery should be, both 
 as regards breadth and delicacy of interpre- 
 tation. And guide-posts along the long road 
 that leads to mastery of the instrument? In- 
 dividuality in teaching, progress along natural 
 lines, surety in bowing, a tone-production with- 
 out forcing, cultivating a sense of rhythm and 
 accent. I always remember what IMoser once 
 wrote in my autograph album: 'Rhythm and 
 accent are the soul of music !' 
 
 THE SHINING GOAL 
 
 "And what a shining goal is waiting to be 
 reached! The correct interpretation of Bach, 
 Haendel and the old Italian and French clas- 
 sics, and of the vast realm of ensemble music 
 under which head come the Mozart and Bee- 
 thoven violin sonatas, and those of their suc- 
 cessors, Schumann, Brahms, etc. And aside 
 from the classics, the moderns. And then 
 there are the great violin concertos, in a class 
 by themselves. They represent, in a degree, 
 the utmost that the composer has done for the 
 interpreting artist. Yet they differ absolutely 
 in manner, style, thought, etc. Take Joachim's 
 own Hungarian concerto, which I played for 
 the composer, of which I still treasure the
 
 Maxiinilian Pilzer 181 
 
 recollection of his patting me on the shoulder 
 and saying: 'There is nothing for me to cor- 
 rect!' It is a work deliberately designed for 
 technical display, and is tremendously difficult. 
 But the wonderful Brahms concerto, those 
 of Beethoven and ^lax Bruch ; of Mozart and 
 Mendelssohn — it is hard to express a prefer- 
 ence for works so different in the quality of 
 their beauty. The Russian Conus has a fine 
 concerto in E, and Sinding a most effective 
 one in A major. Edmund Severn, the Ameri- 
 can composer and violinist, has also written a 
 notably fine violin concerto which I have played 
 with the Philharmonic, one that ought to be 
 heard oftener. 
 
 PLAYING BACH 
 
 "Bach is one of the most difficult of the great 
 masters to interpret on the violin. His poly- 
 phonic style and interweaving themes demand 
 close study in order to make the meaning clear. 
 In the Bach CJmconne, for instance, some very 
 great violinists do not pay enough attention to 
 making a distinction between principal and 
 secondary notes of a chord. Here [Mr. Pilzer 
 took up a new Strad he has recently acquired 
 and illustrated his meaning] in this four-note
 
 182 Violin Mastery 
 
 chord there is one important melody note 
 which must stand out. And it can be done, 
 though not without some study. Bach abounds 
 in such pitfalls, and in studying him the closest^ 
 attention is necessary. Once the problems in- 
 volved overcome, his music gains its true 
 clarity and beauty and the enjoyment of artist 
 and listener is doubled.
 
 XVI 
 
 MAUD POWELL 
 
 TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: SOME HINTS 
 FOR THE CONCERT PLAYER 
 
 Maud Powell is often alluded to as our 
 representative "American "woman violinist" 
 which, while true in a narrower sense, is not al- 
 together just in a broader way. It would be 
 decidedly more fair to consider her a repre- 
 sentative American violinist, without stressing 
 the term "woman"; for as regards Art in its 
 higher sense, the artist comes first, sex being 
 incidental, and Maud Powell is first and fore- 
 most — an artist. And her infinite capacity for 
 taking pains, her willingness to work hard 
 have had no small part in the position she 
 has made for herself, and the success she has 
 achieved. 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CONCERT VIOLINIST 
 
 "Too many Americans who take up the 
 violin professionally," ]Maud Powell told the 
 
 183
 
 184 Violin Mastery 
 
 writer, "do not realize that the mastery of the 
 instrument is a life study, that without hard, 
 concentrated work they cannot reach the higher 
 levels of their art. Then, too, they are too 
 often inchned to think that if they have a good 
 tone and technic that this is all they need. They 
 forget that the musical instinct must he cul- 
 tivated ; they do not attach enough importance 
 to musical surroundings : to hearing and under- 
 standing music of every kind, not only that 
 written for the violin. They do not realize 
 the value of ensemble work and its influence 
 as an educational factor of the greatest artistic 
 value. I remember when I was a girl of eight, 
 my mother used to play the Mozart violin 
 sonatas with me; I heard all the music I pos- 
 sibly could hear; I was taught harmony and 
 musical form in direct connection with my 
 practical work, so that theory was a living 
 thing to me and no abstraction. In my home 
 town I played in an orchestra of twenty pieces 
 — Oh, no, not a 'ladies orchestra' — the other 
 members were men grown! I played chamber 
 music as well as solos whenever the oppor- 
 tunity offered, at home and in public. In fact 
 music was part of my life. 
 
 "No student who looks on music primarily 
 as a thing apart in his existence, as a bread-win-
 
 Maud Powell
 
 Maud Powell 185 
 
 ning tool, as a craft rather than an art, can 
 ever mount to the high places. So often girls 
 [who sometimes lack the practical vision of 
 boys] , although having studied but a few years, 
 come to me and say: 'My one ambition is to 
 become a great virtuoso on the violin ! I want 
 to begin to study the great concertos !' And I 
 have to tell them that their first ambition 
 should be to become musicians — to study, to 
 know, to understand music before they ven- 
 ture on its interpretation. Virtuosity without 
 musicianship will not carry one far these days. 
 In many cases these students come from small 
 inland towns, far from any music center, and 
 have a wrong attitude of mind. They crave 
 the glamor of footlights, flow^ers and applause, 
 not realizing that music is a speech, an idiom, 
 which they must master in order to interpret 
 the works of the great composers. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE TEACHER 
 
 "Of course, all artistic playing represents es- 
 sentially the mental control of technical means. 
 But to acquire the latter in the right w^ay, while 
 at the same time developing the former, calls 
 for the best of teachers. The problem of the 
 teacher is to prevent his pupils from being too
 
 186 Violin Master^/ 
 
 imitative — all students are natural imitators — 
 and furthering the quality of musical imagina- 
 tion in them. Pupils generally have something 
 of the teacher's tone — Auer pupils have the 
 Auer tone, Joachim pupils have a Joachim 
 tone, an excellent thing. But as each pupil 
 has an individuality of his ov^i^n, he should never 
 sink it altogether in that of his teacher. It is 
 this imitative trend which often makes it hard 
 to judge a young player's work. I was very 
 fortunate in my teachers. William Lewis of 
 Chicago gave me a splendid start. Then Ij 
 studied in turn with Schradieck in Leipsic — 
 Schradieck himself was a pupil of Ferdinand 
 David and of Leonard — Joachim in Berlin, 
 and Charles Dancla in Paris. I might say that 
 I owe most, in a way, to William Lewis, a born 
 fiddler. Of my three European masters 
 Dancla was unquestionably the greatest as a 
 teacher — of course I am speaking for myself. 
 It was no doubt an advantage, a decided ad- 
 vantage for me in my artistic development, 
 which was slow — a family trait — to enjoy thcj 
 broadening experience of three entirely dif- 
 ferent styles of teaching, and to be able to as- 
 similate the best of each. Yet Joachim was a 
 far greater violinist than teacher. His method 
 was a cramping one, owing to his insistence on
 
 Maud Powell 187 
 
 pouring all his pupils into the same mold, so 
 to speak, of forming them all on the Joachim 
 lathe. But Dancla was inspiring. He taught 
 me De Beriot's wonderful method of attack; 
 he showed me how to develop purity of style. 
 Dancla's method of teaching gave his pupils a 
 technical equipment which carried bowing 
 right along, 'neck and neck' with the finger 
 work of the left hand, while the Germans are 
 apt to stress finger development at the expens^ 
 of the bow. And without ever neglecting tech- 
 nical means, Dancla always put the purely 
 musical before the purely virtuoso side of play- 
 ing. And this is always a sign of a good teacher. 
 He was unsparing in taking pains and very 
 fair. 
 
 "I remember that I was passed first in a 
 class of eighty-four at an examination, after 
 only three private lessons in which to prepare 
 the concerto movement to be played. I was 
 
 surprised and asked him why Mile. who, 
 
 it seemed to me, had played better than I, had 
 
 not passed. 'Ah,' he said, 'Mile. studied 
 
 that movement for six months ; and in compari- 
 son, you, with only three lessons, play it bet- 
 ter!' Dancla switched me right over in his 
 teaching from German to French methods, and 
 taught me how to become an artist, just as I
 
 188 Violin Mastery 
 
 had learned in Germany to become a musician. 
 The Fr^ch school has taste, elegance, imag- 
 ination; the German is more conservative, 
 serious, and has, perhaps, more depth. 
 
 TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES 
 
 "Perhaps it is because I belong to an older 
 school, or it may be because I laid stress on 
 technic because of its necessity as a means of 
 expression — at any rate I worked hard at it. 
 Naturally, one should never practice any tech- 
 nical difficulty too long at a stretch. Young 
 players sometimes forget this. I know that 
 staccato playing was not easy for me at one 
 time. I believe a real staccato is inborn; a 
 knack. 1^ used to grumble about it to Joachim 
 and he told me once that musically staccato 
 did not have much value. His own, by the 
 way, was very labored and heavy. He admitted 
 that he had none. Wieniawski had such a 
 wonderful staccato that one finds much of it 
 in his music. When I first began to play his D 
 minor concerto I simply made up my mind to 
 get a staccato. It came in time, by sheer force 
 of will. After that I had no trouble. An ar- 
 tistic staccato should, like the trill, be plastic 
 and under control ; for different schools of com-
 
 Maud Powell 189 
 
 position demand different styles of treatment 
 of such details. 
 
 "Octaves — the unison, not broken — I did 
 not find difficult ; but though they are supposed 
 to add volume of tone they sound hideous to 
 me. I have used them in certain passages of 
 my arrangement of 'Deep River,' but when I 
 heard them played, promised myself I would 
 never repeat the experiment. Wilhelmj has 
 committed even a worse crime in taste by put- 
 ting six long bars of Schubert's lovely Ave 
 Maria in octaves. Of course they represent 
 skill; but I think they are only justified in 
 show pieces. Harmonics I always found easy ; 
 though whether they ring out as they should 
 always depends more or less on atmospheric 
 conditions, the strings and the amount of rosin 
 on the bow. On the concert stage if the player 
 stands in a draught the harmonics are some- 
 times husky. 
 
 THE AMERICAN WOMAN VIOLINIST AND 
 AMERICAN MUSIC 
 
 "The old days of virtuoso 'tricks' have passed 
 — I should like to hope forever. Not that 
 some of the old type virtuosos were not fine 
 players. Remenyi played beautifully. So did
 
 190 Violin Mastery 
 
 Ole Bull. I remember one favorite trick of 
 the latter's, for instance, which would hardly 
 pass muster to-day. I have seen him draw out 
 a long pp, the audience listening breathlessly, 
 while he drew his bow way beyond the string, 
 and then looked innocently at the point of the 
 bow, as though wondering where the tone had 
 vanished. It invariably brought down the 
 house. 
 
 "Yet an artist must be a virtuoso in the 
 modern sense to do his full duty. And here in 
 America that duty is to help those who are 
 groping for something higher and better 
 musically; to help without rebuffing them. 
 When I first began my career as a concert 
 violinist I did pioneer work for the cause of 
 the American woman violinist, going on with 
 the work begun by Mme. Camilla Urso. A 
 strong prejudice then existed against women 
 fiddlers, which even yet has not altogether been 
 overcome. The very fact that a Western man- 
 ager recently told Mr. Turner with surprise 
 that he 'had made a success of a woman artist' 
 proves it. When I first began to play here in 
 concert this prejudice was much stronger. Yet 
 I kept on and secured engagements to play 
 with orchestra at a time when they were dif- 
 ficult to obtain. Theodore Thomas liked my
 
 3Iaud Powell 191 
 
 playing (he said I had brains) , and it was with 
 his orchestra that I introduced the concertos 
 of Saint-Saens (C min.), Lalo (F min.), and 
 others, to American audiences. 
 
 "The fact that I reahzed that my sex was 
 against me in a way led me to be startlingly 
 authoritative and convincing in the masculine 
 manner when I first played. This is a mistake 
 no woman violinist should make. And from 
 the moment that James Huneker wrote that 
 I 'was not developing the feminine side of my 
 work,' I determined to be just myself, and 
 play as the spirit moved me, with no further 
 thought of sex or sex distinctions which, in Art, 
 after all, are secondary. I never realized this 
 more forcibly than once, when, sitting as a 
 judge, I listened to the competitive playing of 
 a number of young professional violinists and 
 pianists. The individual performers, unseen 
 by the judges, played in turn behind a screen. 
 And in three cases my fellow judges and my- 
 self guessed wrongly with regard to the sex 
 of the players. When we thought we had 
 heard a young man play it happened to be a 
 young woman, and vice versa. 
 
 "To return to the question of concert-work. 
 You must not think that I have played only 
 foreign music in j)ublic. I have always be-
 
 192 Violin Mastery 
 
 lieved in American composers and in American 
 composition, and as an American have tried 
 to do justice as an interpreting artist to the 
 music of my native land. Aside from the violin 
 concertos by Harry Rowe Shelly and Henry 
 Holden Huss, I have played any number of 
 shorter original compositions by such repre- 
 sentative American composers as Arthur 
 Foote, Mrs. H. H. A. Beach, Victor Herbert, 
 John Philip Sousa, Arthur Bird, Edwin 
 Grasse, Marion Bauer, Cecil Burleigh, Harry 
 Gilbert, A. Walter Kramer, Grace White, 
 Charles Wakefield Cadman and others. Then, 
 too, I have presented transcriptions by Arthur 
 Hartmann, Francis Macmillan and Sol Mar- 
 cosson, as well as some of my own. Transcrip- 
 tions are wrong, theoretically ; yet some songs, 
 like Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Song of India' and 
 some piano pieces, like the Dvorak Hu- 
 moresquCj are so obviously effective on the vio- 
 lin that a transcription justifies itself. My 
 latest temptative in that direction is my 'Four 
 American Folk Songs,' a simple setting of 
 four well-known airs with connecting cadenzas 
 — ^no variations, no special development! I 
 used them first as encores^ but my audiences 
 seemed to like them so well that I have played 
 them on all my recent programs.
 
 Maud Powell 193 
 
 SOME HINTS FOR THE CONCERT PLAYER 
 
 "The very first thing in playing in public is 
 to free oneself of all distrust in one's own pow- 
 ers. To do this, nothing must be left to chance. 
 One should not have to give a thought to 
 strings, bow, etc. All should be in proper con- 
 dition. Above all the violinist should play with 
 an accompanist who is used to accompanying 
 him. It seems superfluous to emphasize that 
 one's program numbers must have been mas- 
 tered in every detail. Only then can one defy 
 nervousness, turning excess of emotion into 
 inspiration. 
 
 "Acoustics play a greater part in the suc- 
 cess of a public concert than most people real- 
 ize. In some halls they are very good, as in 
 the case of the Cleveland Hippodrome, an 
 enormous place which holds forty-three hun- 
 dred people. Here the acoustics are perfect, 
 and the artist has those wonderful silences 
 through which his slightest tones carrj^ clearly 
 and sweetly. I have played not onh" solos, but 
 chamber music in this hall, and was always 
 sorry to stop playing. In most halls the acous- 
 tic conditions are best in the evening. 
 
