Scan 63
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 47. See the scan on archive.org.
1and proclaimed everywhere, but doing so do not get conceited or think you are perfect.
3It may be necessary, likewise, to caution you against some awkward endeavours which young violinists not infrequently resort to, to lift themselves to importance, such as an egotistical way of speaking of themselves, new airs and gestures, a cold and distant behaviour towards their former equals, and a contemptuous neglect of their society. Nothing is ever gained by these actions, but derision and dislike.
5The habit I will next recommend as the foundation of almost all other good ones, is retirement. Were I required to comprise my advice to young violinists in one sentence when they are at college, it should be this, learn to live alone. Half of your faults originate from the want of this faculty. It is impatience of solitude which carries you continually away from your studies, makes you foremost in every party of pleasure and place of diversion, dissipates your thoughts, distracts your practice, puts you out of humour with your profession. Do what we will, we must be much and often by ourselves.
7I have now finished the enumeration of those qualities which are required in the character of a violinist, but I must not stop here; a good name is an inheritance valuable above all price, important beyond every other interest or success. You ought to be a person of generous sentiments, and of a mind turned towards the admiration of all those great and high objects which mankind are naturally formed to admire. Modesty is essential; it is always, and justly, supposed to be a concomitant of merit; and every appearance of it is winning and prepossessing. But modesty ought not to run into excessive timidity. Every violinist should be able to rest somewhat on himself; and to assume that air, not of self-complacency, but of firmness.
9I must recommend a habit of application and industry. Without this, it is impossible to excel in anything. You must not imagine that it is by a sort of mushroom growth that one can rise to be a distinguished violinist. It is not
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.