Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-09-01
ABOUT TME PIANO.

SulSs SlIlb-
To tue sackins and heart racking OF the girls
Rare Bits
ABOUT TME PIANO.
Common Sense About the Regular Music
Course for Girls.
From the St. James Gazette.
Little girls fear the piano, and long for
the time when, having at last mastered its
difficulties, they will not be called upon 70
play upon it any more, while numberlcss
nuisances which they must put up with
until they get married, Once, however,
liberate young women from that piano to
which like serfs they have SO long been
" assigned" but not "attached and
some of them will take to cultivating it
for its own sake while the remainder will
at least spare both themselves and their
friends considerable amount Of annoy
ance.
The enormous difficulty Of modern
pianOfOrte music constitutes in itself a
reason why in the education Of young
girls the piano should not like dancing
and department." be made obligatory.
A woman can get through life SO we'll
without playing the piano and for few
ShillinSs, or even in extreme cases for a
single shilling, she can, il her lot hap
pens to DO cast in LOBdoD, hire from
time to time the finest players that this
great pianforte-pIaying ago has ever
produced. It is not because the piano
is unworthy of her attention that woman
should be liberated from tho task
work imposed upon her in connection
with it. 1t is because music, like every
other art, demands from it's vOtari.
special gifts and inclinations, and because
among women who are thus endowed it is
q mistake to suppose that the piano is the
only instrument suitable to them. Let it
he understood in the first place that it is
no more disgrace for young lady not to
play the piano than it is a disgrace for her
not to draw, to paint, or to model; and in
tho second place, that if she does mean to
play some instrument it is a mistake for
her to restrict herself as a matter Vi course
to the piano. Next to the organ, the
piano is, thanks to tho orchestral effects
which it eau DO made to produce, the
finest instrument in tho world and it is
the only instrument for which every great
composer writes, as u matter Of course,
and for which every great composers or
cbestral works are arranged in reduced
form. To praise at the expense of the
tours de force are INDUCED in, yields like the
common thing, but it is one that We should
not ourselves care to undertake. The
violin g be effective in true musical
sense must, ilso the human voice, be ac-
cOmpanied either by the orchestra or by
the pianoforte, or by other members of the
violin family. Tho pianofOrtO is putting
aside, of course, the too colossal organ J
the only instrument which for harmonic
as we'll as melOdic purposes, is complete
in itself and which is really an orchestra
in little.
There are good reason, then, why all
who care much for music should study
the piano but no reason why they should
study the piano exclusively. Often in the
same family there are two, thee, and
even four pianists. How much and ad.
vautage0usly the musical domain of such
a family would be increased if, with or
without neglect Of tho piano, the instru-
ments of the violin family were taken up
with view not necessarily to string
quarters, but, at least, to the numerous
pieces written by great composers for
violin or violoncello, and piano. The
violin-I include always the viola
and violoncello-is no doubt" says
Mr.. Hullah in his excellent little
work on Music in the House," a
difficult instrument; but the difficulty
of acquiring . serviceable amount of skill
on it has been much exaggerated. To
become Joachim, Holmes, or Patti, is
the work of life time, even for men gift.
ed with equal aptitude and perseverance
to these-turneG to account under skillful
guidance and at the right time of life aud
supplemented and encouraged by a thous-
and circumstances as impossible to take
account of as to bring about and foresee.
But there is an amount of skill below
very much below-that of artists of this
class which. il accompanied by feeling.
taste and intelligence, may contri-
butte largely to the variety and
the agreeableness of music in the
house." 1t may be hoped that in a
few years, without the number of our do
mestic pianists becoming too much dimin
ished, that Of our domestic violinsts will
he considerably increased. Some half
dozen lady violinists have appeared this
season in London, ut public concerts, who
possess the very highest merit and at a
half private, half-public concert give.. re-
Gently at St Iffo.d Hou 70 for the benefit
. charity, the chief attraction was string
band consisting of no fewer than twenty
four lady executauts. The diversion, then,
of feminine talent from the piano to the
violin, is not a movement which has to bc
originated 4; it needs only to be encouraged.
GENrLExEN-Your Hop Bitters have been
great value to me- 1 was laid up with typhoid
Iever for over two months AMI could get no
relief until tried your Hop BItters. To those
suffering from debility or any one in feeble