THE CHILD AT PLAY.
"When the long day is past, the steps turn homeward."
Once a child played on the sea-shore. The waves sang and the sand
shone and the pebbles glistened. There was light everywhere; light
from the blue sky, and from the moving water, and from the gleaming
pebbles.
The little one, in its happiness, sang with the murmuring sea and
played with the stones and the shells that lay about. Joy was
everywhere and the child was filled with it.
But the day passed. And the little one grieved in its heart to leave
the beautiful place. Delight was there and many rare things that one
could play with and enjoy.
The child could not leave them all. Its heart ached to think of them
lying there alone by the sea. And it thought:
"I will take the pebbles and the shells with me and I will try to
remember the sunlight and the song of the sea."
So it began to fill its little hands. But it saw that after as many as
possible were gathered together there were yet myriads left. And it
had to leave them.
Tired and with a sore heart it trudged homeward, its hands filled to
overflowing with the pebbles that shone in the sun on the sea-shore.
Now, however, they seemed dull. And because of this, the child did not
seem to regret it so much if now and then one fell. "There are still
some left in my hands," it thought.
At length it came near to its home; so very tired, the little limbs
could scarcely move. And one who loved the child came out smiling to
welcome it. The little one went up close and rested its tired head;
and opening its little hand, soiled with the sea and the sand, said:
"Look, mother, I still have one. May I go for the others some day?"
And the mother said:
"Yes, thou shalt go again."
And the child fell asleep to dream of the singing sea and of the
sunlight, for these were in its heart.
APPENDIX
The following works are referred to in these Talks:
Addison, Joseph, "Spectator."
Alexander, Francesca, "Christfolk in the Apennine."
Antoninus, M. Aurelius, "Meditations."
Aristotle, "Ethics."
Bach, J.S., "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
Bach, J.S., "Kleine Präludien."
Baldwin, James, "Old Greek Stories."
Bacon, Francis, "Essays."
Bridge, J.F., "Simple Counterpoint."
Carlyle, Thomas, "Heroes and Hero-worship."
Cellini, Benvenuto, "Autobiography."
Epictetus, "Memoirs."
Grove, Sir George, "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
Halleck, R.P., "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
Handel, G.F., "The Messiah."
Haupt, August, "Choralbuch."
Liszt, Franz, "Life of Chopin."
Lubbock, Sir John, "Pleasures of Life."
Luther, Martin, "Table Talk."
Mendelssohn, Felix, "Letters from Italy and Switzerland."
Parker, J.H., "ABC of Gothic Architecture."
Ruskin, John, "Queen of the Air."
Ruskin, John, "Sesame and Lilies."
Ruskin, John, "Val d'Arno."
Saintine, X.B., "Picciola."
Schubert, Franz, "Songs."
Schumann, Robert, "Album for the Voung."
Schumann, Robert, "Letters."
Schumann, Robert, "Rules for Young Musicians."
Tapper, Thomas, "Chats with Music Students."
Tyndall, John, "Glaciers of the Alps."
Tyndall, John, "On Sound."
Various Authors, "Les Maitres du Clavicin."
Xenophon, "Memorabilia."
* * * * *
Chats with Music Students
OR
TALKS ABOUT MUSIC AND MUSIC LIFE.
BY
THOMAS TAPPER.
Price, Bound in Cloth, $1.50.
This volume appeals to every student of music, however elementary or
advanced. It is designed to bring to the attention of those who make
music a life-work, the very many contingent topics that should be
considered in connection with music. To this end the subjects selected
for the chats have a practical value, cover considerable ground, and
are treated from the point of view that best aids the student. The
reader is taken into confidence, and finds in the chapters of this
work many hints and benefits that pertain to his own daily life as a
musician.
* * * * *
21 SELECTED
CRAMER STUDIES.
From the Von Bülow Edition.
PRICE $1.50, FIRMLY BOUND.