 "Then there is the matter of the violin. I 
 first used a Joseph Guarnerius, a deeper toned
 
 194 Violin Mastery 
 
 instrument than the Jean Baptista Guadagnini 
 I have now played for a number of years. The 
 Guarnerius has a tone that seems to come more 
 from within the instrument; but all in all I 
 have found my Guadagnini, with its glassy 
 clearness, its brilliant and limpid tone-quality, 
 better adapted to American concert halls. If 
 I had a Strad in the same condition as my 
 Guadagnini the instrument would be priceless. 
 I regretted giving up my Guarnerius, but I 
 could not play the two violins interchangeably ; 
 for they were absolutely different in size and 
 tone-production, shape, etc. Then my hand 
 is so small that I ought to use the instrument 
 best adapted to it, and to use the same instru- 
 ment always. Why do I use no chin-rest? I 
 use no chin-rest on my Guadagnini simply be- 
 cause I cannot find one to fit my chin. One 
 should use a chin-rest to prevent perspiration 
 from marring the varnish. My Rocca violin 
 is an interesting instance of wood worn in 
 ridges by the stubble on a man's chin. 
 
 "Strings? Well, I use a wire E string. I 
 began to use it twelve years ago one humid, 
 foggy summer in Connecticut. I had had such 
 trouble with strings snapping that I cried: 
 'Give me anything but a gut string.' The 
 climate practically makes metal strings a neces-
 
 Maud Powell 195 
 
 sity, though some kind person once said that I 
 bought wire strings because they were cheap! 
 If wire strings had been thought of when Theo- 
 dore Thomas began his career, he might never 
 have been a conductor, for he told me he gave 
 up the violin because of the E string. And most 
 people will admit that hearing a wire E you 
 cannot tell it from a gut E. Of course, it is un- 
 pleasant on the open strings, but then the open 
 strings never do sound well. And in the high- 
 est registers the tone does not spin out long 
 enough because of the tremendous tension: 
 one has to use more bow. And it cuts the hairs : 
 there, is a little surface nap on the bow-hairs 
 which a wire string wears right out. I had to 
 have my four bows rehaired three times last 
 season — an average of every three months. But 
 all said and done it has been a God-send to the 
 violinist who plays in public. On the wire A 
 one cannot get the harmonics; and the alumi- 
 num D is objectionable in soivg violins, though 
 in others not at all. 
 
 *'The main thing — no matter what strings 
 are used — is for the artist to get his audience 
 into the concert hall, and give it a program 
 which is properly balanced. Theodore Thomas 
 first advised me to include in my programs 
 short, simple things that my listeners could
 
 196 Violin Master^ 
 
 'get hold of — nothing inartistic, but something 
 selected from their standpoint, not from mine, 
 and played as artistically as possible. Yet 
 there must also be something that is beyond 
 them, collectively. Something that they may 
 need to hear a number of times to appreciate. 
 This enables the artist to maintain his dignity 
 and has a certain psychological effect in that 
 his audience holds him in greater respect. At 
 big conservatories where music study is the 
 most important thing, and in large cities, 
 where the general level of music culture is 
 high, a big solid program may be given, where 
 it would be inappropriate in other places. 
 
 "Yet I remember having many recalls at El 
 Paso, Texas, once, after playing the first move- 
 ment of the Sibelius concerto. It is one of 
 those compositions which if played too literally 
 leaves an audience quite cold; it must be ren- 
 dered temperamentally, the big climaxing ef- 
 fects built up, its Northern spirit brought out, 
 though I admit that even then it is not alto- 
 gether easy to grasp. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Violin mastery or mastery of any instru- 
 ment, for that matter, is the technical power to
 
 Mawd Powell 197 
 
 say exactly what you want to say in exactly 
 the way you want to say it. It is technical 
 equipment that stands at the service of your 
 musical will — a faithful and competent servant 
 that comes at your musical bidding. If your 
 spirit soars 'to parts unknown,' your well 
 trained servant 'technic' is ever at your elbow 
 to prevent irksome details from hampering 
 your progress. Mastery of your instrument 
 makes mastery of your Art a joy instead of a 
 burden. Technic should always be the hand- 
 maid of the spirit. 
 
 "And I believe that one result of the war 
 will be to bring us a greater self-knowledge, 
 to the violinist as well as to every other artist, 
 a broader appreciation of what he can do to 
 increase and elevate appreciation for music 
 in general and his Art in particular. And with 
 these I am sure a new impetus will be given 
 to the development of a musical culture truly 
 American in thought and expression."
 
 XVII 
 
 LEON SAMETINI 
 
 HARMONICS 
 
 Leon Sametini^ at present director of the 
 dolin department of the Chicago Music Col- 
 lege, where Sauret, Heermann and Sebald 
 preceded him, is one of the most successful 
 teachers of his instrument in this country. It 
 is to be regretted that he has not played in 
 public in the United States as often as in 
 Europe, where his extensive tournees in Hol- 
 land — Leon Sametini is a Hollander by birth 
 — Belgium, England and Austria have estab- 
 lished his reputation as a virtuoso, and the 
 quality of his playing led Ysaye to include him 
 in a quartet of artists "in order of lyric ex- 
 pression" with himself and Thibaud. Yet, the 
 fact remains that this erstwhile protege of 
 Queen Wilhelmina — she gave him his beautiful 
 Santo Serafin (1730) violin, whose golden 
 varnish back "is a genuine picture," — to quote 
 its owner — is a distinguished interpreting 
 
 198
 
 Leon Sametini 199 
 
 artist besides having a real teaching gift, which 
 lends additional weight to his educational 
 views. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF SEvClK 
 
 "I began to study violin at the age of six, 
 with my uncle. From him I went to Elder- 
 ing in Amsterdam, now Willy Hess's succes- 
 sor at the head of the Cologne Conservatory, 
 and then spent a year with Sevcik in Prague. 
 Yet — without being his pupil — I have learned 
 more from Ysaye than from any of my teach- 
 ers. It is rather the custom to decry Sevcik 
 as a teacher, to dwell on his absolutely mechani- 
 cal character of instruction — and not without 
 justice. First of all Sevcik laid all the stres:^ 
 on the left hand and not on the bow — an ab- 
 solute inversion of a fundamental principle. 
 Eldering had taken great pains with my bow 
 technic, for he himself was a pupil of Hubay, 
 who had studied with Vieuxtemps and had his 
 tradition. But Sevcik's teaching as regards 
 the use of the bow was very poor ; his pupils — 
 take Kubelik with all his marvelous finger 
 facility — could never develop a big bow tech- 
 nic. Their plajnng lacks strength, richness of 
 sound. Sevcik soon noticed that my bowing 
 did not conform to his theories; vet since he
 
 200 Violin Mastery 
 
 could not legitimately complain of the results 
 I secured, he did not attempt to make me 
 change it. Musical beauty, interpretation, in 
 Sevcik's case were all subordinated to mechani- 
 cal perfection. With him the study of some in- 
 spired masterpiece was purely a mathematical 
 process, a problem in technic and mental arith- 
 metic, without a bit of spontaneity. Ysaye 
 used to roar with laughter when I would tell 
 him how, when a boy of fifteen, I played the 
 Beethoven concerto for Sevcik — a work which 
 I myself felt and knew it was then out of the 
 question for me to play with artistic maturity 
 — the latter's only criticisms on my perform- 
 ance were that one or two notes were a little 
 too high, and a certain passage not quite clear. 
 "Sevcik did not like the Dvorak concerto 
 and never gave it to his pupils. But I lived 
 next door to Dvorak at Prague, and meeting 
 him in the street one day, asked him some ques- 
 tions anent its interpretation, with the result 
 that I went to his home various times and he 
 gave me his own ideas as to how it should be 
 played. Sevcik never pointed his teachings by 
 playing himself. I never saw him take up the 
 fiddle while I studied with him. While I was 
 his pupil he paid me the compliment of select- 
 ing me to play Sinigaglia's engaging violin
 
 Leon Sametini 201 
 
 concerto, at short notice, for the first time in 
 Prague. Sinigaglia had asked Sevcik to play 
 it, who said: 'I no longer play violin, but I 
 have a pupil who can play it for you,' and in- 
 troduced me to him. Sinigaglia became a good 
 friend of mine, and I was the first to introduce 
 his Rapsodia Piedmontese for violin and 
 orchestra in London. To return to Sevcik — 
 with all the deficiencies of his teaching 
 methods, he had one great gift. He taught 
 his pupils how to practice! And — aside from 
 bowing — he made all mechanical problems, 
 especially finger problems, absolutely clear and 
 lucid. 
 
 A QUARTET OF GREAT TEACHERS WITH WHOM 
 ALL MAY STUDY 
 
 "Still, all said and done, it was after I had 
 finished with all my teachers that I really be- 
 gan to learn to play violin: above all from 
 Ysaye, whom I went to hear play wherever 
 and whenever I could. I think that the most 
 valuable lessons I have ever had are those un- 
 consciously given me by four of the greatest 
 violinists I know : Ysaye, Kreisler, Elman and 
 Thibaud. Each of these artists is so different 
 that no one seems altogether to replace the
 
 202 Violin Mastery 
 
 other. Ysaye with his imiqi'.e personahty, the 
 immense breadth and sweep of his interpreta- 
 tion, his dramatic strength, stands alone. 
 Kreisler has a certain sparkhng scintillance in 
 his playing that is his only. Elman might be 
 called the Caruso among violinists, with the 
 perfected sensuous beauty of his tone; while 
 Thibaud stands for supreme elegance and dis- 
 tinction. I have learned much from each mem- 
 ber of this great quartet. And if the artist can 
 profit from hearing and seeing them play, why 
 not the student? Every recital given by such 
 masters offers the earnest violin student price- 
 less opportunities for study and comparison. 
 My special leaning toward Ysaye is due, aside 
 from his wonderful personality^ to the fact that 
 I feel music in the same way that he does. 
 
 TEACHING PRINCIPLES 
 
 'My teaching principles are the results of 
 my own training period, my own experience as 
 a concert artist and teacher — before I came to 
 America I taught in London, where Isolde 
 Menges, among others, studied with me — and 
 what either directly or indirectly I have learned 
 from my great colleagues. In the Music Col- 
 lege I give the advanced pupils their individual
 
 Leon Sametini 203 
 
 lessons; but once a week the whole class as- 
 sembles — as in the European conservatories — 
 and those whose turn it is to play do so while 
 the others listen. This is of value to every 
 student, since it gives him an opportunity of 
 'hearing himself as others hear him.' Then, to 
 stimulate appreciation and musical develop- 
 ment there are ensemble and string quartet 
 classes. I believe that every violinist should be 
 able to play viola, and in quartet work I make 
 the players shift constantly from one to the 
 other instrument in order to hear what they 
 play from a different angle. 
 
 "For left hand work I stick to the excellent 
 Sevcik exercises and for some pupils I use the 
 Carl Flesch Urstudien. For studies of real 
 musical value Rode, of course, is unexcelled. 
 His studies are the masterpieces of their kind, 
 and I turn them into concert pieces. Thibaud 
 and Elman have supplied some of them with 
 interesting piano accompaniments. 
 
 "For bowing, with the exception of a few 
 purely mechanical exercises, I used Kreutzer 
 and Rode, and Gavinies. Ninety-nine per 
 cent, of pupils' faults are faults of bowing. It 
 is an art in itself. Sevcik was able to develop 
 Kubelik's left hand work to the last degree of 
 perfection — but not his bowing. In the case
 
 204 Violin Mastery 
 
 of Kocian, another well-known SevCik pupil 
 whom I have heard play, his bowing was by no 
 means an outstanding feature. I often have 
 to start pupils on the open strings in order to 
 correct fundamental bow faults. 
 
 "When watching a great artist play the 
 student should not expect to secure similar re- 
 sults by slavish imitation — another pupil fault. 
 The thing to do is to realize the principle be- 
 hind the artist's playing, and apply it to one's 
 own physical possibilities. 
 
 "Every one holds, draws and uses the bow 
 in a different way. If no two thumb-prints 
 are alike, neither are any two sets of fingers 
 and wrists. This is why not slavish imitation, 
 but intelligent adaptation should be applied 
 to the playing of the teacher in the class-room 
 or the artist on the concert-stage. For in- 
 stance, the little finger of Ysaye's left hand 
 bends inward somewhat — as a result it is per- 
 fectly natural for him to make less use of the 
 little finger, while it might be very difficult or 
 almost impossible for another to employ the 
 same fingering. And certain compositions and 
 styles of composition are more adapted to one 
 violinist than to another. I remember when I 
 was a student, that Wieniawski's music seemed
 
 Leon Sametini 205 
 
 to lie just right for my hand. I could read 
 difficult things of his at sight. 
 
 DOUBLE HARMONICS 
 
 "Would I care to discuss any special feature 
 of violin technic ? I might say something anent 
 double harmonics — a subject too often taught 
 in a mechanical way, and one I have always 
 taken special pains to make absolutely plain to 
 my own pupils — for every violinist should be 
 able to play double harmonics out of a clear 
 understanding of how to form them. 
 
 "There are only two kinds of harmonics: 
 natural and artificial. Natural harmonics may 
 be formed on the major triad of each open 
 string, using the open string as the tonic. As, 
 for example, on the G string [and Mr. Same- 
 tini set down the following illustration] : 
 
 Then there are four kinds of artificial har- 
 monics, only three of which are used : harmonics 
 on the major third (1 ) ; harmonics on the per- 
 fect fourth (2) ; harmonics on the perfect fifth 
 (3) ; and harmonics — never used — on the oc- 
 tave:
 
 206 Violin Mastery 
 
 i 
 
 B«- -•- -»■ 
 
 Where does the harmonic sound in each case? 
 Two octaves and a third higher (1) ; two oc- 
 taves higher ( 2 ) ; one octave and a fifth higher 
 (3) respectively, than the pressed-down note. 
 If the harmonic on the octave (4) were played, 
 it would sound just an octave higher than the 
 pressed-down note. 
 
 "Now say we wished to combine different 
 double harmonics. The whole principle is 
 made clear if we take, let us say, the first 
 double-stop in the scale of C major in thirds 
 as an example: 
 
 * . "Beginning with the lower of these 
 '- two notes, the C, we find that it can- 
 
 i 
 
 not be taken as a natural bar- 1 
 monic because natural harmon- ^~^ 
 ics on the open strings run as follows : G, B, D on 
 the G string; D, FS, A on the D string; A, C#, 
 E on the A string; and E, GS, B on the E 
 string. There are three ways of taking the C 
 before mentioned as an artificial harmonic. 
 The E may be taken in the following manner : 
 
 Nat. harmonic Artificial harmonic 
 
 i 
 
 -# — -^
 
 Leon Sartietini 207 
 
 Xow we have to combine the C and E as well 
 as we are able. Rejecting the following com- 
 binations as impossible — any violinist will see 
 why — 
 
 we have a choice of the two possible combina- 
 tions remaining, with the fingering indicated: 
 
 ^§ — ^ - 1- 
 
 "With regard to the actual execution of 
 these harmonics, 1 advise all students to try 
 and play them with every bit as much expres- 
 sive feeling as ordinary notes. My experience 
 has been that pupils do not pay nearly enough 
 attention to the intonation of harmonics. In 
 other words, they try to produce the harmonics 
 immediately, instead of first making sure that 
 both fingers are on the right spot before they 
 loosen one finger on the string. For instance 
 
 in the following: ^^^ first play _ - 
 
 and then then loosen the fourth finger, 
 
 and play ^ 
 
 "The same principle holds good when play- 
 ing double harmonics. Nine" tenths of the
 
 208 Violin Mastery 
 
 'squeaking' heard when harmonics are played 
 is due to the fact that the finger-placing is not 
 properly prepared, and that the fingers are not 
 on the right spot. 
 
