Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-08-07
THE .. Fl.
OLD MUSIC
TEACHER as
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By FANNIE HURST

(WNU Service.D
THE music teacher was seventy
three. She was little old lady.
She had not always been so lit
tie. As girl, she had been at
least an inch or two taller. These add
ed inches, coupled with an enormous
amount of vitality, had made her ap-
pear larger than she really was. But
the long years of position at the piano
and the amount of work she had done
sitting hunched over musical scores,
had taken their toll in actual inches.
At seventy-three, she was frankly full
Of years; bent, loose-skinned and,
worst of all, racked and all but ruined
by rheumatism. @ a
Her once supple fingers were as
knotted as hickory sticks. They lay
upon the keys, when she permitted
herself to open the lid Of her beloved
plano, like SO many Jumps Of Inertia.
Horrible, gnarled, stiff old fingers,
knotted and rigid with age. In the
beginning, when the rheumatism be-
gan its first merclless onslaught, the
madam used to have horror of her
hands. She could not bear to look at
them. She kept them behind her
when visitors called.
But there came the day when she
found herself obliged to be reconciled;
to shift her point of view, to take up
the new threads Of new life.
For ten years the little madam had
now reconciled herself to the fact that
she must live off the bounty Of her
former pupils. And they were many.
In her day, the music teacher had en-
joyed brilliant and outstanding sue
cess in her field. Names that were to
become world-famous had walked out
of her studio, equipped for the concert
stage. From all over the country chill
dren had journeyed to her, accompa-
MED by parents or guardians, filed
with the hope that the little madam
would see in them talent sufficient to
warrant her taking them as pupils.
The great Morltzy had been pre-
pared for his triumphant career in
madam's studio. Lilienthal, Mann, Fo-
renzl, LAM and Spamer were all of
the brilliant company Of madam's pu-
pills. She had worked with them with
a patience, with an understanding and
with a wisdom that was unfaltering.
Her hour lessons could easily stretch
into two or three or five. And In the
case Of Spamer, probably the most In
fallIble genius of them all, she had
taken him free Of fee into her home,
under the surveillance Of her constant
guidance, her untlrlng patience.
No wonder that, at seventy-three,
madam looked her age. She had
fought so many separate battles. She
had achieved so many individual sue
cesses. She had conquered obstacles
for so many human beings. She had
given Of herself, of her vitality and Of
her time; of her wisdom and Of her
curious musical instinct
It was as IL she had been well Of
inspiration and vltality-a well of In
SEPARATION from which those with the
genius of music could drink. Could
drink, and then go forth and conquer
their worlds.
Madam herself had never been a
brilliant plano performer. But she
was undoubtedly the most brilliant
teacher of her time. She did not play
Brahms with any outstanding facility
but she knew his heart to the core
ForenzI once said Of Her that she
knew Beethoven better tnHh Beethoven
could have known himself.
She had wonderful faculty for pass
ing on this knowledge Of the masters
she loved-to the pupils she loved.
She could train fingers and brains and
hearts to interpret the beauties which
the great musicians OF the past had
captured for the future by means Of
little marks on paper. Madam could
interpret the soul Of music and could
give her pupils, in magnlfed degree,
this gift Of interpreting Its soul.
Though her own fingers, even In her
prime, had never had the facility, the
power, to transfer to the keyboard Of
a piano the depths of the music she
studied and loved, her brain had the
faculty OF giving others the gift she
lacked.
No wonder her former pupils never
forgot her. She made them. She Gre
ated them. She lived In them, long
after her active life was ended.
On her seventy-third birthday. as
was their wont, as many Of her for
mer pupils as we're within possible dis.
lance, gathered around her. The birth
day OF madam was an outstanding Oc-
caslon. Not only her pupils, but the
important names of the musical world,
came focISlng to her little home, bear
ing gifts Of affection for the little lady
whose day ha6 passed.
OF course there was something pa
theuc and heart-hurtlng about these
birthdays. Each one found her lit
tie smaller and a little more gnarled
and a great deal more crippled. She
never referred to this last condition,
but those who knew her knew with
what yearnIng eyes she gazed upon
the young proteges and musical talents
who were brought TO her home from
time to time Just to be able 10 say
that they had looked upon and met
the great little madam.
II was difficult to realize, upon these
birthday occasions when the world re-
membered, the lonely, despalrlng
hundred sixty days that pre-
coded them. Here was woman whose