Scan 54
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 38. See the scan on archive.org.
1You must not retard the course of thought, or cool the heat of imagination, by practising too long. In the third place, with respect to the assistance that is to be gained from the performances of others, it is obvious that you ought to render yourself well acquainted with the style of the very best violinists. This is requisite, both in order to form a just taste in style, and to supply you with a full stock of ideas on every work. In listening to different violinists with a view to style, attention should be given to the peculiarities of their different conceptions. In the fourth place, I must caution, at the same time, against a servile imitation of any violinist whatever. It hampers genius; it is likely to produce something not quite natural. You will never become a good player if you have not some degree of confidence to follow your genius. In the last place, it is an obvious, but material rule with respect to style, that you always study to adapt it to your particular kind of solo, and also to the capacity of your audience, if you want to be a successful soloist. It must be suited to the occasion and to the audience you are playing for.—It is in the last degree absurd to play "display" pieces at chamber or symphony concerts; and equally absurd to play classical pieces at ballad concerts, before persons who (excepting a few) comprehend nothing at what you are aiming at, and who can only wonder at your unseasonable magnificence. These are defects not so much in point of style as, what is much worse, in point of common sense.
3To be a violinist in the proper sense of the word, is far from being either a common or an easy attainment. Indeed, to perform a "display" piece is a matter very difficult, but though some praise be due to this, yet the idea which I have endeavoured to give of violin playing is much higher. It is a great exertion of the human powers. It is the art of being commanding; the art, not of pleasing the fancy merely, but of playing to both the understanding and to the heart; of interesting your audience to such a degree as to seize and carry them along with you, and to leave them with a deep and strong
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.