The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-13

1oyment Wane. She may lose facility
in making music for other people. but
she need never lose the delight that
comes from thorough understanding
when one listens to an orchestra or a
single performer. Organ, violin, piano,
bugle. cornet, mandolin, harp, each and
ali Will bestOw on her rare felicity.
But Priscilla, my dear, there was one
advantage the girl of other days had
that you have let slip away She was
ready to play when she was asked.
The Minister called and mamma sent
for her daughter TO help entertain him.
Guests happened in and Phyllis
played. Papa was tired. He threw
himself back in his big armchair and
put his feet on the fender, and the
lines smoothed out of his forehead.
The quicker faded from between his
eyes, for Phyllis played her last
piece, and over the heart of the weary
man crept a realization of divine COM
fort; he was at home, the spirit of
household peace was there, and Phyl-
lis was the pride of his eyes, and the
fuldllment of his dreams. She played
Annie Laurie" and Maggie by My
Side and Nellie Was a Lady" and
Call Me Pet Names" and father and
mother sang, and the hour was watt
from paradise.
May I advise you girls who with
Priscilla are studying in class, which
IS a splendid way TO study, that every
SAAl VI HOu SnOuiQ ltdIn " pay
compartments? For this you need
precision and accuracy, and sympathy
and phrasing, for the successful ac-
companisU Sustaius the singer but
does not overshadOw her. Learn to
accompany your brother on the violin.
Have concerts at home. Keep in prac-
tice, so that you need not always Of
fer the excuse that you are out of
it. when an old fashioned friend asks
you for a little music. Cultivate mem
DRY. 1t 10 a great pity to be in bond
age to your notes.
Have your fingers so trained that
the four-andtwenty white slaves, the
four and-twenty black, on the piano.
shall obey the slightest call those
magical fingers make on them.
Music does something for US in men
tai discipline that nothing else, ex-
cept mathematics, can do so thorough
". 1t demands and obtains close at
tentiOn and swift obedience. We must
be accurate. We must be all there,
not half on the playground, or half in
Japan, when we are studying. Theory
or practice, whatever we attack in
music, we must. unless we have ex-
ceptional genius, give our whole selves
to 1t. OF course there are players from
time to time who, like the negro Blind
Tom, seem able to play without in
struction and cannot tell how they do
1t. But. apart from his music, Blind
Tom was almost an idiot, and you,
Priscilla, would not wish to be that.
The thorny path, though shorn of
much of its terror now, still leads to
glory in this field.
To be an accomplished musician you
must work and you cannot quite
avoid drudgeTy but the drudgery will
not be a hardship as it used to be to
Phyllis.
There is a familiar proVerb to the
effect that the game is not always
9th Al i I.
afraid. if the game for you means
studying something that Obliges you
to do a daily task and that suffers if
you stop for a day, that it will not be
worth a half-dOzen candles. A wise
man once said: Nothing can stand
before a days work. This is true
everywhere It is particularly true in
this realm that we have been talking
about.
Copyright. 1905, by Joseph B. Bowles.)