 "Never, when playing a harmonic with an 
 up-bow ( V ) , at the point, smash down the bow 
 on the string ; but have it already on the string 
 before playing the harmonic. The process is 
 reversed when playing a down-bow ( i — i ) har- 
 monic. When beginning a harmonic at the 
 frog, have the harmonic ready, then let the 
 bow drop gently on the string. 
 
 "Triple and quadruple harmonics may be 
 combined in exactly the same way. Students 
 should never get the idea that you press down 
 the string as you press a button and — presto — 
 the magic harmonics appear! They are a 
 simple and natural result of the proper appli- 
 cation of scientific principles; and the sooner 
 the student learns to form and combine har- 
 monics himself instead of learning them by 
 rote, the better will he play them. Too often 
 a student can give the fingering of certain 
 double harmonics and cannot use it. Of course, 
 harmonics are only a detail of the complete 
 mastery of the violin; but mastery of all de- 
 tails leads to mastery of the whole.
 
 Leon Sametini 209 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "And what is mastery of the whole? Mas- 
 tery of the whole, real violin mastery, I think, 
 lies in the control of the interpretative problem, 
 the power to awaken emotion by the use of the 
 instrument. Many feel more than they can 
 express, have more left hand than bow technic 
 and, like Kubelik, have not the perfected tech- 
 nic for which perfected playing calls. The 
 artist who feels beauty keenly and deeply and 
 whose mechanical equipment allows him to 
 make others feel and share the beauty he him- 
 self feels is in my opinion worthy of being' 
 called a master of the violin."
 
 XVIII 
 ALEXANDER SASLAVSKY 
 
 WHAT THE TEACHER CAN AND CANNOT DO 
 
 Alexander Saslavsky is probably best 
 known as a solo artist, as the concertmaster of 
 a great symphonic orchestra, as the leader of 
 the admirable quartet which bears his name. 
 Yet, at the same time, few violinists can speak 
 with more authority anent the instructive 
 phases of their Art. Not only has he been ac- 
 tive for years in the teaching field; but as a 
 pedagog he rounds out the traditions of 
 Ferdinand David, Massard, Auer, and Griin 
 (Vienna Hochschule), acquired during his 
 "study years," with the result of his own long 
 and varied experience. 
 
 Beginning at the beginning, I asked Mr. 
 Saslavsky to tell me something about methods, 
 his own in particular. "Method is a flexible 
 term," he answered. "What the word should 
 mean is the cultivation of the pupil's indi- 
 viduality along the lines best suited to it. Not 
 
 210
 
 Alexander Saslavsky 211 
 
 that a guide which may be employed to de- 
 velop common-sense principles is not valuable. 
 But even here, the same guide (violin-method) 
 will not answer for every pupil. Personally I 
 find De Beriot's 'Violin School' the most gen- 
 erally useful, and for advanced students, 
 Ferdinand David's second book. Then, for 
 scales — I insist on my pupils being able to play 
 a perfect scale through three octaves — the 
 Hrimaly book of scales. Many advanced vio- 
 linists cannot play a good scale simply because 
 of a lack of fundamental work. 
 
 "As soon as the pupil is able, he should take 
 up Kreutzer and stick to him as the devotee 
 does to his Bible. Any one who can play the 
 '42 Exercises' as they should be played may be 
 called a well-balanced violinist. There are 
 too many purely mechanical exercises — and the 
 circumstance that we have Kreutzer, Rode, 
 Fiorillo, Rovelli and Dont emphasizes the fact. 
 And there are too many elaborate and com- 
 plicated violin methods. Sevcik, for instance, 
 has devised a purely mechanical system of this 
 kind, perfect from a purely mechanical stand- 
 point, but one whose consistent use, in my opin- 
 ion, kills initiative and individuality. I have 
 had experience with Sevcik pupils in quartet
 
 212 Violin Mastery 
 
 playing, and have found that they have no ex- 
 pression. 
 
 WHAT THE TEACHER CAN AND CANNOT DO 
 
 "After all, the teacher can only supply the 
 pupil with the violinistic equipment. The pupil 
 must use it. There is tone, for instance. The 
 teacher cannot make tone for the pupil — ^he 
 can only shovr him how tone can be made. 
 Sometimes a purely physiological reason makes 
 it almost impossible for the pupil to produce 
 a good natural tone. If the finger-tips are 
 not adequately equipped with 'cushions,' and a 
 pupil wishes to use the vibrato there is nothing 
 with which he can vibrate. There is real mean- 
 ing, speaking of the violinist's tone, in the 
 phrase 'he has it at his fingers' tips.' Then 
 there is the matter of slow practice. It rests 
 with the pupil to carry out the teacher's injunc- 
 tions in this respect. The average pupil prac- 
 tices too fast, is too eager to develop his Art as 
 a money maker. And too many really gifted 
 students take up orchestra playing, which no 
 one can do continuously and hope to be a solo 
 player. Four hours of study work may be 
 nullified by a single hour of orchestra playing. 
 Musically it is broadening, of course, but I am
 
 Aleccander Saslavsky 213 
 
 speaking from the standpoint of the student 
 who hopes to become a solo artist. An opera 
 orchestra is especially bad in this way. In the 
 symphonic ensemble more care is used; but in 
 the opera orchestra they employ the right arm 
 for tremolo! There is a good deal of camou- 
 flage as regards string playing in an opera 
 orchestra, and much of the music — notably 
 Wagner's — is quite impracticable. 
 
 "And lessons are often made all too short. 
 A teacher in common honesty cannot really 
 give a pupil much in half-an-hour— it is not 
 a real lesson. There is a good deal to be said 
 for class teaching as it is practiced at the 
 European conservatories, especially as regards 
 interpretation. In my student days I learned 
 much from listening to others play the con- 
 certos they had prepared, and from noting 
 the teacher's corrections. And this even in a 
 purely technical way: I can recall Kubelik 
 playing Paganini as a wonderful display of 
 the technical points of violin playing. 
 
 A GREAT DEFECT 
 
 "Most pupils seem to lack an absolute sense 
 of rhythm — a great defect. Yet where latent 
 it may be developed. Here Kreutzer is inval-
 
 214 Violin Mastery 
 
 uable, since he presents every form of rhythmic 
 problem, scales in various rhythms and bow- 
 ings. Kreutzer's 'Exercise No. 2/ for ex- 
 ample, may be studied with any number of 
 bowings. To produce a broad tone the bow 
 must move slowly, and in rapid passages should 
 never seem to introduce technical exercises in 
 a concert number. The student should 
 memorize Kreutzer and Fiorillo. Flesch's 
 Urstudien offer the artist or professional 
 musician who has time for little practice excel- 
 lent material ; but are not meant for the pupil, 
 unless he be so far advanced that he may be 
 trusted to use them alone. 
 
 tone: practice time 
 
 "Broad playing gives the singing tone — the 
 true violin tone — a long bow drawn its full 
 length. Like every general rule though, this 
 one must be modified by the judgment of the 
 individual player. Violin playing is an art 
 of many mysteries. Some pupils grasp a point 
 at once ; others have to have it explained seven 
 or eight different ways before grasping it. 
 The serious student should practice not less 
 than four hours, preferably in twenty minute 
 intervals. After some twenty minutes the
 
 Alexander Saslavshy 215 
 
 brain is apt to tire. And since the fingers are^ 
 controlled by the brain, it is best to relax for 
 a short time before going on. Mental and 
 physical control must always go hand in hand. 
 Four hours of intelligent, consistent practice 
 work are far better than eight or ten of 
 fatigued effort. 
 
 A NATIONAL CONSERVATORY 
 
 "Some five years ago too many teachers gave 
 their pupils the Mendelssohn and Paganini 
 concertos to play before they knew their 
 Kreutzer. But there has been a change for the 
 better during recent years. Kneisel was one 
 of the first to produce pupils here who played 
 legitimately, according to standard violinistic 
 ideals. One reason why Auer has had such 
 brilliant pupils is that poor students were re- 
 ceived at the Petrograd Conservatory free of 
 charge. All they had to supply was talent; 
 and I look forward to the time when we will 
 have a National conservatory in this country, 
 supported by the Government. Then the poor, 
 but musically gifted, pupil will have the same 
 opportunities that his brother, who is well-to- 
 do, now has.
 
 216 Violin Mastery 
 
 SOME PERSONAL VIEWS AND REFLECTIONS 
 
 "You ask me to tell you something of my 
 own musical preferences. Well, take the con- 
 certos. I have reached a point where the 
 Mendelssohn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and 
 Brahms concertos seen to sum up what is truly 
 worth while. The others begin to bore me; 
 even Bruch! Paganini, Wieniawski, etc., are 
 mainly mediums of display. Most of the great 
 violinists, Ysaye, Thibaud, etc., during recent 
 years are reverting to the violin sonatas. 
 Ysaye, for instance, has recently been playing 
 the Lazzari sonata, a very powerful and beau- 
 tiful work. 
 
 "My experiences as a 'concertmaster' ? I 
 have played with Weingartner; Saint-Saens 
 (whose amiabilit}^ to me, when he first visited 
 this country, I recall with pleasure) ; Gustav 
 Mahler, Tschaikovsky, Safonoff, Seidel, 
 Bauer, and Walter Damrosch, whose friend 
 and associate I have been for the last twenty- 
 two years. He is a wonderful man, many- 
 sided and versatile ; a notably fine pianist ; and 
 playing chamber music with him during suc- 
 cessive summers is numbered among my pleas- 
 antest recollections.
 
 Alexander Saslavsky 217 
 
 "In speaking of concertos some time ago, I 
 forgot to mention one work well worth study- 
 ing. This is the Russian Mlynarski's concerto 
 in D, which I played with the Russian Sym- 
 phony Orchestra some eight years ago for the 
 first time in this country, as well as a fine 
 'Romance and Caprice' by Rubinstein. 
 
 "Is the music a concertmaster is called upon 
 to play always violinistic? Far from it. 
 Symphonic music — in as much as the concert- 
 master is concerned, is usually not idiomatic 
 violin music. Richard Strauss's violin concerto 
 can really be played by the violinist. The 
 ohhligatos in his symphonies are a very differ- 
 ent matter ; they go beyond accepted technical 
 boundaries. With Stravinsky it is the same. 
 The violin obhligafo in Rimsky-Korsakov's 
 SchehircLzade, though, is real violin music. De- 
 bussy and Ravel are most subtle ; they call for 
 a particularly good ear, since the harmonic 
 balance of their music is very delicate. The 
 concertmaster has to develop his own interpre- 
 tations, subiect, of course, to the conductor's 
 ideas. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Violin Mastery? It means to me complete 
 control of the fingerboard, a being at home in
 
 218 Violin Mastery 
 
 every position, absolute sureness of fingering, 
 absolute equality of tone under all circum- 
 stances. I remember Ysaye playing Tschai- 
 kovsky's Serenade Melancolique, and using a 
 fingering for certain passages which I liked 
 very much. I asked him to give it to me in 
 detail, but he merely laughed and said: 'I'd 
 like to, but I cannot, because I really do not 
 remember which fingers I used!' That is 
 mastery — a control so complete that fingering 
 was unconscious, and the interpretation of the 
 thought was all that was in the artist's mind! 
 Sev6ik's 'complete technical mastery' is after 
 all not perfect, since it represents mechanical 
 and not mental control."
 
 XIX 
 
 TOSCHA SEIDEL 
 
 HOW TO STUDY 
 
 ToscHA Seidel, though one of the more 
 recent of the young Russian violinists who rep- 
 resent the fruition of Professor Auer's form- 
 ative gifts, has, to quote H. F. Peyser, "the 
 transcendental technic observed in the greatest 
 pupils of his master, a command of mechanism 
 which makes the rough places so plain that the 
 traces of their roughness are hidden to the un- 
 practiced eye." He commenced to study the 
 violin seriously at the age of seven in Odessa, 
 his natal town, with Max Fiedemann, an Auer 
 pupil. A year and a half later Alexander 
 Fiedemann heard him play a De Beriot con- 
 certo in public, and induced him to study at 
 the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, with Brod- 
 sky, a pupil of Joachim, with whom he re- 
 mained for two years. 
 
 It was in Berlin that the young violinist 
 reached the turning point of his career. "I was 
 
 219
 
 220 Violin Mastery 
 
 a boy of twelve," he said, "when I heard Jascha 
 Heifetz play for the first time. He played the 
 Tschaikovsky concerto, and he played it won- 
 derfully. His bowing, his fingering, his whole 
 style and manner of playing so greatly im- 
 pressed me that I felt I must have his teacher, 
 that I would never be content unless I studied 
 with Professor Auer! In 1912 I at length 
 had an opportunity to play for the Professor in 
 his home at Loschivitz, in Dresden, and to 
 my great joy he at once accepted me as a pupil. 
 
 STUDYING WITH PROFESSOR AUER 
 
 "Studying with Professor Auer was a 
 revelation. I had private lessons from him, 
 and at the same time attended the classes at 
 the Petrograd Conservatory. I should say 
 that his great specialty, if one can use the word 
 specialty in the case of so universal a master 
 of teaching as the Professor, was bowing. In 
 all violin playing the left hand, the finger hand, 
 might be compared to a perfectly adjusted 
 technical machine, one that needs to be kept 
 well oiled to function properly. The right 
 hand, the bow hand, is the direct opposite — it 
 is the painter hand, the artist hand, its phras- 
 ing outlines the pictures of music ; its nuances
 
 TosiHA Seidel
 
 Toscha Seidel 221 
 
 fill them with beauty of color. And while the 
 Professor insisted as a matter of course on 
 the absolute development of finger mechanics, 
 he was an inspiration as regards the right 
 manipulation of the bow, and its use as a 
 medium of interpretation. And he made his 
 pupils think. Often, when I played a passage 
 in a concerto or sonata and it lacked clearness, 
 he would ask me: 'Why is this passage not 
 clear?' Sometimes I knew and sometimes I 
 did not. But not until he was satisfied that 
 I could not myself answer the question, would 
 he show me how to answer it. He could make 
 every least detail clear, illustrating it on his 
 own violin ; but if the pupil could 'work out his 
 own salvation' he always encouraged him to do 
 so. 
 
 "Most teachers make bowing a very compli- 
 cated affair, adding to its difficulties. But Pro- 
 fessor Auer develops a natural bowing, with 
 an absolutely free wrist, in all his pupils; for 
 he teaches each student along the line of his 
 individual aptitudes. Hence the length of 
 the fingers and the size of the hand make no 
 difference, because in the case of each pupil 
 they are treated as separate problems, capable 
 of an individual solution. I have known of
 
 222 Violin Mastery 
 
 pupils who came to him with an absolutely stijff 
 wrist ; and yet he taught them to overcome it. 
 
