The mistress who is anxious to
get a pupil on as quickly as possible often overlooks this point, and an
entirely wrong impression is given of the child's progress to the
parent.
We now come to the vexed question of the interpretation of music by
children. An interesting point can be noted about the practice of the
early classical composers. They were accustomed to give the minimum
amount of indication as to tempo and general detail for the performance
of their works.
And to what conclusion does this lead us? Surely this--that these giants
in music recognized the necessity for every performer of their works to
express _themselves_ through the music, subject to the broad conditions
laid down by the composer. As Hegel said: 'Music is the most subjective
of all arts.' And is it not true that it is this constant necessity for
personal interpretation, so strongly felt by the majority of artists,
which gives the permanent interest to music?
We say, 'by the majority of artists', for now and then we meet an artist
who seems to have strayed from the path of beauty, and who is devoting
his energies to an ascetic determination to keep alive one particular
interpretation of a composer's work, or works; who dictates these
interpretations to his pupils, and who talks of other artists who feel
the bounden duty of self-expression through the said works as
'outsiders', and 'not in the cult'.
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97