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Scan 146
The violinist, 1900
27 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1March 9. The tour will include more appearances than ever before and will last until the end of May.
3"NEW" HAYDN SYMPHONY FOUND IN CHAPEL ON PRINCE'S ESTATE
4Germany's students of musical history are interested in the discovery at Donau Eschingen of what is said to be a hitherto unknown symphony by Haydn. This "new-old" work was unearthed in an old chapel attached to the estate of Prince zu Fürstenberg, and was heard for the first time in a concert at Baden-Baden this week. Critics found that it reveals Haydn in a "humorous, good-natured mood."
6JAROSLAV KOCIAN
7Jaroslav Kocian, the celebrated Bohemian violin virtuoso, is on his second visit to America. He was born in Wildenschwert, in Bohemia, on Washington's birthday, February 22, 1884. He began to play when but a mere baby, scarcely four years old. His father, a school master by profession, was his first teacher. Later he entered the Prague Conservatory of Music and studied the violin in that institution in the same class with Kubelek, under Professor Sevcik. He left the Conservatory in 1901, receiving the highest honors, and has since then been giving concerts in Brunn, Prague, Vienna, London and other continental cities with phenomenal success. He appeared in London at the Richter concerts and also at musicales given by Baron de Rothschild, William Waldorf Astor, and other celebrities.
9Kocian opened his first American tour in Chicago as soloist with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. He was then acclaimed as one of the possible successors of Kubelek. Critics have spoken of him in terms of undiluted admiration.
11His technique is said to be of the very highest order, such as inspires a listener with something like awe. The peculiar timbre of his tone is compared to that of the greatest of artists, Kubelek not excepted. Above all, he is known for his mastery of an extraordinary power of expression, which he keeps under perfect control. He seems to have solved the problem of adaptation, of means to an end that not a single gradation is without significance.
13VIOLIN TONE
14BY R. S. WILLIAMS.
15Violin tone has long been and will perhaps always remain to be a theme for much discussion and controversy. Personal taste here as elsewhere more often than not rules men's judgments and an absolutely unbiased opinion is rarely to be met with. Violinists themselves are by no means the best judges of tone—the obvious conclusion to the contrary notwithstanding. Perhaps some of the younger violinists will take issue with me here—but it is a fact well known among violin experts and more or less readily admitted by the more experienced of the professionals. No better proof of this need be asked for than that many great violinists will not purchase an instrument on their own judgment, but submit the tone to the judgment of experts trained in just that one phase—experts who, by the way, seldom make any pretence to ability to play the instrument. It is perhaps quite natural that a violinist should not be able to develop this highly critical judgment. His opportunities to judge violin tone are limited to comparatively few instruments—his own, his pupils', and those of the few great virtuosi he hears from time to time. His comparison is almost always taken from a basis admitting his own instrument as the standard. As a matter of fact, that instrument may be good, bad or indifferent, but his love for it and familiarity with its tone wins his ear to an acceptance of a standard quite inadequate in most cases. The quality of the tone of his instrument becomes a part of his very nature and in the winning of his heart, perverts his judgment.
17The violin expert, on the other hand, be he a collector or a dealer, has opportunities almost without number to compare differences in tone and develop a capacity for real criticism. He hears dozen, even hundreds of instruments played.
19No more interesting pastime is there for the dealer than the cultivation of a true critical appreciation of tone, and no more profitable faculty can he possess.
21THE VIOLIN TEACHER'S GUIDE
22(115 pp.)
23A graded and classified list of Violin Music selected from the publications and importations of G. Schirmer and The Boston Music Co.
24Sent to any address free of charge
25Postage three cents
26G. SCHIRMER (Inc.), 3 E. 43d St., NEW YORK
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