 ARTIST PUPILS AND AMATEUR STUDENTS 
 
 "As regards difficulties, technical and other, 
 a distinction might be made between the artist 
 and the average amateur. The latter does not 
 make the violin his life work : it is an incidental. 
 While he may reasonably content himself with 
 playing well, the artist-pupil must achieve per- 
 fection. It is the difference between an ac- 
 complishment and an art. The amateur plays 
 more or less for the sake of playing — the 'how' 
 is secondary ; but for the artist the 'how' comes 
 first, and for him the shortest piece, a single 
 scale, has difficulties of which the amateur is 
 quite ignorant. And everything is difficult in 
 its perfected sense. What I, as a student, 
 found to be most difficult were double har- 
 monics — I still consider them to be the most 
 difficult thing in the whole range of violin tech- 
 nic. First of all, they call for a large hand, 
 because of the wide stretches. But harmonics 
 were one of the things I had to master before 
 Professor Auer would allow me to appear in 
 public. Some find tenths and octaves their 
 stumbling block, but I cannot say that they
 
 Toscha Seidel 223 
 
 ever gave me much trouble. After all, the 
 main thing with any difficulty is to surmount 
 it, and just how is really a secondary matter. 
 I know Professor Auer used to say : *Play with 
 your feet if you must, but make the violin 
 sound !' With tenths, octaves, sixths, with any 
 technical frills, the main thing is to bring them 
 out clearly and convincingly. And, rightly 
 or wrongly, one must remember that when 
 something does not sound out convincingly on 
 the violin, it is not the fault of the weather, or 
 the strings or rosin or anything else — it is al- 
 ways the artist's own fault! 
 
 HOW TO STUDY 
 
 "Scale study — all Auer pupils had to prac- 
 tice scales every day, scales in all the inter- 
 vals — is a most important thing. And follow- 
 ing his idea of stimulating the pupil's self- 
 development, the Professor encouraged us to 
 find what we needed ourselves. I remember 
 that once — we were standing in a corridor of 
 the Conservatory — when I asked him, 'What 
 should I practice in the way of studies?' he an- 
 swered: 'Take the difficult passages from the 
 great concertos. You cannot improve on them, 
 for they are as good, if not better, as any
 
 224 Violin Mastery 
 
 studies written.' As regards technical work 
 we were also encouraged to think out our own 
 exercises. And this I still do. When I feel 
 that my thirds and sixths need attention I prac- 
 tice scales and original figurations in these 
 intervals. But genuine, resultful practice is 
 something that should never be counted by 
 'hours.' Sometimes I do not touch my violin 
 all day long; and one hour with head work is 
 worth any number of days without it. At the 
 most I never practice more than three hours a 
 day. And when my thoughts are fixed on other 
 things it would be time lost to try to practice 
 seriously. Without technical control a violinist 
 could not be a great artist; for he could not 
 express himself. Yet a great artist can give 
 even a technical study, say a Rode etude, a 
 quality all its own in playing it. That technic, 
 however, is a means, not an end, Professor 
 Auer never allowed his pupils to forget. He is 
 a wonderful master of interpretation. I 
 studied the great concertos with him — Beetho- 
 ven, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Tschaikovsky, Dvo- 
 rak, the Brahms concerto (which I prefer to 
 any other) ; the Vieuxtemps Fifth and Lalo 
 (both of which I have heard Ysaye, that su- 
 preme artist who possesses all that an artist 
 should have, play in Berlin) ; the Elgar con-
 
 Toscha SeideJ 225 
 
 certo (a fine work which I once heard Kreisler, 
 an artist as great as he is modest, play wonder- 
 fully in Petrograd), as well as other concertos 
 of the standard repertory. And Professor Auer 
 always sought to have us play as individuals; 
 and while he never allowed us to overstep the 
 boundaries of the musically esthetic, he gave 
 our individuality free play within its limits. 
 He never insisted on a pupil accepting his own 
 nuances of interpretation because they were 
 his. I know that when playing for him, if I 
 came to a passage which demanded an espe- 
 cially beautiful legato rendering, he would say : 
 'Now show how you can sing!' The exquisite 
 legato he taught was all a matter of perfect 
 bowing, and as he often said: 'There must be 
 no such thing as strings or hair in the pupil's 
 consciousness. One must not play violin, one 
 must sing violin!' 
 
 FIDDLE AND STRINGS 
 
 "I do not see how any artist can use an in- 
 strument which is quite new to him in concert. 
 I never play any but my own Guadagnini, 
 which is a fine fiddle, with a big, sonorous tone. 
 As to wire strings, I hate them! In the first 
 place, a wire E sounds distinctly different to
 
 226 Violin Mastery 
 
 the artist than does a gut E. And it is a dif- 
 ference which any violinist will notice. Then, 
 too, the wire E is so thin that the fingers have 
 nothing to take hold of, to touch firmly. And 
 to me the metallic vibrations, especially on the 
 open strings, are most disagreeable. Of 
 course, from a purely practical standpoint 
 there is much to be said for the wire E. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "What is violin mastery as I understand it? 
 First of all it means talent, secondly technic, 
 and in the third place, tone. And then one 
 must be musical in an all-embracing sense to 
 attain it. One must have musical breadth and 
 understanding in general, and not only in a 
 narrowly violinistic sense. And, finally, the 
 good God must give the artist who aspires to 
 be a master good hands, and direct him to a 
 good teacher I"
 
 XX 
 EDMUND SEVERN 
 
 THE JOACHIM BOWING AND OTHERS: THE 
 LEFT HAND 
 
 Edmund Severn's activity in the field of 
 violin music is a three-fold one: he is a com- 
 poser, an interpreting artist and a teacher, and 
 his fortuitous control of the three vital phases 
 of his Art make his views as regards its study 
 of very real value. The lover of string music 
 in general would naturally attach more im- 
 portance to his string quartet in D major, 
 his trio for violin, 'cello and piano, his violin 
 concerto in D minor, the sonata, the "Orien- 
 tal," "Italian," "New England" suites for vio- 
 lin, and the fine suite in A major, for two vio- 
 lins and piano, than to his symphonic poems 
 for orchestra, his choral works and his songs. 
 And those in search of hints to aid them to 
 master the violin would be most interested in 
 having the benefit of his opinions as a teacher, 
 founded on long experience and keen observa- 
 
 227
 
 228 " Violin Mastery 
 
 tion. Since Mr. Severn is one of those teach- 
 ers who are born, not made, and is interested 
 heart and soul in this phase of his musical work, 
 it was not difficult to draw him out. 
 
 THE JOACHIM BOWING 
 
 "My first instructor in the violin was my 
 father, the pioneer violin teacher of Hartford, 
 Conn., where my boyhood was passed, and then 
 I studied with Franz Milcke and Bernard 
 Listemann, concertmaster of the Boston 
 Symphony Orchestra. But one day I hap- 
 pened to read a few lines reprinted in the Met- 
 ronome from some European source, which 
 quoted Wilhelmj as saying that Emanuel, 
 Wirth, Joachim's first assistant at the Berlin 
 HocJischule, 'was the best teacher of his gen- 
 eration.' This was enough for me: feeling 
 that the best could be none too good, I made 
 up my mind to go to him. And I did. Wirth 
 was the viola of the Joachim Quartet, and 
 probably a better teacher than was Joachim 
 himself. Violin teaching was a cult with him, 
 a religion; and I think he believed God had 
 sent him to earth to teach fiddle. Like all the 
 teachers at the HocJischule he taught the regu- 
 lar 'Joachim' bowing — they were obliged to
 
 Edmund Severn 229 
 
 teach it — as far as it could be taught, for it 
 could not be taught every one. And that is 
 the real trouble with the 'Joachim' bowing. It 
 is impossible to make a general application of 
 it. 
 
 "Joachim had a very long arm and when he 
 played at the point of the bow his arm posi- 
 tion was approximately the same as that of the 
 average player at the middle of the bow. 
 Willy Hess was a perfect exponent of the Joa- 
 chim method of bowing. Why? Because he 
 had a very long arm. But at the Hochschule 
 the Joachim bowing was compulsory: they 
 taught, or tried to teach, all who came there 
 to use it without exception ; boys or girls whose 
 arms chanced to be long enough could acquire 
 it, but big men with short arms had no chance 
 whatever. Having a medium long arm, by 
 dint of hard work I managed to get my bowing 
 to suit Wirth ; yet I always felt at a disadvan- 
 tage at the point of the bow, in spite of the 
 fact that after my return to the United States 
 I taught the Joachim bowing for fully eight 
 years. 
 
 "Then, when he first came here, I heard and 
 saw Ysaye play, and I noticed how greatly 
 his bowing differed from that of Joachim, the 
 point being that his first finger was always in
 
 230 Violin Mastery 
 
 a position to press naturally without the least 
 stiffness. This led me to try to find a less 
 constrained bowing for myself, working along 
 perfectly natural lines. The Joachim bowing 
 demands a high wrist; but in the case of the 
 Belgian school an easy position at the point is 
 assumed naturally. And it is not hard to un- 
 derstand that if the bow be drawn parallel 
 with the bridge, allowing for the least possi- 
 ble movement of hands and wrist, the greatest 
 economy of motion, there is no contravention 
 of the laws of nature and playing is natural 
 and unconstrained. 
 
 "And this applies to every student of the in- 
 strument, whether or no he has a long arm. 
 While I was studying in Berlin, Sarasate 
 plaj^ed there in public, with the most natural 
 and unhampered grace and freedom in the use 
 of his bow. Yet the entire Hochschule con- 
 tingent unanimously condemned his bowing 
 as being 'stiff' — merely because it did not con- 
 form to the Joachim tradition. Of course, 
 there is no question but that Joachim was the 
 greatest quartet player of his time; and with 
 regard to the interpretation of the classics he 
 was not to be excelled. His conception of 
 Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms was won- 
 derful. The insistence at the Hochschule on
 
 Edmund Severn 231 
 
 forcing the bowing which was natural to him 
 on all others, irrespective of physical adapta- 
 bihty, is a matter of regret. Wirth was some- 
 what deficient in teaching left hand technic, 
 as compared with, let us say, Schradieck. 
 Wirth's real strength lay in his sincerity and 
 his ability to make clear the musical contents 
 of the works of the great masters. In a Bee- 
 thoven or Spohr concerto he made a pupil give 
 its due emphasis to every single note. 
 
 A PRE-TEACHING REQUISITE 
 
 ''Before the violin student can even begin 
 to study, there are certain pre-teaching req- 
 uisites which are necessary if the teacher is 
 to be of any service to him. The violin is a 
 singing instrument, and therefore the first 
 thing called for is a good singing tone. That 
 brings up an important point — the proper ad- 
 justment of the instrument used by the stu- 
 dent. If his lessons are to be of real benefit 
 to him, the comj)onent parts of the instrument, 
 post, bridge, bass-bar, strings, etc., must be 
 accurately adjusted, in order that the sound 
 values are what they should be. 
 
 "From the teaching standpoint it is far more 
 important that whatever violin the student has
 
 232 Violin Mastery 
 
 is one proi)erly built and adjusted, than that 
 it be a fine instrument. And the bow must 
 have the right amount of spring, of elasticity 
 in its stick. A poor bow will work more harm 
 than a poor fiddle, for if the bow is poor, if it 
 lacks the right resilience, the student cannot 
 acquire the correct bow pressure. He cannot 
 play spiccato or any of the 'bouncing' bowings, 
 including various forms of arpeggios, with a 
 poor stick. 
 
 DRAWING A LONG BOW 
 
 "When I say that the student should 'draw 
 a long bow,' " continued Mr. Severn with a 
 smile, "I do not say so at a venture. If his 
 instrument and bow are in proper shape, this 
 is the next thing for the student to do. Ever 
 since Tartini's time it has been acknowledged 
 that nothing can take the place of the study 
 of the long bow, playing in all shades of dy- 
 namics, from pp to ff'j and with all the inflec- 
 tions of crescendo and diminuendo. Part of 
 this study should consist of 'mute' exercises — 
 not playing, but drawing the bow above the 
 strings, to its full length, resting at either end. 
 This ensures bow control. One great difii- 
 culty is that as a rule the teacher cannot in-
 
 Edmund Severn 233 
 
 duce pupils to practice these 'mute' exercises, 
 in spite of their unquestionable value. All the 
 great masters of the violin have used them. 
 Viotti thought so highly of them that he taught 
 them only to his favorite pupils. And even 
 to-day some distinguished violinists play 
 dumb exercises before stepping on the recital 
 stage. They are one of the best means that 
 we have for control of the violinistic nervous 
 system. 
 
 WRIST-BOWING 
 
 "Wrist-bowing is one of the bowings in 
 which the student should learn to feel abso- 
 lutely and naturally at home. To my think- 
 ing the Gerriian way of teaching wrist-bowing 
 is altogether wrong. Their idea is to keep 
 the fingers neutral, and let the stick move the 
 fingers! Yet this is wrong — for the player 
 holds his bow at the finger-tips, that terminal 
 point of the fingers where the tactile nerves 
 are most highly developed, and where their 
 direct contact with the bow makes possible the 
 greatest variety of dynamic effect, and also 
 allows the development of far greater speed 
 in short bowings. 
 
 "Though the Germans say 'Think of the 
 wrist!' I think with the Belgians: Put your
 
 234 Violin Mastery 
 
 mind where you touch and hold the bow, con- 
 centrate on your fingers. In other words, 
 when you make your bow change, do not make 
 it according to the Joachim method, with the 
 wrist, but in the natural way, with the fingers 
 always in command. In this manner only will 
 you get the true wrist motion. 
 
 STACCATO AND OTHER BOWINGS 
 
 "After all, there are only two general prin- 
 ciples in violin playing, the long and short bow, 
 legato and staccato. Many a teacher finds it 
 very difficult to teach staccato correctly, which 
 may account for the fact that many pupils find 
 it hard to learn. The main reason is that, in 
 a sense, staccato is opposed to the nature of 
 the violin as a singing instrument. To pro- 
 duce a true staccato and not a 'scratchato' it 
 is absolutely necessary, while exerting the 
 proper pressure and movement, to keep the 
 muscles loose. I have evolved a simple 
 method for quickly achieving the desired re- 
 sult in staccato. First I teach the attack in 
 the middle of the bow, without drawing the 
 bow and as though pressing a button: I have 
 pupils press up with the thumb and down with 
 the first finger, with all muscles relaxed. This,
 
 Edmund Severn 235 
 
 when done correctly, produces a sudden sharp 
 attack. 
 
 "Then, I have the pupil place his bow in the 
 middle, in position to draw a down-stroke from 
 the wrist, the bow-hair being pressed and held 
 against the string. A quick down-bow fol- 
 lows with an immediate release of the string. 
 Repeating the process, use the up-stroke. The 
 finished product is merely the combination of 
 these two exercises — drawing and attacking 
 simultaneously. I have never failed to give a 
 pupil a good staccato by this exercise, which 
 comprises the principle of all genuine staccato 
 playing. 
 
 "One of the most difficult of all bowings is 
 the simple up-and-down stroke used in the sec- 
 ond Kreutzer etude, that is to say, the bowing 
 between the middle and point of the bow, tete 
 d'archet, as the French call it. This bowing 
 is played badly on the violin more often than 
 any other. It demands constant rapid chang- 
 ing and, as most pupils play it, the legato qual- 
 ity is noticeably absent. Too much emphasis 
 cannot be laid on the truth that the 'singing 
 stroke' should be employed for all bowings, 
 long or short. Often pupils who play quite 
 well show a want of true legato quality in their
 
 236 Violin Mastery 
 
 tone, because there is no connection between 
 their bowing in rapid work. 
 
 "Individual bowings should always be prac- 
 ticed separately. I always obhge my pupils 
 to practice all bowings on the open strings, and 
 in all combinations of the open strings, because 
 this allows them to concentrate on the bowing 
 itself, to the exclusion of all else ; and they ad- 
 vance far more quickly. Students should 
 never be compelled to learn new bowings while 
 they have to think of their fingers at the same 
 time: we cannot serve two masters simultane- 
 ously! All in all, bowing is most important in 
 violin technic, for control of the bow means 
 much toward mastery of the violin. 
 
