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

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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

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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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If I had spent two hours a day for the 1,461 Days in developing the old bean, instead of Carrying the kitchen stove to Quebec or Hamilton, I'd be a musical Einstein now instead of a harmony Teacher in the Conservatory Basement. Isn't it strange: When I was young no One thought of teaching a pupil to Listen to music. The pendulum has made a mighty Swing'since then. Today we try to generate Listening, Understanding and Appreciation, both in pupils and hoi PolIoi, and the reason it's so hard to Do is that lots of pupils dontt want to Listen or appreciate or ' Understand. They want to be concert Artists, and make hoi polloi Listen and appreciate and Understand. Tell me, why is It that people would rather play like Rachmaninoff than compose like Him? Why would a singer rather debut in Martha than have composed Pelleas? Why should the Violinist prefer to play the Bruch G Minor than to have Written the Mendelssohn E Minor? Maybe ifs because itis easier to move a Muscle than the old bean. The sad Part of it is, when they grow Up they'll really want to know and hear and Think, and will have to 'blliff through Life, learning by hard knocks what might have Come easily and opulently. Life becomes a serious thing Later, especially to a Man. When I see some of the' boys Here, aiming to become professional Musicians, I wonder what the world has in Store for them. Their practice average is less than Four hours, with twelve more to Fill. It takes a lot to eat to eat three Hours, so there is left nine , Hours with absqutely nothing to Do. They want to be concert artists, but Page 189