Philadelphia Conservatory of Music - Variations Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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w . jk? Mffllfl' HZZA You look aT The music-page in TronT oT you and sTrike The TirsT chords: are you Transferring inTo finger-moTion The signs you see? Or-are you making audible The sonoriTies shaping up in your ear? Or-are you bringing To liTe The world of sounds and expressions sealed in The page in TronT oT you? The composer does noT compose The signs we look aT, he Tries, someTimes desperaTely, To express by.. noTaTion , The sysTem generally accepTed by agreemenT and TradiTion, his personal, specific, singular experience. Arnold Schoenberg once called The musical noTaTion das Bilder- raTsel , The picTure puzzle, as every line oT These TradiTional signs con- ceals as well as iT reveals The secreT meaning oT The melody, The rhyThm, The sonoriTy. lT was creaTed by magic-as we do noT know whaT The secreT of music is-and we can recreaTe iT by magic only: The magic of devoTion and sinceriTy. There are limiTs To The possibiliTy of undersTanding anoTher human heari'-:we never can be sure how Tar we have succeeded in really idenTiTying ourselves wiTh The work we perTorm--buT we musT never sTop calling Tor This magical condiTion, where even a misundersTanding will be closer To TruTh Than absTracT knowledge. There are ideas abouT The TuTure developmenT of musical noTaTion: 'They believe The composer will noT wriTe his music on paper buT will enTrusT iwhaT he hears To The disc, Thus speaking direcTly To The lisTener and eliminaTing The erraTic perTormer. g BuT-would iT be a good Thing? ls noT music, The greaT music, so much alive Izer-ausrf iT was enclosed in cold signs on paper, To be brouglni' back To liTe again and again like The grain in The earTh. EDWARD STEUERMANN 12

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fu, SKA 29.09 i vw 0 V W I Q , P K S f EEG Lg H, , THE FELLOWSHIP UDOGGIE ROAST November I4141, I948 11

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EDWARD STEUERMANN Piano Mas+er Class VINCENT PERSICHETTI, Mus.D. BQRl.S.KOUTZEN. MUS-D Composi+ion, Counierpoini, V'0l'n'S+ and C0mP0Se' Harmony, Concluding 13