 THE LEFT HAND 
 
 "It is evident, however, that the correct use 
 of the left hand is of equal importance. It 
 seems not to be generally known that finger- 
 pressure has much to do with tone-quality. 
 The correct poise of the left hand, as conspic- 
 uously shown by Heifetz for instance, throws 
 the extreme tips of the fingers hammerlike on 
 the strings, and renders full-pressure of the 
 string easy. Correctly done, a brilliance re- 
 sults, especially in scale and passage work,
 
 Edmund Severn 237 
 
 which can be acquired in no other manner, each 
 note partaking somewhat of the quality of the 
 open string. As for intonation — that is 
 largely a question of listening. To really lis- 
 ten to oneself is as necessary as it is rare. It 
 would take a volume to cover that subject 
 alone. We hear much about the use of the 
 vibrato these days. It was not so when I was 
 a student. I can remember when it was 
 laughed at by the purists as an Italian evidence 
 of bad taste. My teachers decried it, yet if we 
 could hear the great players of the past, we 
 would be astonished at their frugal use of it. 
 
 ''One should remember in this connection 
 that there was a conflict among singers for 
 many years as to whether the straight tone as 
 cultivated by the English oratorio singers, or 
 the vibrated tone of the Italians were correct. 
 As usual. Nature won out. The correctly vi- 
 brated voice outlasted the other form of pro- 
 duction, thus proving its lawful basis. But 
 to-day the vibrato is frequently made to cover 
 a multitude of violin sins. 
 
 "It is accepted by many as a substitute for 
 genuine warmth and it is used as a camonflage 
 to 'put over' some very bad art in the shape of 
 poor tone-quality, intonation and general slop- 
 piness of technic. Why, then, has it come into
 
 238 Violin Mastery 
 
 general use during the last twenty-five years? 
 Simply because it is based on the correctly 
 produced human voice. The old players, es- 
 pecially those of the German school, said, and 
 some still say, the vibrato should only be used 
 at the climax of a melody. If we listen to a 
 Sembrich or a Bonci, however, we hear a vi- 
 bration on every tone. Let us not forget that 
 the violin is a singing instrument and that even 
 Joachim said: 'We must imitate the human 
 voice.' This, I think, disposes of the case 
 finally and we must admit that every little boy 
 or girl with a natural vibrato is more correct 
 in that part of his tone-production than many 
 of the great masters of the past. As the Ne- 
 gro pastor said: 'The world do move!' 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "Are 'mastery of the violin' and * Violin 
 Mastery' synonymous in my mind? Yes and 
 no: 'Violin Mastery' may be taken to mean 
 that technical mastery wherewith one is en- 
 abled to perform any work in the entire litera- 
 ture of the instrument with precision, but not 
 necessarily with feeling for its beauty or its 
 emotional content. In this sense, in these days 
 of improved violin pedagogy, such mastery is
 
 Edmund Severn 239 
 
 not uncommon. But 'Violin Mastery' may 
 also be understood to mean, not merely a cold 
 though flawless technic, but its living, glowing 
 product when used to express the emotions 
 suggested by the music of the masters. This 
 latter kind of violin mastery is rare indeed. 
 
 "One who makes technic an end travels light, 
 and should reach his destination more quickly. 
 But he whose goal is music with its thousand- 
 hued beauties, with its call for the exertion of 
 human and spiritual emotion, sets forth on a 
 journey without end. It is plain, however, 
 that this is the only journey worth taking with 
 the violin as a traveling companion. 'Violin 
 Mastery', then, means to me technical profi- 
 ciency used to the highest extent possible, for 
 artistic ends!"
 
 XXI 
 ALBERT SPALDING 
 
 THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE 
 DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTIST 
 
 For the duration of the war Albert Spald- 
 ing the violinist became Albert Spalding 
 the soldier. As First Lieutenant in the Avia- 
 tion Service, U. S. A., he maintained the 
 ideals of civilization on the Italian front 
 with the same devotion he gave to those of Art 
 in the piping times of peace. As he himself 
 said not so very long ago: "You cannot do two 
 things, and do them properly, at the same time. 
 At the present moment there is more music 
 for me in the factories gloriously grinding out 
 planes and motors than in a symphony of Bee- 
 thoven. And to-day I would rather run on 
 an office-boy's errand for my country and do 
 it as well as I can, if it's to serve my country, 
 than to play successfully a Bach Chaconne; 
 and I would rather hear a well directed bat- 
 tery of American guns blasting the Road of 
 
 240
 
 i opt/riiiht hi/ Mntzenf. ('hit'Ofjo. 
 
 Albert Spalding
 
 Albert Spalding 241 
 
 Peace and Victorious Liberty than the com- 
 bined applause of ten thousand audiences. For 
 it is my conviction that Art has as much at 
 stake in this War as Democracy." 
 
 Yet Lieutenant Spalding, despite the ardu- 
 ous demands of his patriotic duties, found 
 time to answer some questions of the writer in 
 the interests of "Violin Mastery" which, rep- 
 resenting the views and opinions of so eminent 
 and distinctive!}^ American a violinist, cannot 
 fail to interest every lover of the Art. Writing 
 from Rome (Sept. 9, 1918), Lieutenant Spald- 
 ing modestly said that his answers to the ques- 
 tions asked "will have to be simple and short, 
 because my time is very limited, and then, too, 
 having been out of music for more than a year, 
 I feel it difficult to deal in more than a general 
 way with some of the questions asked." 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "As to 'Violin Mastery'? To me it means 
 effortless mastery of details ; the correlating of 
 them into a perfect whole; the subjecting of 
 them to the expression of an architecture which 
 is music. 'Violin Mastery' means technical 
 mastery in every sense of the word. It means 
 a facility which will enable the interpreter to
 
 242 Violin Mastery 
 
 forget difficulties, and to express at once in a 
 language that will seem clear, simple and elo- 
 quent, that which in the hands of others ap- 
 pears difficult, obtuse and dull. 
 
 THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE DEVEL- 
 OPMENT OF AN ARTIST 
 
 "As to the processes, mental and technical, 
 which make an artist? These different proc- 
 esses, mental and technical, are too many, too 
 varied and involved to invite an answer in a 
 short space of time. Suffice it to say that the 
 most important mental process, to my mind, is 
 the development of a perception of beautj^ 
 All the perseverance in the study of music, all 
 the application devoted to it, is not worth a 
 tinker's dam, unless accompanied by this 
 awakening to the perception of beauty. And 
 with regard to the influence of teachers? Since 
 all teachers vary greatly, the student should 
 not limit himself to his own personal masters. 
 The true student of Art should be able to de- 
 rive benefit and instruction from every beau- 
 tiful work of Art that he hears or sees ; other- 
 wise he will be limited by the technical and 
 mental limitations of his own prejudices and 
 jealousies. One's greatest difficulties may
 
 Albert Spalding 243 
 
 turn out to be one's greatest aids in striving 
 toward artistic results. By this I mean that 
 nothing is more fatally pernicious for the true 
 artist than the precocious facility which invites 
 cheap success. Therefore I make the state- 
 ment that one's greatest difficulties are one's 
 greatest facilities. 
 
 A LESS DEVELOPED PHASE OF VIOLIN TECHNIC 
 
 "In the technical field, the phase of violin 
 technic which is less developed, it seems to me 
 is, in most cases, bowing. One often notes a 
 highly developed left hand technic coupled 
 with a monotonous and oftentimes faulty bow- 
 ing. The colo7^ and variety of a violinist's art 
 must come largely from his intimate acquaint- 
 ance with all that can be accomplished by the 
 bow arm. The break or change from a down- 
 bow to an up-bow, or vice versa, should be un- 
 der such control as to make it perceptible only 
 when it maj^ be desirable to use it for color or 
 accentuation. 
 
 GOOD AND BAD HANDS : MENTAL STUDY 
 
 "The influence of the physical conformation 
 of bow hand and string hand on actual play-
 
 244 Violin Mastery 
 
 ing? There are no 'good' or 'bad' bow hands 
 or string hands (unless they be deformed) ; 
 there are only 'good' and 'bad' heads. By this 
 I mean that the finest development of technic 
 comes from the head, not from the hand. 
 Quickness of thought and action is what dis- 
 tinguishes the easy player from the clumsy 
 player. Students should develop mental 
 study even of technical details — this, of course, 
 in addition to the physical practice; for this 
 mental study is of the highest importance in 
 developing the student so that he can gain that 
 effortless mastery of detail of which I have 
 already spoken. 
 
 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF CONCERT AT- 
 TENDANCE FOR THE STUDENT 
 
 "Concerts undoubtedly have great value in 
 developing the student technically and men- 
 tally; but too often they have a directly con- 
 trary effect. I think there is a very doubt- 
 ful benefit to be derived from the present 
 habit, as illustrated in New York, London, or 
 other centers, of the student attending con- 
 certs, sometimes as many as two or three a day. 
 This habit dwarfs the development of real ap- 
 preciation, as the student, under these condi-
 
 Albert Spalding 245 
 
 tions, can little appreciate true works of art 
 when he has crammed his head so full of truck, 
 and worn out his faculties of concentration un- 
 til listening to music becomes a mechanical 
 mental process. The indiscriminate attending 
 of concerts, to my mind, has an absolutely per- 
 nicious effect on the student. 
 
 NATIONALITY AS A FORMATIVE INFLUENCE 
 
 "Nationality and national feeling have a 
 very real influence in the development of an 
 artist; but this influence is felt subconsciously 
 more than consciously, and it reacts more on 
 the creative than on the interpretative artist. 
 By this I mean that the interpretative artist, 
 while reserving the right to his individual ex- 
 pression, should subject himself to what he 
 considers to have been the artistic impulse, the 
 artistic intentions of the composer. As to type 
 music to whose appeal I as an American am 
 susceptible, I confess to a very sympathetic 
 reaction to the syncopated rhythms known as 
 'rag-time,' and which appear to be especially 
 American in character." For the benefit of 
 those readers who may not chance to know it. 
 Lieutenant Spalding's "Alabama," a South- 
 ern melody and dance in plantation style, for
 
 246 Violin Mastery 
 
 violin and piano, represents a very delightful] 
 creative exploitation of these rhythms. The 
 writer makes mention of the fact since with re- 
 gard to this and other of his own compositions 
 Lieutenant Spalding would only state: "I 
 felt that I had something to say and, there- 
 fore, tried to say it. Whether what I have to 
 say is of any interest to others is not for me to 
 judge. 
 
 PLAYING WHILE IN SERVICE 
 
 "Do I play at all while in Service? I gave 
 up all plajang in public when entering the 
 Army a year ago, and to a great extent all 
 private playing as well. I have on one or two 
 occasions played at charity concerts during the 
 past year, once in Rome, and once in the little 
 town in Italy near the aviation camp at which 
 I was stationed at the time. I have purposely 
 refused all other requests to play because one 
 cannot do two things at once, and do them 
 properly. My time now belongs to my coun- 
 try: When we have peace again I shall hope 
 once more to devote it to Art."
 
 XXI r 
 THEODORE SPIERING 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF BOW EXERCISES TO 
 THE STUDY OF KREUTZER 
 
 A. Walter Kramer has said: "Mr. Spier- 
 ing knows how serious a study can be made of 
 the violin, because he has made it. He has in- 
 vestigated the 'how' and 'why' of every detail, 
 and what he has to say about the violin is the 
 utterance of a big musician, one who has mas- 
 tered the instrument." And Theodore Spier- 
 ing, solo artist and conductor, as a teacher has 
 that wider horizon which has justified thei 
 statement made that "he is animated by the 
 thoughts and ideals which stimulate a Godow- 
 sky or Busoni." Such being the case, it was 
 with unmixed satisfaction that the writer found 
 Mr. Spiering willing to give him the benefit 
 of some of those constructive ideas of his as re- 
 gards violin study which have established his 
 reputation so prominently in that field. 
 
 247
 
 248 Violin Mastery 
 
 TWO TYPES OF STUDENTS 
 
 "There are certain underlying principleSj 
 which govern every detail of the violinist's 
 Art," said Mr. Spiering, "and unless the vio- 
 linist fully appreciates their significance, and 
 has the intelligence and patience to apply them 
 in everything he does, he will never achieve 
 that absolute command over his instrument 
 which mastery implies. 
 
 "It is a peculiar fact that a large percentage 
 of students — probably believing that they can 
 reach their goal by a short cut — resent the 
 mental effort required to master these princi- 
 ples, the passive resistance, evident in their 
 work, preventing them from deriving true 
 benefit from their studies. They form that 
 large class which learns merely by imitation, 
 and invariably retrograde the moment they are 
 no longer under the teacher's supervision. 
 
 "The smaller group, with an analytical bent 
 of mind, largely subject themselves to the 
 needed mental drill and thus provide for them- 
 selves that inestimable basic quality that 
 makes them independent and capable of de- 
 veloping their talent to its full fruition.
 
 Theodore Spiering
 
 Theodore Spiering 249 
 
 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSES COORDINATED 
 
 "The conventional manner of teaching pro- 
 vided an inordinate number of mechanical ex- 
 ercises in order to overcome so called 'tech- 
 nical difficulties.' Only the prima facie dis- 
 turbance, however, was thus taken into con- 
 sideration — not its actual cause. The result 
 was, that notwithstanding the great amount of 
 labor thus expended, the effort had to be re- 
 peated each time the problem was confronted. 
 Aside from the obviouslj" uncertain results se- 
 cured in this manner, it meant deadening of 
 the imagination and cramping of interpreta- 
 tive possibilities. It is onty possible to reduce 
 to a minimum the element of chance by scru- 
 pulously carrying out the dictates of the laws 
 governing vital principles. Analysis and the 
 severest self-criticism are the means of deter- 
 mination as to whether theory and practice 
 conform with one another. 
 
 "Mental preparedness (Marcus Aurelius 
 calls it 'the good ordering of the mind') is the 
 keynote of technical control. Together with 
 the principle of relaxation it provides the 
 player with the most effective means of estab- 
 lishing precise and sensitive cooperation be-
 
 250 Violin Mastery 
 
 tween mental and physical processes. Muscu- 
 lar relaxation at will is one of the results of 
 this cooperation. It makes sustained effort 
 possible (counteracting the contraction ordi- 
 narily resulting therefrom), and it is freedom 
 of movement more than anything else that 
 tends to establish confidence. 
 
 THE TWO-FOLD VALUE OF CELEBRATED STUDY 
 WORKS 
 
 "The study period of the average American 
 is limited. It has been growing less year by 
 year. Hence the teacher has had to redouble 
 his efforts. The desire to give my pupils thej 
 essentials of technical control in their most con- 
 centrated and immediately applicable form, 
 have led me to evolve a series of 'bow exer- 
 cises,' which, however, do not merely pursue 
 a mechanical purpose. Primarily enforcing 
 the carrying out of basic principles as pertain- 
 ing to the bow — and establishing or correcting 
 (as the case may be) arm and hand (right 
 arm) positions, they suppty the means of cre- 
 ating a larger interpretative style. 
 
