March 1925) James Francis Cooke

Gardner-Webb University Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University The tudeE Magazine: 1883-1957 John R. Dover Memorial Library 3-1-1925 Volume 43, Number 03 (March 1925) James Francis Cooke Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/etude Part of the Composition Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Fine Arts Commons, History Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Music Education Commons, Musicology Commons, Music Pedagogy Commons, Music Performance Commons, Music Practice Commons, and the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Cooke, James Francis. "Volume 43, Number 03 (March 1925)." , (1925). https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/etude/721 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the John R. Dover Memorial Library at Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University. It has been accepted for inclusion in The tudeE Magazine: 1883-1957 by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ETUDE MARCH, 1925 Single Copies 25 Cents VOL. XLIII, No. ; How Fast Can the Fingers Fly? where desired. A full description of the system may be ob¬ Some time ago the Literary Digest reprinted the follow¬ tained from the office of the Bureau, at 45 West 45th St., New ing article translated from the Kosmos of Stuttgart: York. “As his highest achievement the violinist executes six • If the music memory contest did nothing more than to hundred finger motions per minute—10 movements per second. stimulate an interest in music and in things musical, it would The pianist, when playing the Minute Waltz, must touch in be well worth while. There can be no question that it has pro¬ the same length of time 740 keys with his right hand. Great vided a splendid musical incentive for thousands and thousands pianists accomplish this in not more than forty seconds or of children. We advise teachers everywhere to stand behind even thirty-five. Among the most delicate and most practiced this movement, inaugurate new contests, and to help the child¬ muscles of the entire body are those concerned in speech, in the ren who enter them. use of which \ alentin, in the course of his experiments, exe¬ Teachers and music supervisors all over the country, who cuted 1,500 definite motions in one minute, or 25 per second; have tried the experiment, endorse it very strongly. and yet this record number in the case of man comprises only one-tenth of the muscular motions made by the ordinary house¬ “Letting George Do It” fly with its wings. This insect makes 830 wing-beats per second, It is not surprising that this pillowed age of ease and which is very probably the world record for rapidity among luxury should have bred the catch phrase, “Let George Do It.” all natural fliers; hence it may be given the title of world mas¬ Many of us are living our lives by proxy. Fifty to one ter of aeronautics.” hundred thousand people gather in a huge Stadium to see Such figures may surprise the layman; but they certainly twenty-two men play football. Every day during the sea¬ will be thought commonplace by many of the expert technicians son literally millions of American men watch collections of of the day. With a fairly advanced pupil there are definite “Georges” play baseball and call that sport. Excepting a methods whereby it is possible to advance the playing of scales very small part of our citizenship which indulges occasionly so that a speed of 1,000 notes a minute may be attained. We in golf, tennis, handball, cricket and a few other games we have seen this done repeatedly. What is the speedometer rec¬ conduct our sports by proxy. ord of Rosenthal? In housekeeping, gardening, reading, walking, religion, What does amaze us, however, is the towering number of in fact in most everything, we are laboriously seeking the im¬ notes that some of the great pianists have stored away in their mortal “George” to take the job off our hands. We demand memories, ready to be poured forth at lightning-like speed to. be amused, to be entertained, to be edified; and we expect when necessary. to do nothing more to deserve this than to go through the We sincerely wonder whether the human mind and the motions of sticking our hard-earned money through a wicket human hands arc ever put to a greater test of memorv and skill at the Box Office and getting the little pieces of pasteboard than that which the virtuoso assumes with ease half a dozen back. times a week. It is a fine thing to know' that we can buy instruction, amusement, entertainment and edification, whether it comes Music Memory Contests over the footlights, off the bookshelves, from the phonograph Last year 1083 cities of our country held music memory disk, over the radio, or in any other way. These media of com¬ contests. Some cities held as many as four, five or six. munication are most precious symbols of our glorious age. The plan of the Music Memory Contests is simplicity YET (note the capitals), are we all not losing a very great itself. r * deal by letting “George” do it all. We know from experience A group of compositions or melodies is played and the that the fun of doing a thing oneself is almost always ten times contestants write the names of as many as they can identify. as great as watching some other person, no matter how skill¬ fully he may do the same thing. There is more fun in working The value of the contest lies principally in the advance study given by the contestants to the larger list of works from out a Haydn Sonata at the keyboard and getting that inde- which the test list is selected. scribable satisfaction that comes from playing it even fairly well than the pleasure we may get from hearing a score of vir¬ The test is largely aural. That is, the contestant needs tuosi play it far finer than we can ever hope to play it. In to know nothing about music itself to identify Come Where My fact, the joy of hearing really good playing is reserved for the Love Lies Dreaming or Old Dog Tray, provided his ears are pianist who employs it to better his own playing. acute enough to remember the tune and to name it and the composer. We believe in concerts, the opera, the theatre, the oratorio, the phonograph, or the radio; but, for goodness sake, don’t It is not necessary, for instance, either to play the tune forget that these things bring you only a very small fraction or to sing it in order to be eligible to enter the contest. You of the joy that comes from doing the best you can in your own must know it when you hear it. Playing the tune and singing way at your chosen art. it may help; hut we have heard of a number of children who We earnestly wish that our younger readers will not re¬ have won contests who were not otherwise musically accom¬ gard this as a sermon. We are not preaching. We arc merely plished. Therefore, it is a fair test. It would seem, however, stating experience, not only our own experience, but the experi¬ that the musically-trained child has advantages. ence of millions of music workers who have gone before. We The Music Memory Contest, according to the report of have known of numerous students who have tried to do the the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music, was devised better part of their practicing by going to concerts and re¬ by Mr. C. M. Tremaine, in his family group, in 1916. The citals. We may as well try to dine by going to a banquet and first city-wide contest was held in Westfield, N. J., in the same watching other people cat. It won’t work. Concerts arc in¬ year, under the direction of Mabel Bray, Supervisor of Music. valuable; but understand—they are no substitutes for real The Bureau gives prizes of medals and bronze plaques, “honest-to-goodness” work. iss THE ETUDE MARCH 1925 Page 157 The Making of a Virtuoso Violinist Diet and Divas An Interview with the Famous Violin Master, Leopold Auer Gumption in Technic Why the fat prinm-donna? . Gumption is an excellent Yankee won! embracing all that Is it success or ease; or is it something about singing Secured Expressly for THE ETUDE goes with common sense combined with quickness of perception. itself that conduces obesity ? , In piano technic, the live student who uses his own brains By ROBERT BRAINE We have an idea that it is a combination ot all three. and “catches on” easily, has gumption. Andreas Dippel, he of the innumerable roles, who once ruled Editor of the Violin Department of The Etude Every teacher identifies this now and then in rare pupils. the destinies of the Metropolitan, was asked, “What are your For instance, certain passages can be played much more favorite roles?” His instant reply was, “Vienna.” (Editor’s Note—The following interview with had lessons from Jacob Dont, the noted writer Prof. Auer lost his personal fortune and the many readily by a slight lateral twist of the wrist. The student with The successful prima donna is first of all a very healthy Prof. Leopold Auer, the famous violinist and of violin studies, at the latter’s residence. priceless decorations, medals, gifts and testi¬ gumption sees this at once. He does not have to be told over At the age of thirteen the young violinist’s human animal.

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