Scan 22
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1surpass all that went before, but equally baffle every attempt at successful rivalry. From them we have true feeling, grace, and dignified character—all that is grand and striking.
3"As violin playing consists of such a multiplicity of parts, and requiring such an uncommon assemblage of powers, mechanical and mental, of hand, of eye, of ear, of knowledge, of judgment, of imagination, and of indefatigable perseverance in study and practice, to enable a man to perform with tolerable success, it can be no wonder that the art of violin playing does not always reach the desired perfection; nor ought we to be surprised to find even the most celebrated masters materially defective in some one or more of its branches,—those who possess soul are frequently deficient in execution, and those who have attended to execution have been too apt to disregard phrasing, and the proper management of light and shade. The whole together, indeed, seems almost too great for the grasp of one man's powers, unless excited, expanded, and invigorated by such enthusiastic and continued encouragement as that which exclusively marks the bright era of German taste.
5"Impressed as I am at the present moment with a full conviction of the difficulties attendant on the practice of the violin, I cannot but feel it my duty to caution every one against entering into the profession with inadequate views of its responsibilities. Should any student, therefore, happen to be reading these remarks, who has taken up the violin on the supposition of finding it an amusing and easy employment—anyone who has been given the idea that he may cheaply acquire an honourable and profitable profession—anyone who has mistaken a petty kind of imitative talent for genius—anyone who hopes by it to get rid of what he thinks a more vulgar or disagreeable situation, to escape confinement at the counter or the desk—anyone urged merely by vanity or interest, or, in short, impelled by any consideration but the real and unconquerable passion for excellence—let him drop it at once, as he would the pestilence. For if he has not this.
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