Scan 27
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1great help to cleverness and knowledge. What further artistic consequences follow I cannot tell, as they are too innumerable. Let it suffice that those who will not entertain earnest notions regarding practice, will always remain in ignorance of real good playing. Violinists of this sort can remain children all their lives.
3Again, there is a class of violinists who do exactly as the copy tells them, and who can never alter their interpretations. They are quite content to play piece after piece in the same style, same bowing, and same marks of expression. All that they concern themselves about is a nice melody, and so long as this can be supplied in succession, their ideas remain in a state of perfect indifference to everything outside the orthodox.
5Now, what chance has thoughtful application with such natures? Yet these natures, begun in early life and favoured by circumstances, cleave to one's character much beyond the period of life in which they might seem to be excusable. But it is contrary to reason and principle. Faults and mistakes which are often regarded as of no consequence often turn out to be grave obstacles to improvement. Nothing is gained by neglecting them, for however neglected or despised, perhaps ridiculed, these identical mistakes eventually come to be the very things about which much anxiety and time is spent, when it is practically too late. They become serious things indeed; therefore, always bear in mind that seriousness is indispensable above all other things.
7The general course of education is against really sober and earnest practice; by which, I mean technical practice of both fingers and bow, and the views which are continually being placed before students are only on solos, and long enough before they have had time to acquire a technical foundation. Can it be wondered that at an early age carelessness in playing is bred so strong as to shut out all possibility of having a firm and solid execution. In the contest which is always carried on between seriousness and carelessness, it is no difficult thing to see what advantage the former has. One of the
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