This
aim can never be reached by the mere cultivation of technical
adroitness. Untold sacrifices are made to-day to what becomes the
unrighteous mammon of technique when the mechanical side of practice is
exalted above its interpretative aspects. Schumann deemed brilliancy of
execution only valuable when it served a higher purpose. That higher
purpose is to reach and express the soul of music. Unless enriched by
it, all mechanism is dead. It is not desirable that every one should
perform acrobatic feats on some musical instrument, or indulge in vocal
pyrotechnics, but it is desirable to extract music out of whatever
technique may be attained. Instead of racing onward with feverish haste
to ever increased technical skill at the expense of other development,
it were well for the student to pause until each composition attacked,
be it but an exercise, could be interpreted with accuracy, intelligence,
and feeling. We should then have more musicianly players and singers. We
should more often be brought under the magic spell of exquisitely shaded
tone that may make a simple little melody alive with beauty.
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