 "I use the Kreutzer studies as the medium of 
 these bow-exercises, since the application of 
 new technical ideas is easier when the music it-
 
 Theodore Spiering 251 
 
 self is familiar to the student. I have a two- 
 fold object in mind when I review these stud- 
 ies in my particular manner, technic and ap- 
 preciation. I might add that not only Kreut- 
 zer, but Fiorillo and Rode — in fact all the cele- 
 brated 'Caprices,' with the possible exception 
 of those of Paganini — are viewed almost en- 
 tirely from the purely technical side, as be- 
 longing to the classroom, because their musical 
 qualities have not been sufficiently pointed out. 
 Rode, in particular, is a veritable musical treas- 
 ure trove. 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF BOW EXERCISES TO THE 
 STUDY OF KREUTZER 
 
 "How do I use the Kreutzer studies to de- 
 velop style and technic? By making the stu- 
 dent study them in such wise that the follow- 
 ing principles are emphasized in his work: 
 control before action (mental direction at all 
 times) ; relaxation; and observance of string 
 levels; for unimpeded movement is more im- 
 portant than pressure as regards the carrying 
 tone. These principles are among the most 
 important pertaining to right arm technic. 
 
 "In Study No. 2 (version 1, up-strokes only, 
 version 2, down-strokes only), I have my pu-
 
 252 Violin Mastery 
 
 pils use the full arm stroke (grand detacTie). 
 In version 1, the bow is taken from the string 
 after completion of stroke — but in such a waj'] 
 that the vibrations of the string are not inter- 
 fered with. Complete relaxation is insured by 
 release of the thumb — the bow being caught 
 in a casual manner, third and fourth fingers 
 slipping from their normal position on stick — 
 and holding, but not tightly clasping, the bow. 
 
 "Version 2 calls for a return down-stroke j 
 the return part of the stroke being accom- 
 plished over the string, but making no division 
 in stroke, no hesitating before the return. Re- 
 laxation is secured as before. Rapidity of 
 stroke, elimination of impediment ( faulty hand 
 or arm position and unnecessary upper arm 
 action) , is the aim of this exercise. The pause 
 between each stroke — caused by relinquishing 
 the hold on the bow — reminds the student that 
 mental control should at all times be para- 
 mount: that analysis of technical detail is of 
 vital importance. 
 
 "In Study No. 7 I employ the same vigor- 
 ous full arm strokes as in No. 2: the up and 
 down bows as indicated in the original ver- 
 sion. The bow is raised from the strings after 
 each note, by means of hand (little finger, first
 
 Theodore Spiering 253 
 
 and thumb) not by arm action. Normal hand 
 position is retained : thumb not released. 
 
 "The observance of string levels is very es- 
 sential. While the stroke is in progress thej 
 arm must not leave its level in an anticipatory 
 movement to reach the next level. Especially 
 after the down-stroke is it advisable to Terify 
 the arm position with regard to this feature. 
 
 "No. 8 affords opportunity for a resume of 
 the work done in Nos. 2 and 7 : 
 
 "It is evident that the tempo of this study 
 must be very much reduced in speed. The re- 
 turn down-stroke as in No. 2: the second 
 down-stroke as in No. 7: the up-strokes as in 
 No. 2. 
 
 "In Study No. 5 I use the hand-stroke only 
 — at the frog — arm absolutely immobile, with 
 no attempt at tone. This exercise represents) 
 the first attempt at dissecting the martele 
 idea: precise timing of pressure, movement 
 (stroke), and relaxation. The pause between 
 the strokes is utilized to learn the value of left 
 hand preparedness, with the fingers in place 
 before bow action.
 
 254 
 
 Violin Mastery 
 
 "In Study No. 13 I develop the principles 
 of string crossing, of the extension stroke, and 
 articulation. String crossing is the main fea- 
 ture of the exercise. I employ three versions, 
 in order to accomplish my aim. In version 1 
 I consider only the crossing from a higher to 
 a lower level: 
 
 version 2: 
 
 version 3 is the original version. 
 1 and 2 I omit all repetitions : 
 
 In versions 
 
 Articulation is one of the main points at issue 
 — the middle note is generally inarticulate. 
 For further string crossing analysis I use 
 Kreutzer's No. 25. Study No. 10 I carry out 
 as a martele study, v^^ith the string crossing 
 very much in evidence ; establishing observance 
 of the notes occurring on the same string level, 
 consequently compelling a more judicious use 
 of the so-called wrist movement (not merely
 
 Theodore Spiering 255 
 
 developing a supple wrist, with indefinite 
 crossing movements, which in many cases are 
 applied by the player without regard to actual 
 string crossing) and in consequence securing 
 stability of bow on string when string level is 
 not changed, this result being secured even in 
 rapid passage work. 
 
 "In Studies 11, 19 and 21 I cover shifting 
 and left thumb action : in No. 9, finger action — 
 flexibilitj^ and evenness, the left thumb relaxed 
 — the fundamental idea of the trill. After the 
 interrupted types of bowing (grand detachc, 
 martele, staccato) have been carefully studied, 
 the continuous types (detaclie, legato and spic- 
 cato) are then taken up, and in part the same 
 studies again used: 2, 7, 8. Lastly the slurred 
 legato comes under consideration (Studies 9, 
 11, 14, 22, 27, 29). Shifting, extension and 
 string crossing have all been previously con- 
 sidered, and hence the legato should be al- 
 lowed to take its even course. 
 
 "Although I do, temporarily, place these 
 studies on a purely mechanical level, I am con- 
 vinced that they thus serve to call into being 
 a broader musical appreciation for the whole 
 set. For I have found that in spite of the fact 
 that pupils who come to me have all played 
 their Kreutzer, with very few exceptions have
 
 256 Violin Mastery 
 
 they realized the musical message which it con- 
 tains. The time when the student body will 
 have learned to depict successfully musical 
 character — even in studies and caprices — will 
 mark the fulfillment of the teacher's task with 
 regard to the cultivation of the right arm — 
 which is essentially the teacher's domain. 
 
 SOME OF MR. SPIERING's OWN STUDY SOUVENIRS 
 
 "It may interest you to know," Mr. Spiering 
 said in reply to a question, "that I began my 
 teaching career in Chicago immediately fol- 
 lowing my four years with Joachim in Ber- 
 lin. It was natural that I should first commit 
 myself to the pedagogic methods of the Hoch- 
 scTiule, which to a great extent, however, I dis- 
 carded as my own views crystallized. I found 
 that too much emphasis allotted the wrist 
 stroke (a misnomer, by the way), was bound 
 to result in too academic a style. By trans- 
 ferring primary importance to the control of 
 the full arm-stroke — with the hand-stroke in- 
 cidentally completing the control — I felt that 
 I was better able to reflect the larger interpre- 
 tative ideals which my years of musical devel- 
 opment were creating for me. Chamber 
 music — a youthful passion — led me to interest
 
 Theodore Spiering 257 
 
 myself in symphonic work and conducting. 
 These activities not only reacted favorably on 
 my solo playing, but influenced my develop- 
 ment as regards the broader, more dramatic 
 style, the grand manner in interpretation. It 
 is this realization that places me in a position 
 to earnestly advise the ambitious student not 
 to disregard the great artistic benefits to be 
 derived from the cultivation of chamber music 
 and symphonic playing. 
 
 "I might call my teaching ideals a combina- 
 tion of those of the Franco-Belgian and Ger- 
 man schools. To the former I attribute my 
 preference for the large sweep of the bow-arm, 
 its style and tonal superiority; to the latter, 
 vigor of interpretation and attention to musi- 
 cal detail. 
 
 VIOLIN MASTERY 
 
 "How do I define 'Violin Mastery ? The 
 violinist who has succeeded in eliminating all 
 superfluous tension or physical resistance, 
 whose mental control is such that the technic 
 of the left hand and right arm has become co- 
 ordinate, thus forming a perfect mechanism 
 not working at cross-purposes; who, further- 
 more, is so well poised that he never oversteps 
 the boundaries of good taste in his interpreta-
 
 258 Violin Mastery 
 
 tions, though vitally alive to the human ele- 
 ment ; who, finally, has so broad an outlook on 
 life and Art that he is able to reveal the trans- 
 cendent spirit characterizing the works of the 
 great masters — such a violinist has truly at- 
 tained mastery 1"
 
 XXIII 
 
 JACQUES THIBAUD 
 
 THE IDEAL PROGRAM 
 
 Jacques Thibaud, whose gifts as an inter- 
 preting artist have brought him so many 
 friends and admirers in the United States, is 
 the foremost representative of the modern 
 French school of vioHn-playing. And as such 
 he has held his own ever since, at the age of 
 twenty, he resigned his rank as concert-master 
 of the Colonne orchestra, to dedicate his tal- 
 ents exclusively to the concert stage. So great 
 an authority as the last edition of the Riemann 
 Musik-Lexicon cannot forbear, even in 1915, 
 to emphasize his "technic, absolutely developed 
 in its every detail, and his fiery and poetic man- 
 ner of interpretation." 
 
 But Mr. Thibaud does not see any great dif- 
 ference between the ideals of la grande ecole 
 beige, that of Vieuxtemps, De Beriot, Leon- 
 ard, Massart and Marsick, whose greatest 
 present-day exponent is Eugene Ysaye, and 
 
 259
 
 260 Violin Mastery 
 
 the French. Himself a pupil of ^larsick, he 
 inherited the French traditions of Alard 
 through his father, who was Alard 's i)upil and 
 handed them on to his son. "The two schools 
 have married and are as one," declared Mr. 
 Thibaud. "They may differ in the interpre- 
 tation of music, but to me they seem to have 
 merged so far as their systems of finger tech- 
 nic, bowing and tone production goes. 
 
 THE GREATEST DIFFICULTY TO OVERCOME 
 
 "You ask me what is most difficult in play- 
 ing the violin? It is bowing. Bowing makes 
 up approximately eighty per cent, of the sum 
 total of violinistic difficulties. One reason for 
 it is that many teachers with excellent ideas on 
 the subject present it to their pupils in too com- 
 plicated a manner. The bow must be used in 
 an absolutely natural way, and over elabora- 
 tion in explaining what should be a simple and 
 natural development often prevents the stu- 
 dent from securing a good bowing, the end in 
 view. Sarasate (he was an intimate friend of 
 mine) always used his bow in the most nat- 
 ural way, his control of it was unsought and 
 unconscious. Were I a teacher I should not 
 say : 'You must bow as I do' ; but rather : 'Find
 
 Jacwji Ks Thibaud 
 
 a^g ^^f*"^
 
 Jacques Thibaud 261 
 
 the way of bowing most convenient and nat- 
 ural to you and use it!' Bowing is largely a 
 physical and individual matter. I am slender 
 but have long, large fingers; Kreisler is a 
 larger man than I am but his fingers are small. 
 It stands to reason that there must be a differ- 
 ence in the way in which we hold and use the 
 bow. The difference between a great and a 
 mediocre teacher lies in the fact that the first 
 recognizes that bowing is an individual mat- 
 ter, different in the case of each individual pu- 
 pil ; and that the greatest perfection is attained 
 by the development of the individual's capa- 
 bilities within his own norm. 
 
 MAESICK AS A TEACHER 
 
 "Marsick was a teacher of this type. At 
 each of the lessons I took from him at the Con- 
 servatoire (we went to him three days a week) , 
 he would give me a new etude — Gavinies, 
 Rode, Fiorillo, Dont — to prepare for the next 
 lesson. We also studied all of Paganini, and 
 works by Ernst and Spohr. For our bow 
 technic he employed difficult passages made 
 into etudes. Scales — the violinist's daily 
 bread — we practiced day in, day out. Marsick 
 played the piano well, and could improvise
 
 262 Violin Mastery 
 
 marvelous accompaniments on his violin when 
 his pupils played. I continued my studies 
 with Mar sick even after I left the Conserva- 
 toire. With him I believe that three essen- 
 tials — absolute purity of pitch, equality of tone 
 and sonority of tone, in connection with the 
 bow — are the base on which everything else 
 rests. 
 
 THE MECHANICAL VERSUS THE NATURAL IN VIO- 
 LIN PLAYING 
 
 "Sevcik's purely soulless and mechanical 
 system has undoubtedly produced a number 
 of excellent mechanicians of the violin. But 
 it has just as unquestionably killed real talent. 
 Kubelik — there was a genuinely talented vio- 
 linist! If he had had another teacher instead 
 of Sevcik he would have been great, for he had 
 great gifts. Even as it was he played well, 
 but I consider him one of Sevcik's victims. 
 As an illustration of how the technical point 
 of view is thrust to the fore by this system 
 I remember some fifteen years ago Kubelik 
 and I were staying at the same villa in Monte- 
 Carlo, where we were to play the Beethoven 
 concerto, each of us, in concert, two days 
 apart. Kubelik spent the live-long day before
 
 Jacques Thibaud 263 
 
 the concert practicing Sevcik exercises. I 
 read and studied Beethoven's score, but did 
 not touch my viohn. I went to hear Kubelik 
 play the concerto, and he played it well; but 
 then, so did I, when my turn came. And I 
 feel sure I got more out of it musically and 
 spiritually, than I w ould have if instead of con- 
 centrating on its meaning, its musical message, 
 I had prepared the concerto as a problem in 
 violin mechanics whose key was contained in a 
 number of dry technical exercises arbitrarily 
 laid down. 
 
 "Technic, in the case of the more advanced 
 violinist, should not have a place in the fore- 
 ground of his consciousness. I heard Rubin- 
 stein play when a boy — what did his false notes 
 amount to compared with his wonderful man- 
 ner of disclosing the spirit of the things he 
 played! Plante, the Parisian pianist, a kind 
 of keyboard cyclone, once expressed the idea 
 admirably to an English society lady. She 
 had told him he was a greater pianist than 
 Rubinstein, because the latter played so many 
 wrong notes. 'Ah, Madame,' answered 
 Plante, *I would rather be able to play Rubin- 
 stein's wrong notes than all my own correct 
 ones.' A violinist's natural manner of play- 
 ing is the one he should cultivate ; since it is in-
 
 264 Violin Mastery 
 
 dividual, it really represents him. And a 
 teacher or a colleague of greater fame does him 
 no kindness if he encourages him to distrust 
 his own powers by too good naturedly 'show- 
 ing' him how to do this, that or the other. I 
 mean, when the' student can work out his prob- 
 lem himself at the expense of a little initiative. 
 "When I was j^ounger I once had to play 
 Bach's G minor fugue at a concert in Brus- 
 sels. I was living at Ysaye's home, and since 
 I had never played the composition in public^ 
 before, I began to worry about its interpre- 
 tation. So I asked Ysaj'^e (thinking he would 
 simply show me), 'How ought I to play this 
 fugue?' The Master reflected a moment and 
 then dashed my hopes by answering: 'Tu 
 nriemhetes!' (You bore me!) 'This fugue 
 should be played well, that's all!' At first I 
 was angry, but thinking it over, I realized that 
 if he had shown me, I would have played it just 
 as he did ; while what he wanted me to do was 
 to work out my own version, and depend on my 
 own initiative — which I did, for I had no 
 choice. It is by means of concentration on the 
 higher, the interpretative phases of one's Art 
 that the technical side takes its proper, sec- 
 ondary place. Technic does not exist for me 
 in the sense of a certain quantity of mechan-
 
 Jacques Thihaud 265 
 
 ical work which I must do. I find it out of 
 the question to do absolutely mechanical tech- 
 nical work of any length of time. In realiz- 
 ing the three essentials of good violin playing 
 which I have already mentioned, Ysaye and 
 Sarasate are my ideals. 
 
 SARASATE 
 
 "All really good violinists are good artists. 
 Sarasate, whom I knew so intimately and re- 
 member so well, was a pupil of Alard (my 
 father's teacher). He literally sang on the 
 violin, like a nightingale. His purity of in- 
 tonation was remarkable; and his technical 
 facility was the most extraordinary that I have 
 ever seen. He handled his bow with unbe- 
 lievable skill. And when he played, the un- 
 assuming grace of his movements won the 
 hearts of his audiences and increased the en- 
 thusiasm awakened by his tremendous talent. 
 
