I find that not only does such work hone intellectual muscle, but the doing of it sets an important example for students to follow. The mother robin's trips to find food functioned in the same way. Not only did she return with nourishment for her young, but in observing their mother at work, the young robins learned the process by which to acquire their own food. Forming relationships and connections between ideas gives a teacher the opportunity to place an individual fingerprint on a body of work. For example, the study of a Beethoven sonata begins with an examination of the score.
Further research includes reading critical writings and listening to recordings.
Assimilation begins in the practice studio when ideas are contemplated, worked out, and adopted or discarded. Technical and intellectual assimilation proceed simultaneously. The culminating public performance of the sonata transcends the notes in the printed score because the performer's fingerprint is impressed upon them. No better justification for continuing to study works of the masters exists than the realization that individuals have the capacity to color these works in a unique way. Doing this is essential if the work is to maintain its original vitality and power to excite its subject.