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Scan 66
The violinist, 1903
30 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1managers. They engage a hall, have the programs printed, tell a few friends to come, and imagine the whole city knows it. So watch and listen closely.
3The time of the year to make the stay in either city should be considered. January, February and March are the best for concerts, but in those months beware of cold rooms to practice in—I am speaking from sundry experiences. Do not, for so short a period as ten weeks, be afraid of hard work, but remember the words of Ysaye to a pupil whom he met strolling on the boulevard:
5"What, you here! Why, at your age I stayed in my room and practiced, only leaving it at long intervals to forage for food to stay the hunger that unfortunately sometimes came upon me."
7Too Many Cooks
9Too many cooks spoil the consomme, and too many teachers spoil the pupil. It takes six months to know a pupil. It never pays to start with a poor teacher, expecting to change to a better one later. You can't make good soup by letting everybody add a few ingredients and then calling in a chef to finish and season the whole.
11The People's Symphony Concerts
13NEW YORK is to have another season of orchestra concerts by the People's Symphony beginning on the 26th of this month, at Cooper Union Hall. Prices for these concerts range from 10 to 50 cents for single admission; 25 cents to $2 for the series of five. Thus one may hear sixty musicians, conducted by F. X. Arens, with eminent soloists, for as little as 5 cents per concert. Chamber music has also been arranged for in connection with this undertaking, which has become an established and paying feature of the musical life of the city. Has anyone a single doubt that Chicago's great middle class would crowd the great Auditorium at such prices? And do not forget that it is this class that really loves music, that never goes to a concert because it is the "smart" thing to do, that gives to the world nearly every petted genius. Persons who have formerly patronized the fashionable Chicago Orchestra have realized the abyss that exists between that organization and the great middle class and would joyfully welcome popular priced symphony orchestra concerts. In hardly any other city in the world are all the orchestra concerts reserved for the fashionables. In Chicago none others need apply. Next year will see changes here that will be highly beneficial to musical art, in that the people will not be overlooked. In times past we have had enough experience to know that the popular prices prevailing at the New York People's Symphony concerts are just what Chicago is waiting for. She will not wait much longer in vain.
15Teaching by Force
17NOT long ago a parent told me he was going to place his son under Prof.——, "because" he said, "I understand he teaches with a club." How very odd that music, the art of harmony and sweet sounds, should be taught by leading the pupil by the ear (instead of training the ear) and that force should be resorted to in the most peaceful and refined of arts. He "will have peace (and art) if he has to fight for it." Well, there are teachers who are willing to be policemen too, but I prefer Jean Cowgill's idea of a teacher, as told at the end of this little story. He says:
19"Not long ago I knew a teacher who told a little lad he was eating his lunch too rapidly. Under her eye he slowed up and she thought no more of it until the next morning, when she got a note, saying that it was her business to teach the boy. It was none of her affair how fast he ate or what he ate.
21"What do you think of that?" she asked me the next time we met.
23"There were tears in her eyes. She thought it a case of rank injustice. Also there was still music in her voice. That was because she loved her boys. It does not seem to me that any teacher on earth can be successful unless she loves her pupils."
25Teachers of music, fortunately, are not called upon to witness the gastronomical feats of their pupils, but parents often impose obligations here, and curtail obligations there, until the teacher, if he or she submits, is in a hopeless entanglement. So is the pupil.
27Violin Makers to Exhibit
29SAINT LOUIS may not succeed in making the musical feature of next year's exposition any more of an attraction than is usual at big shows, but visitors may confidently look for one unique attraction. Several violin makers have signified to the editor of THE VIOLINIST their intention of not only exhibiting but of making violins before the curious gaze of the pleasure seekers. This will indeed be an attraction and shows praiseworthy enterprise in reaching out for the enlarged trade that awaits the American makers of bowed instruments.
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