 "We other violinists, all of us, occasionally 
 play a false note, for we are not infallible; 
 we may flat a little or sharp a little. But 
 never, as often as I have heard Sarasate play, 
 did I ever hear him play a wrong note, one not 
 in perfect pitch. His Spanish things he 
 played like a god! And he had a wonderful
 
 266 Violin Mastery 
 
 gift of phrasing which gave a charm hard to 
 define to whatever he played. And playing in 
 quartet — the greatest solo violinist does not al- 
 waj^s shine in this genre — ^he was admirable. 
 Though he played all the standard repertory, 
 Bach, Beethoven, etc., I can never forget his 
 exquisite rendering of modern works, espe- 
 cially of a little composition by Raff, called 
 La Fee d' Amour. He was the first to 
 play the violin concertos of Saint- Saens, 
 Lalo and Max Bruch. They were all writ- 
 ten for him, and I doubt whether they 
 would have been composed had not Sara- 
 sate been there to play them. Of course, in 
 his own Spanish music he was unexcelled — a 
 whole school of violin playing was born and 
 died with him ! He had a hobby for collecting 
 canes. He had hundreds of them of all kinds, 
 and every sovereign in Europe had contributed 
 to his collection. I know Queen Christina of 
 Spain gave him no less than twenty. He once 
 gave me a couple of his canes, a great sign of 
 favor with him. I have often played quartet 
 with Sarasate, for he adored quartet playing, 
 and these occasions are among my treasured 
 memories.
 
 Jacques Thibaud 267 
 
 STRADIVARIUS AND GUARNERIUS PLAYERS 
 
 "My violin? It is a Stradivarius — the same 
 which once belonged to the celebrated Baillot. 
 I think it is good for a violin to rest, so during 
 the three months when I am not playing in 
 concert, I send my Stradivarius away to the 
 instrument maker's, and only take it out about 
 a month before I begin to play again in public. 
 What do I use in the meantime? Caressa, the 
 best violin maker in Paris, made me an exact 
 copy of my own Strad, exact in every little de- 
 tail. It is so good that sometimes, when cir- 
 cumstances compelled me to, I have used it in 
 concert, though it lacks the tone-quality of the 
 original. This under-studj^ violin I can use 
 for practice, and when I go back to the original, 
 as far as the handling of the instrument is con- 
 cerned, I never know the difference. 
 
 "But I do not think that every one plays to 
 the best advantage on a Strad. I'm a believer 
 in the theory that there are natural Guarner- 
 ius players and natural Stradivarius players; 
 that certain artists do their best with the one, 
 and certain others with the other. And I also 
 believe that any one who is 'equally' good in 
 both, is great on neither. The reason I believe
 
 268 Violin Mastery 
 
 in Guarnerius players and Stradivarius play- 
 ers as distinct is this. Some j'ears ago I had 
 a sudden call to play in Ostende. It was a 
 concert engagement which I had overlooked, 
 and when it was recalled to me I was playing 
 golf in Brittany. I at once hurried to Paris 
 to get my violin from Caressa, with whom I 
 had left it, but — his safe, in which it had been 
 put, and to which he only had the combina- 
 tion, was locked. Caressa himself was in 
 Milan. I telegraphed him but found that he 
 could not get back in time before the concert 
 to release my violin. So I telegraphed Ysaye 
 at Namur, to ask if he could loan me a violin 
 for the concert. 'Certainly' he wired back. So 
 I hurried to his home and, with his usual gen- 
 erosity, he insisted on my taking both his treas- 
 ured Guarnerius and his 'Hercules' Strad 
 (afterwards stolen from him in Russia), in 
 order that I might have my choice. His broth- 
 er-in-law and some friends accompanied me 
 from Namur to Ostende — no great distance — 
 to hear the concert. Well, I played the Guar- 
 nerius at rehearsal, and when it was over, 
 every one said to me, 'Why, what is the matter 
 with your fiddle? (It was the one Ysaye al- 
 ways used.) It has no tone at all.' At the 
 concert I played the Strad and secured a big
 
 Jacques Thihaud 269 
 
 tone that filled the hall, as every one assured 
 me. When I brought back the violins to Ysaye 
 I mentioned the circumstance to him, and he 
 was so surprised and interested that he took 
 them from the cases and played a bit, first on 
 one, then on the other, a number of times. 
 And invariablj^ when he played the Strad 
 (which, by the way, he had not used for years) 
 he, Ysaye — imagine it! — could develop only a 
 small tone; and when he played the Guarne- 
 rius, he never failed to develop that great, 
 sonorous tone we all know and love so well. 
 Take Sarasate, when he lived, Elman, myself 
 — ^we all have the habit of the Stradivarius : 
 on the other hand Ysaye and Kreisler are 
 Guarnerius players par excellence! 
 
 "Yes, I use a wire E string. Before I 
 found out about them I had no end of trouble. 
 In New Orleans I snapped seven gut strings 
 at a single concert. Some say that you can 
 tell the difference, when listening, between a 
 gut and a wire E. I cannot, and I know a 
 good many others who cannot. After my last 
 New York recital I had tea with Ysaye, who 
 had done me the honor of attending it. 'What 
 strings do you use?' he asked me, a propos to 
 nothing in particular. When I told him I 
 used a wire E he confessed that he could not
 
 270 Violin Mastery 
 
 have told the difference. And, in fact, he has 
 adopted the wire E just like Kreisler, Maud 
 Powell and others, and has told me that he is 
 charmed with it — for Ysaye has had a great 
 deal of trouble with his strings. I shall con- 
 tinue to use them even after the war, when it 
 will be possible to obtain good gut strings 
 again. 
 
 THE IDEAL PROGRAM 
 
 "The whole question of programs and pro- 
 gram-making is an intricate one. In my opin- 
 ion the usual recital program, piano, song or 
 violin, is too long. The public likes the re- 
 cital by a single vocal or instrumental artist, 
 and financially and for other practical reasons 
 the artist, too, is better satisfied with them. 
 But are they artistically altogether satisfac- 
 tory? I should like to hear Paderewski and 
 Ysaye, Bauer and Casals, Kreisler and Hof- 
 mann all playing at the same recital. What a 
 variety, what a wealth of contrasting artistic 
 enjoyment such a concert would afford. 
 There is nothing that is so enjoyable for the 
 true artist as ensemble playing with his peers. 
 Solo playing seems quite unimportant beside 
 it. 
 
 "I recall as the most perfect and beautiful
 
 Jacques Thibaud 271 
 
 of all my musical memories, a string quartet 
 and quintet (with piano) session in Paris, in 
 my own home, where we played four of the 
 loveliest chamber music works ever written in 
 the following combination: Beethoven's 7th 
 quartet (Ysaye, Vo. I, myself, Vo. II, Kreis- 
 ler, viola — he plays it remarkably well — and 
 Casals, 'cello) ; the Schumann quartet (Kreis- 
 ler, Vo. I, Ysaye, Vo. II, myself, viola and 
 Casals, 'cello) ; and the Mozart G major quar- 
 tet (myself, Vo. I, Kreisler, Vo. II, Ysaye, 
 viola and Casals, 'cello) . Then we telephoned 
 to Pugno, who came over and joined us and, 
 after an excellent dinner, we played the Cesar 
 Franck piano quintet. It was the most en- 
 joyable musical day of my life. A concert 
 manager offered us a fortune to play in this 
 combination — just two concerts in every cap- 
 ital in Europe. 
 
 "We have not enough variety in our con- 
 cert programs — not enough collaboration. 
 The truth is our form of concert, which usu- 
 ally introduces only one instrument or one 
 group of instruments, such as the string quar- 
 tet, is too uniform in color. I can enjoy play- 
 ing a recital program of virtuose violin pieces 
 well enough; but I cannot help fearing that 
 many iBlnd it too unicolored. Practical con-
 
 272 Violin Mastery 
 
 siderations do not do away with the truth of 
 an artistic contention, though they may often 
 prevent its realization. What I enjoy most, 
 musically, is to play together with another 
 good artist. That is why I have had such 
 great artistic pleasure in the joint recitals I 
 have given with Harold Bauer. We could 
 play things that were really w^orth while for 
 each of us — for the piano parts of the modern 
 sonatas call for a virtuose technical and musi- 
 cal equipment, and I have had more satisfac- 
 tion from this ensemble work than I would 
 have had in playing a long list of solo pieces. 
 
 "The ideal violin program, to play in pub- 
 lic, as I conceive it, is one that consists of ab- 
 solute music, or should it contain virtuose 
 pieces, then these should have some definite 
 musical quality of soul, character, elegance or 
 charm to recommend them. I think one of the 
 best programs I have ever played in America 
 is that which I gave with Harold Bauer at 
 iEolian Hall, New York, during the season of 
 1917-1918: 
 
 Sonata in B flat .... Mozart 
 
 BATTER-THIBATTD 
 
 Scenes from Childhood . . Schumann 
 
 H. BAUZR
 
 Jacques Thihaud 
 
 273 
 
 Poteie 
 
 Sonata 
 
 E. Chausson 
 
 J. THIBAUD 
 
 Cdsar Pranck 
 
 BAUER-THIBAITU 
 
 Or perhaps this other, which Bauer and I 
 played in Boston, during Novemher, 1913: 
 
 Kreutzer Sonata . . . Beethoven 
 
 BACER-THIBAtm 
 
 Sarabanda "| 
 
 Giga f . . . 
 
 Chaconne j 
 
 J. THIBAUTJ 
 
 Kreisleriana 
 
 Sonata 
 
 H. BAUES 
 
 BAUER-THIBAUD 
 
 ./. S. Bach 
 
 Schumann 
 
 Cesar Pranck 
 
 JEither of these programs is artistic from the 
 standpoint of the compositions represented. 
 And even these programs are not too short — 
 they take almost two hours to play; while for 
 my ideal progi-am an hour-and-a-half of beau- 
 tiful music would suffice. You will notice that 
 I believe in playing the big, fine things in 
 music; in serving roasts rather than too many 
 Jiors dfoeuvres and pastry. 
 
 "On a solo program, of course, one must
 
 274 Violin Mastery 
 
 make some concessions. When I play a vio- 
 lin concerto it seems fair enough to give the 
 public three or four nice little things, but — al- 
 ways pieces which are truly musical, not such 
 as are only 'ear-ticklers.' Kreisler — he has a 
 great talent for transcription — has made 
 charming arrangements. So has Tivadar Na- 
 chez, of older things, and Arthur Hartmann. 
 These one can play as well as shorter numbers 
 by Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski that are de- 
 lightful, such as the former's Ballade et Po- 
 lonaise, though I know of musical purists who 
 disapprove of it. I consider this Polonaise on 
 a level with Chopin's. Or take, in the virtuoso 
 field, Sarasate's Gypsy Airs — they are equal 
 to any Liszt Rhapsody. I have only recently 
 discovered that Ysaye — my life-long friend — 
 has written some wonderful original composi- 
 tions: a Poeme eligiaque, a Chatit d'hiver, an 
 Eoctase and a ms. trio for two violins and alto 
 that is marvelous. These pieces were an ab- 
 solute find for me, with the exception of the 
 lovely Chant d'hiver, which I have already 
 played in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and 
 Berlin, and expect to make a feature of my 
 programs this winter. You see, Ysaye is so 
 modest about his own compositions that he does 
 not attempt to 'push' them, even with his
 
 Jacques Thibaud 275 
 
 friends, hence they are not nearly as well 
 known as they should be. 
 
 "I never play operatic transcriptions and 
 never will. The music of the opera, no matter 
 how fine, appears to me to have its proper 
 place on the stage — it seems out of place on 
 the violin recital program. The artist cannot 
 be too careful in the choice of his shorter pro- 
 gram pieces. And he can profit by the ex- 
 ample set by some of the foremost violinists 
 of the day. Ysaye, that great apostle of the 
 truly musical, is a shining example. It is sad 
 to see certain young artists of genuine talent 
 disregard the remarkable work of their great 
 contemporary, and secure easily gained tri- 
 umphs with compositions whose musical value 
 is nil. 
 
 "Sometimes the wish to educate the public, 
 to give it a high standad of appreciation, leads 
 an artist astray. I heard a well-known Ger- 
 man violinist play in Berlin five years ago, and 
 what do you suppose he played? Beethoven's 
 Ti'ios transcribed for violin and piano! The 
 last thing in the world to play! And there 
 was, to my astonishment, no critical disap- 
 proval of what he did. I regard it as little less 
 than a crime. 
 
 "But this whole question of programs and
 
 276 Violin Mastery 
 
 repertory is one without end. Which of the 
 great concertos do I prefer? That is a diffi- 
 cult question to answer ofF-hand. But I can 
 easily tell you which I like least. It is the 
 Tschaikovsky violin concerto — I would not ex- 
 change the first ten measures of Vieuxtemps's 
 Fourth concerto for the whole of Tschaikov- 
 sky's, that is from the musical point of view. 
 I have heard the Tchaikovsky played magnifi- 
 cently by Auer and by Elman; but I consider 
 it the worst thing the composer has written."
 
 XXIV 
 GUSTAV SAENGER 
 
 THE EDITOR AS A FACTOR IN "VIOLIN 
 MASTERY" 
 
 The courts of editorial appeal presided over 
 by such men as Wm. Arms Fisher, Dr. Theo- 
 dore Baker, Gustav Saenger and others, have 
 a direct relation to the establishment and main- 
 tenance of standards of musical mastery in gen- 
 eral and, in the case of Gustav Saenger, with 
 "Violin Mastery" in particular. For this edi- 
 tor, composer and violinist is at home with 
 every detail of the educational and artistic de- 
 velopment of his instrument, and a considerable 
 portion of the violin music published in the 
 United States represents his final and author- 
 itative revision. 
 
 "Has the work of the editor any influence 
 on the development of 'Violin Mastery'?" was 
 the first question put to Mr. Saenger when he 
 found time to see the writer in his editorial 
 rooms. "In a larger sense I think it has," was 
 the reply. "Mastery of any kind comes as a 
 
 277
 
 278 Violin Mastery 
 
 result of striving for a definite goal. In the 
 case of the violin student the road of progress 
 is long, and if he is not to stray off into the 
 numerous by-paths of error, it must be liberally 
 provided with sign-posts. These sign-posts, in 
 the way of clear and exact indications with re- 
 gard to bowing, fingering, interpretation, it is 
 the editor's duty to erect. The student himself 
 must provide mechanical ability and emotional 
 instinct, the teacher must develop and perfect 
 them, and the editor must neglect nothing in 
 the way of explanation, illustration and exam- 
 ple which will help both teacher and pupil to 
 obtain more intimate insight into the musical 
 and technical values. Yes, I think the editor 
 may claim to be a factor in the attainment of 
 'Violin Mastery.' 
 
 OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES 
 
 "The work of the responsible editor of mod- 
 ern violin music must have constructive value, 
 it must suggest and stimulate. When Kreut- 
 zer, Gavinies and Rode first published their 
 work, little stress was laid on editorial revi- 
 sion. You will find little in the way of finger- 
 ing indicated in the old editions of Kreutzer. 
 It was not till long after Kreutzer's death that
 
 Gi:sTAV Saenger
 
 Gustav Saenger 279 
 
 his pupil, Massart, published an excellent little 
 book, which he called 'The Art of Studying R. 
 Kreutzer's Etudes' and which I have trans- 
 lated. It contains no less than four hundred 
 and twelve examples specially designed to aid 
 the student to master the Etudes in the spirit 
 of their composer. Yet these studies, as dif- 
 ficult to-day as they were when first written, 
 are old wine that need no bush, though they 
 have gained by being decanted into new bottles 
 of editorial revision. 
 
