Cincinnati Conservatory of Music - Pans Pipers Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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Enough star! The day after I heard Busoni I got in nine. Hoffman inspired Me to a spell nearly as Long. Those Hours Passed quickly because I seldom thought of What I was playing. About half the Time I was thinking of the Date for that Night and a quarter of the Time I was thrilling large Audiences and an eighth of the Time I was wishing I really could Play. The rest of the time I Practiced. Statistics Are always interesting. I once computed that in my four years pre-graduation orgie I moved the fingers of one Hand 84,153,600 times. Not each finger that many Times, but, in the aggregate, those five digits Fluttered as above stated. I arrived at that Figure by calculating on the basis of a four-hour Day over a 365-day year, with an extra day thrown in for Leap Year, one finger movement a Second. It requires about four ounces of weight to get a key Down. Some of the girls in the key-board harmony Class find it fatiguing. Conceding the physical Superiority of man over woman, I probably averaged a half- Pound pressure to the finger movement. And in four Years, 84,153,600 movements figure 42,076 and eight-tenths Tons. In other words, I dissipated 42,0763 Tons of physical energy, an equivalent of carrying a 200- Pound kitchen stoveirom here to Quebec or Hamilton, depending upon how fast you Walked. I might say that I am not interested in carrying a Kitchen stove across the room, let alone to Quebec or Hamilton, but the statement gives you a vivid Picture of the practice Feat. I had an easy, care-free, sixteen- Hour waking day for those four Years and then started to earn a Page 167

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IIIN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTHH When I was younghlet us say Younger-I had every illusion you Have. I thought that all I had to Do was to practice eight hours a Day and please my teacher and learn a few Pieces and then I would enter the World as a concert Pianist. ' When I listened to the virtuoso playing his Concerto I'd imagine he broke Down and had to leave the Stage, and the audience sighed .in Regret over their pleasure Spoiled. ,In my Dream I rushed On the Stage and to the piano bench. With master- Stroke I picked up the musical Thread where the other Artist had broken h It and, with the orchestra galvanized into Action and the leader flapping his Stick against my surer Knowledge of tempi and Ngances, I completed the Movement in a storm of Applause and frenzy of Cheers from my ecstatic 'AudiencE. ' Then I'd go home and Practice Bach and Czerny and play A flat instead of A Natural in spite of the fact that the Note Had a red ring, a blue cross and a black Arrow which my teacher had written on It because I had played it Wrong three times Before. Of course I didn,t practice eight Hours every day-honly after hearing a sure Page 166

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Living. If it were not for the Dreams and illusions, probably now Pd be a M. E. or a C. E. or ' Something instead of what the Germans call a Musiker. So I'm glad I Dreamed. But I wish some One had told me in a way I could Believe, that I could become a better Musiker if I used the old Bean more and the fingers Less. If some one had shown Me how to do an hourts practice in sixty Minutes! If that someone had Said: Son, to be a concert- Pianist, the Lord must have given You a pair of hands that can Play the Etude in Thirds after a week's Practice; a head that can memorize the F Minor Ballade and transpose it to any Key; an ear that can determine the Pitch of a bird's song- and a Heart that can carry you through grime and Poverty; a willingness to give up Friend, home and family for the sake of a Career; a tongue that can speak Silver when the thoughts flash Steel; a smile that will charm the the Soul is repelled; the grace of a Page and the wiles of a Plenipotentiaryethese things and a few More you need to insure a Career . If he had told Me this in a believable Way, maybe I would have cut Down my practice to four Hours a day, and by a practical Use of the rest of the Time learned earlier to Sight-read, transpose, improvise, play ensemble, really Studied harmony, counterpoint, canon, fugue, instrumentation Conducting, organ, borrowed one at a time every instrument of the orchestra and found its capacity and limitations, Studied a foreign language or two, and learned to use English better, and a lot of other Things. , Page 168