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Scan 12
The violinist, 1903
23 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep. Amen.
3—Robert Louis Stevenson.
5Ovide Musin in Concert
6One of the writers on the Washington Post has this to say of Mr. Ovide Musin's playing with the De Koven Orchestra on the 9th of December:
8The soloist was Ovide Musin, the Belgian violinist. M. Musin has been heard in Washington frequently, so that his appearance was not in the nature of a novelty. He essayed the always beautiful concerto in E minor by Mendelssohn, a composition with which his style and manner is in thorough sympathy. It is a thoroughly melodious and graceful composition, and he played it with a confident abandon which added greatly to its inherent charm. His tone is one of almost crystalline clearness and marked purity, although not always as deep and broad as might be desired. His technique is, of course, complete, but after all, the delightful quality of his playing was mainly to be found in the poetic and dainty interpretation which he gave to the entire composition. This was especially true of the andante, which was exquisitely rendered, and of the allegretto, which was invested with charming grace. He also played a caprice of his own composition and for an encore gave a slumber song, played with muted strings. In this number the delicacy of his pianissimo effect was perfect, while phrasing, sentiment and sympathy evidenced his artistic temperament.
10Kocian a Great Artist
11A small audience greeted Kocian at Cleveland, Ohio, December 13th, but the young artist was well repaid, for there happened to be present one person who knew his art and valued him by the true standard. This measure of the artist appeared two days later, in the Cleveland Leader, after due consideration—it was not rushed to press the same night, by a weary, belated reporter.
13Kocian is a placid, poetic youth and poesy is the essence of his art. For that reason he is not a Paganini player. Paganini was the Rembrandt of composers for the violin. His pieces are full of dark, uncanny shadows. They sing very often, and then they have mocking, malevolent passages in which the player's soul has to sneer and jeer at the work, himself and the audience. Kocian could not do this, and so he fell short on the bazarre side of Paganini interpretation. He played the big concerto, as full of difficulties as a shad is of bones, with most consummate technic, though, and in the cantabile parts was charming. Immense is the word which should be applied to describe the mechanical side of his playing. He gave the difficult runs even in tenths with clearness and celerity, his harmonics were sure and his double-stopping admirable. He won his success—and it was a solid and a lasting one, by legitimate means; by the fineness of his technic, but most of all by the spirituality of his sentiment. He lacks somewhat in fire and breadth, but he has the poetic soul of the Slav in the highest degree. His art is so true and his nature so genuinely emotional that he will go on still further.
15The Violin in Politics
16Gov. Bob Taylor, who "fiddled his way to fame" in Tennessee (you should read the story), is now a lecturer, but in his younger days he depended more on his violin than on his voice to win him favor. During a campaign he often followed his opponent with this short speech, in Tennessee dialect: "Let's we all have a little music," and while his neighbors danced to his fiddle, he spoke an occasional word for his candidacy. It was a great day up and down the "holler" when "Bob fetched his fiddle along."
18Notice To V. T. A. Members
19Members of the Violin Teachers' Association are asked to recommend to the secretary the best teachers of their acquaintance, for membership. Blank forms may also be had by them for use in securing new members. The teachers in every city and state need each others council and co-operation.
21This is an Exceptional Offer
22Three back numbers of THE VIOLINIST, our own selection, for twelve cents in stamps—as long as they last.
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