 "They have such fundamental value, that 
 they allow of infinite variety of treatment and 
 editorial presentation. Every student who has 
 reached a certain degree of technical profici- 
 ency takes them up. Yet when studying them 
 for the first time, as a rule it is all he can do to 
 master them in a purely superficial way. When 
 he has passed beyond them, he can return to 
 them with greater technical facility and, be- 
 cause of their infinite variety, find that they 
 offer him any number of new study problems. 
 As with Kreutzer — an essential to 'Violin Mas- 
 tery' — so it is with Rode, Fiorillo, and Gavin- 
 ies. Editorial care has prepared the studies in 
 distinct editions, such as those of Hermann and 
 Singer, specifically for the student, and that of 
 Emil Kross, for the advanced player. These
 
 280 Violin Mastery 
 
 editions give the work of the teacher a more 
 direct proportion of result. The difference be- 
 tween the two types is mainly in the fingering. 
 In the case of the student editions a simple, 
 practical fingering of positive educational value 
 is given; and the student should be careful to 
 use editions of this kind, meant for him. Kross 
 provides many of the etudes with fingerings 
 which only the virtuoso player is able to apply. 
 Aside from technical considerations the abso- 
 lute musical beauty of many of these studies 
 is great, and they are well suited for solo per- 
 formance. Rode's Caprices, for instance, are 
 particularly suited for such a purpose, and 
 many of Paganini's famous Caprices have 
 found a lasting place in the concert repertory, 
 with piano accompaniments by artists like 
 Kreisler, Eddy Brown, Edward Behm and 
 Max Vogrich — the last-named composer's 
 three beautiful 'Characteristic Pieces' after 
 Paganini are worth any violinist's attention. 
 
 AMERICAN EDITORIAL IDEALS 
 
 "In this country those intrusted with edi- 
 torial responsibility as regards violin music 
 have upheld a truly American standard of in- 
 dependent judgment. The time has long since
 
 Gustav Saenger 281 
 
 passed when foreign editions were accepted on 
 their face value, particularly older works. In 
 a word, the conscientious American editor of 
 violin music reflects in his editions the actual 
 state of progress of the art of violin playing 
 as established by the best teachers and teaching 
 methods, whether the works in question repre- 
 sent a higher or lower standard of artistic 
 merit. 
 
 "And this is no easy task. One must re- 
 member that the peculiar construction of the 
 violin with regard to its technical possibilities 
 makes the presentation of a violin piece difficult 
 from an editorial standpoint. A composition 
 may be so written that a beginner can play it 
 in the first position ; and the same number may 
 be played with beautiful eff*ects in the higher 
 positions by an artist. This accounts for the 
 fact that in many modern editions of solo music 
 for violin, double fingerings, for student and 
 advanced players respectively, are indicated — 
 an essentially modern editorial development. 
 Modern instructive works by such masters as 
 Sevcik, Eberhardt and others have made tech- 
 nical problems more clearly and concisely get- 
 at-able than did the older methods. Yet some 
 of these older works are by no means negligible, 
 though of course, in all classic violin literature.
 
 282 Violin Mastery 
 
 from Tartini on, Kreutzer, Spohr, Paganini, 
 Ernst, each individual artist represents his own 
 school, his own method to the exclusion of any- 
 other. Spohr was one of the first to devote 
 editorial attention to his own method, one 
 which, despite its age, is a valuable work, 
 though most students do not know how to use 
 it. It is really a method for the advanced 
 player, since it presupposes a good deal of pre- 
 liminary technical knowledge, and begins at 
 once with the higher positions. It is rather a 
 series of study pieces for the special develop- 
 ment of certain difficult phases, musical and 
 technical, of the violinist's art, than a method. 
 I have translated and edited the American edi- 
 tion of this work, and the many explanatory 
 notes with which Spohr has provied it — as in 
 his own 9th, and the Rode concerto (included 
 as representative of what violin concertos real- 
 ly should be), the measures being provided 
 with group numbers for convenience in refer- 
 ence — are not obsolete. They are still valid, 
 and any one who can appreciate the ideals of 
 the Gesangsscene, its beautiful cantilene and 
 pure serenity, may profit by them. I enjoyed 
 editing this work because I myself had studied 
 with Carl Richter, a Spohr pupil, who had all 
 his master's traditions.
 
 Gustav Saenger 283 
 
 THE MASTER VIOLINIST AS AN EDITOR 
 
 "That the editorial revisions of a number of 
 our greatest living violinists and teachers have 
 passed through my editorial rooms, on their 
 way to press, is a fact of which I am decidedly 
 proud. Leopold Auer, for instance, is one 
 of the most careful, exact and practical of edi- 
 tors, and the fact is worth dwelling on since 
 sometimes the great artist or teacher quite nat- 
 urally forgets that those for whom he is editing 
 a composition have neither his knowledge nor 
 resources. Auer never loses sight of the com- 
 poser's own ideas. 
 
 "And when I mention great violinists with 
 whom I have been associated as an editor, 
 Mischa Elman must not be forgotten. I 
 found it at first a difficult matter to induce an 
 artist like Elman, for whom no technical dif- 
 ficulties exist, to seriously consider the limita- 
 tions of the average player in his fingerings 
 and interpretative demands. Elman, like every 
 great virtuoso of his caliber, is influenced in his 
 revisions by the manner in which he himself 
 does things. I remember in one instance I 
 could see no reason why he should mark the 
 third finger for a cantilena passage where a
 
 284 Violin Mastery 
 
 certain effect was desired, and questioned it. 
 Catching up his violin he played the note pre- 
 ceding it with his second finger, then instead 
 of slipping the second finger down the string, 
 he took the next note with the third, in such a 
 way that a most exquisite legato effect, like a 
 breath, the echo of a sigh, was secured. And 
 the beauty of tone color in this instance not only 
 proved his point, but has led me invariably to 
 examine very closely a fingering on the part of 
 a master violinist which represents a departure 
 from the conventional — it is often the technical 
 key to some new beauty of interpretation or 
 expression. 
 
 "Fritz Kreisler's individuality is also re- 
 flected in his markings and fingerings. Of 
 course those in his 'educational' editions are 
 strictly meant for study needs. But in general 
 they are difficult and based on his own manner 
 and style of playing. As he himself has re- 
 marked: 'I could play the violin just as well 
 with three as with four fingers.' Kreisler is 
 fond of 'fingered' octaves, and these, because 
 of his abnormal hand, he plays with the first 
 and third fingers, where virtuose players, as a 
 rule, are only too happy if they can play them 
 with the first and fourth. To verify this indi- 
 vidual character of his revisions, one need only
 
 Gustav Saenger 285 
 
 glance at his edition of Godowsky's '12 Impres- 
 sions' for violin — in every case the fingerings 
 indicated are difficult in the extreme; yet they 
 supply the key to definite effects, and since this 
 music is intended for the advance player, are 
 quite in order. 
 
 "The ms. and revisions of many other dis- 
 tinguished artists have passed through my 
 hands. Theodore Spiering has been responsi- 
 ble for the educational detail of classic and 
 modern works; Arthur Hartmann — a com- 
 poser of marked originality — Albert Spalding, 
 Eddy Brown, Francis MacMillan, Max Pil- 
 zer, David Hochstein, Richard Czerwonky, 
 Cecil Burleigh, Edwin Grasse, Edmund Sev- 
 ern, Franz C. Bornschein, Leo Ornstein, Rubin 
 Goldmark, Louis Pershinger, Louis Victor 
 Saar — whose ms. always look as though en- 
 graved — ^have all given me opportunities of 
 seeing the best the American violin composer 
 is creating at the present time. 
 
 EDITORIAL DIFFICULTIES 
 
 "The revisional work of the master violinist 
 is of very great importance, but often great 
 artists and distinguished teachers hold radical- 
 ly different views with regard to practically
 
 286 Violin Mastery 
 
 every detail of their art. And it is by no means 
 easy for an editor like myself, who is finally 
 responsible for their editions, to harmonize a 
 hundred conflicting views and opinions. The 
 fiddlers best qualified to speak with authority 
 will often disagree absolutely regarding the use 
 of a string, position, up -bow or down-bow. 
 And besides meeting the needs of student and 
 teacher, an editor-in-chief must bear in mind 
 the artistic requirements of the music itself. 
 In many cases the divergence in teaching 
 standards reflects the personal preferences for 
 the editions used. Less ambitious teachers 
 choose methods which make the study of the 
 violin as easy as possible for them; rather than 
 those which — in the long run — may be most ad- 
 vantageous for the pupil. The best editions of 
 studies are often cast aside for trivial reasons, 
 such as are embodied in the poor excuse that 
 'the fourth finger is too frequently indicated.' 
 According to the old-time formulas, it was 
 generally accepted that ascending passages 
 should be played on the open strings and de- 
 scending ones using the fourth finger. It 
 stands to reason that the use of the fourth fin- 
 ger involves more eff'ort, is a greater tax of 
 strength, and that the open string is an easier 
 playing proposition. Yet a really perfected
 
 Gustav Saenger 287 
 
 technic demands that the fourth finger be every 
 bit as strong and flexible as any of the others. 
 By nature it is shorter and weaker, and begin- 
 ners usually have great trouble with it — which 
 makes perfect control of it all the more essen- 
 tial! And yet teachers, contrary to all sound 
 principle and merely to save effort — tempora- 
 rily — for themselves and their pupils, will often 
 reject an edition of a method or book of studies 
 merely because in its editing the fourth finger 
 has not been deprived of its proper chance of 
 development. I know of cases where, were it 
 not for the guidance supplied by editorial revi- 
 sion, the average teacher would have had no 
 idea of the purpose of the studies he was using. 
 One great feature of good modern editions of 
 classical study works, from Kreutzer to Paga- 
 nini, is the double editorial numeration: one 
 giving the sequence as in the original editions ; 
 the other numbering the studies in order of 
 technical difficulty, so that they may be prac- 
 ticed progressively. 
 
 A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF VIOLIN STUDIES 
 
 "What special editorial work of mine has 
 given me the greatest personal satisfaction in 
 the doing? That is a hard question to answer.
 
 288 Violin Mastery 
 
 Off-hand I might say that, perhaps, the collec- 
 tion of progressive orchestral studies for ad- 
 vanced violinists which I have compiled and an- 
 notated for the benefit of the symphony orches- 
 tra player is something that has meant much 
 to me personally. Years ago, when I played 
 professionally — long before the days of 'minia- 
 ture' orchestra scores — it was almost impossible 
 for an ambitious young violinist to acquaint 
 himself with the first and second violin parts 
 of the great symphonic works. Prices of scores 
 were prohibitive — and though in such works as 
 the Brahms symphonies, for instance, the *con- 
 certmaster's' part should be studied from score, 
 in its relation to the rest of the partitura — 
 often, merely to obtain a first violin part, I 
 had to acquire the entire set of strings. So 
 when I became an editor I determined, in view 
 of my own unhappy experiences and that of 
 many others, to give the aspiring fiddler who 
 really wanted to 'get at' the violin parts of the 
 best symphonic music, from Bach to Brahms 
 and Richard Strauss, a chance to do so. And 
 I believe I solved the problem in the five books 
 of the 'Modern Concert-Master,' which includes 
 all those really difficult and important passages 
 in the great repertory works of the symphony
 
 Gustav Saenger 289 
 
 orchestra that offer violinistic problems. My 
 onlj'- regret is that the grasping attitude of 
 European publishers prevented the represen- 
 tation of certain important symphonic num- 
 bers. Yet, as it stands, I think I may say that 
 the five encyclopedic books of the collection 
 give the symphony concertmaster every prac- 
 tical opportunity to gain orchestral routine, 
 and orchestral :riastery. 
 
 A NEW CLASSIFICATION OF VIOLIN LITERATURE 
 
 "What I am inclined to consider, however, 
 as even more important, in a sense, than my 
 editorial labors is a new educational classifica- 
 tion of violin literature, one which practically 
 covers the entire field of violin music, and 
 upon which I have been engaged for several 
 years. Insomuch as an editor's work helps 
 in the acquisition of 'Violin Mastery,' I am 
 tempted to think this catalogue will be a con- 
 tribution of real value. 
 
 "As far as I know there does not at present 
 exist any guide or hand-book of violin litera- 
 ture in which the fundamental question of 
 grading has been presented aii fond. This is 
 not strange, since the task of compiling a really 
 valid and logically graded guide-book of violin
 
 290 Violin Mastery 
 
 literature is one that offers great difficulties 
 from almost every point of view. 
 
 "Yet I have found the work engrossing, be- 
 cause the need of a book of the kind which 
 makes it easy for the teacher to bring his pupils 
 ahead more rapidly and intelligently by giving 
 him an oversight of the entire teaching- 
 material of the violin and under clear, prac- 
 tical heads in detail order of progression is 
 making itself more urgently felt every day. In 
 classification (there are seven grades and a 
 preparatory grade), I have not chosen an 
 easier and conventional plan of general con- 
 sideration of difficulties; but have followed a 
 more systematic scheme, one more closely re- 
 lated to the study of the instrument itself. 
 Thus, my 'Preparatory Grade' contains only 
 material which could be advantageously used 
 with children and beginners, those still strug- 
 gling with the simplest elementary problems — 
 correct drawing of the bow across the open 
 strings, in a certain rhythmic order, and the 
 first use of the fingers. And throughout the 
 grades are special sub-sections for special dif- 
 ficulties, special technical and other problems. 
 In short, I cannot help but feel that I have 
 compiled a real guide^, one with a definite edu-
 
 Gustav Sacnger 291 
 
 cational value, and not a catalogue, masquer- 
 ading as a violinistic Baedeker. 
 
 VIOIJN EDITIONS ]\rADE IN AMERICA 
 
 "One of the most significant features of the 
 violin guide I have mentioned is, perhaps, the 
 fact that its contents largely cover the whole 
 range of violin literature in American editions. 
 There was a time, years ago, when 'made in 
 Germany' was accepted as a certificate of edi- 
 torial excellence and mechanical perfection. 
 Those days have long since passed, and the 
 American edition has come into its own. It 
 has reached a point of development where it 
 is of far more practical and musically stimulat- 
 ing value than anj^^ European edition. For 
 American editions of violin music do not take 
 so much for granted ! They reflect in the high- 
 est degree the needs of students and players 
 in smaller places throughout the country, and 
 where teachers are rare or non-existent they do 
 much to supply instruction by meticulous re- 
 gard for all detail of fingering, bowing, phras- 
 ing, expression, by insisting in explanatory an- 
 notation on the correct presentation of author- 
 itative teaching ideas and principles. In a 
 broader sense 'Violin INIastery' knows no na-
 
 292 Violin Mastery 
 
 tionality; but yet we associate the famous ar- 
 tists of the day with individual and distinctive- 
 ly national trends of development and 'schools.' 
 In this connection I am convinced that one 
 result of this great war of world liberation we 
 have waged, one by-product of the triumph of 
 the democratic truth, will be a notably 'Amer- 
 ican' ideal of 'Violin Mastery,' in the musical 
 as well as the technical sense. And in the 
 development of this ideal I do not think it is 
 too much to claim that American editions of 
 violin music, and those who are responsible for 
 them, will have done their part."
 
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