Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-09-28
Theodore leschetizky, the vi.
emma Music Master, Con-
coded This Ointinction.
WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE
Such Is Said by One of His Pupil. to
Be the Result of Taking Lesson
from Famous Master
of Piano.
From Current Literature.

emma music master. In complete, un-
swerving concentrations says An
nette Hullah, an English writer, he has
fulfilled his own life and character, n
he is never tired of impressing upon
his pupils the idea that without con-
centration you can do nothing"
Leschetizky's personality and piano
method both Of which are fully de-
scribed by Miss Hullah, have a real
and vital interest for all mankind. They
helped TO mold the careers Of several
Of the greatest living pianists, among
them Paderewski, Mark Hamburg,
G~abrilowitch, Fanny Bloomfield-Zeis-
Ter, and for thirty years have drawn,
as a magnet, the promising musical
students of every nation. 1t is well to
remember, however, that the 'Leschet~
izky method" ~so-called, is not in any
strict sense a method at all. The term
was coined by Leschetizky's assistants,
who arranged in a connected series the
technical exercises through which they
have put the pupils to be prepared for
him. He himself has said: Il have no
technical method. There are certain
ways of producing certain effects, and
I have our those which succeed best;
but l have no iron rules. How is it
possible one should nave them? One
pupil needs this, another that; the
hand Of each differs. The brain of
each differs. There car be no rule. l
am a doctor to whom my pupils come
as patients to be cured of their mu-
steal ailments, and the remedy must
vary in eac case" In only one re-
spect car it be said that LeschetiZky
has originated a method, and this is
In the way in which he teaches his pu-
pills to learn a piece of music. He re-
quires the student 70 analyze a COM
position bar by bar, slowly and DELHI
erately engraving each point on his
mind as on a map. until he knows 1T
so thoroughly that he can play any
part without the music.
His System of Teaching.
Leschetizky endeavors TO i~nculcate:
Cd an absolutely clear comprehension
Of the principal points to be studied
In the music or hand; CD a clear con-
ceptiou of where the difficulties lie, n
of the way in which to conquer them;
n CD the mental realization OF these
facts before they are carried out by
the hands. Decide exactly what it is
you want to do in the first place." he
counsels his pupils, then how you Will
do it; then play il. Stop n think II
you have played it in the "a you
have meant to do; then only, if sure of
this, go ahead. Without concentration,
remember, you can DO nothing. The
brain must guide the fingers, not the
fingers the brain" Other points in mu-
steal science have been conveyed by
LtSSilEbEny III lS4ISlIoNo SAA-AASS H'0
suggestions, as follows:
ITO make an affective aCcelerando
you must glide into rapidity as steadily
as a train increases it's speed when
steaming out of a station.
Teach yourself to make q r~allentan-
do evenly by watching the drops OF wa
ter cease as you turn off a tap.
"A player with an unbalanced
rhythm reminds me of an intoxicated
man who cannot walk straight.
IF your wrists are weak, go and roll
the grass in the garden.
IF you want to develop strength and
sensitiveness in the tips of your fing-
ers, use them in every day life. For
instance, when you go out for a walk,
mold your umbrella with the tips in
stead of in the palm of your hand.
practice your technical exercises on
a cushion or upon a table sometimes.
You do not always need the piano to
strengthen your muscles
Leschetizky is said to owe his pupils
as If they were his own children; but
"as a good father" observes Miss HUI
lah. "he considers his duty better done
through the aid Of discipline THAI of
sympathy" Like all highly strung
people, he is extremely sensitive to
personality. Once in "a While when the
door bell announces the arrival of the
first pupil, if the professor happens to
be in a fashionable frame of mind, he
will steal down stairs to find out who it
is, and if on peeping surreptitiously
into the room he sees some one anti
pathetic to him, he promptly steals up
stairs again and stays there a quarter
of an our or more to recover from
the blow. Like all individualistic ma
lures, he desires the monopoly of GER
tain emotions. He may be sad, but
others must not be SO. He cannot en-
lure half heartedneSs; enthusiasm he
.--A - LII l-.- -
dismal solemnity and silence. On one
occasion he gave a lesson to a taciturn
lady without uttering a single word.
She would not speak, he said, so why
should she? Still further eccentricities
are %recounted by Miss Hullah:
Is Full of Sympathy.
He is full of benevolent sympathy.
But when the time for the lesson
comes, everything but the immediate
need Of getting the thing lone in the
right way Is obliterated from his mind,
and in the enthusiasm of the moment
all traces of his benevolence speedily
disappear. He forgets the pupil is full
Of original sin and cannot wait for
the signs of grace.
This leads to misunderstanding. 1t
leads also to the SUDDEN exit of the pu-
pill; to the slamming of doors; to the
crushing of music on the floor; to
grim remarks about a future better
spent In tomato planting. once IL
led to total darkness. In the intensity
of his feelings the master arose, has
tily put out the gas, rushed away, n
left the pupils sitting pun the class
In silence and gloom till things were
patched up by some comforting SOU
outside.
When all goes well, however, a lesson
with Leschetizky is a really wonderful
experience. Says Miss Hullah:
His point of view is so interesting,
the depth of his com~prehensions so
profound, his power of clear exposition
so great, the parallels he draws be-
tween art and life so unexpected, that
his listener is held under a spell of
wondering enthusiasm throughout.
Both his ear n his memory are very
remarkable. He is able TO retain ac-
curately in his mind every detail in a
piece of music on hearing 1t for the
first time; and not only TO play 1t
through Immediately afterward, but to
discuss points in it.
HE sits very still and very straight,
never STOPPING over the keys. or sway
ing about. His hands, often partially
resting on the notes, are limos fiat,
the wrists low, the fingers doing all the
work, his whole figure taut with the
tension Of concentrated thought.
His playing is as difficult to describe