The present complete edition sells for $2.50 and $3.00, retail. Much
of the material in the complete edition can be eliminated without
injury to its technical value. We have, therefore, made a selection of
the choicest of Von Bülow's edition, which we have bound, in one
volume, in very neat style. Only the most difficult and unimportant
ones have been eliminated.
* * * * *
The Normal Course of Piano Technic.
DESIGNED FOR
SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS.
By WM. B. WAIT.
Price $1.50, Bound.
The NORMAL COURSE is based upon the fundamental idea that, for the
purpose of the development, discipline, and formation of the mind, and
for teaching the learner how to think and to do, Technical Studies in
Music are as useful as any other branch.
FEATURES OF THE BOOK:
Clear, concise statements of facts and principles.
It deals only with essentials.
It arranges the materials in grades, by Divisions, Courses, and
Steps.
It exhibits a distinct mode and order of development.
The course is as clearly laid out as in any other branch of study.
Practice based upon understanding of means as applied to ends.
It permits the attention to be given to the hands in practice, and
not to the pages.
In schools it will secure uniformity in the instruction given.
It furnishes the bases for oral recitations and examinations as in
other subjects.
It is logical, systematic, thorough.
It is a book for use by schools, teachers, and students.
NOTES:
1: From the "Table Talk."
2: Play to the children Schubert's song entitled "The Organ-man."
3: Phillips Brooks says in one of his sermons ("Identity and
Variety"): "Every act has its perfect and entire way of being
done."
4: Bohn edition, p. 35.
5: Read to the children such parts of Francesca Alexander's "Christ's
folk in the Apennine" as seem to you pertinent.
6: John Ruskin, from the ninth lecture of "Val d'Arno."
7: John Ruskin. Third lecture of "Val d'Arno."
8: Franz Liszt's "Life of Chopin," Chapter V.
9: _Ibid_, Chapter VI.
10: "On Sound."
11: "On Sound" is referred to. The last paragraph of Section 10,
Chapter II, may interest the children. The last two paragraphs of
Section 13 are not only interesting, but they show how simply a
scientist can write.
12: If the original is desired, see Tyndall's "Glaciers of the Alps."
13: Schumann wrote in a letter to Ferdinand Hiller, "We should learn
to refine the inner ear."
14: From the sermon entitled "The Seriousness of Life."
15: Notice sometime how many of our English words have the Latin
_con_.
16: See the fourth chapter of Reuben Post Halleck's "Psychology and
Psychic Culture."
17: For instance, the subject of the C minor Fugue in the first book
of "The Well-tempered Clavicord."
18: The subject of the C sharp minor Fugue.
19: The prelude in E flat minor and the subject of the G sharp minor
Fugue.
20: Robert Schumann.
21: Quoted by Xenophon in the "Memorabilia," Book II, Chapter I, Bohn
edition.
22: "Heroes and Hero Worship," Lecture I.
23: From the sermon entitled "Backgrounds and Foregrounds."
24: I should again suggest the value of letting the children become
familiar with such books as J.H. Parker's "A B C of Gothic
Architecture;" and of having always about plenty of photographs of
great buildings, great men, great works of art and of famous
places for them to see and to know ("_letting_ them _become_
familiar," remember).
25: See R.P. Halleck's "Psychology and Psychic Culture."
26: Read paragraphs 41 and 42 of John Ruskin's "Athena Chalinitis,"
the first lecture of "Queen of the Air."
27: John Ruskin, from the lecture entitled "Franchise," in "Val
d'Arno," par. 206.
28: "Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and
Switzerland." Letter of July 15, 1831.
29: "Letter of December 19, 1831."
30: Read also what is said of Chopin on p. 28.
31: Read to the children "The Wonderful Weaver" in "Old Greek
Stories," by James Baldwin. It is only a few pages in length, and
is well told.
32: Robert Schumann.
33: John Ruskin's "Queen of the Air," par. 102. ("Athena Ergane.")
Read all of it to the children.
34: _Idem_.
35: Lord Bacon, from the essay "Of Great Places."
36: Robert Schumann.
37: Read John Ruskin's "Sesame and the Lilies," par. 19, and as much
of what follows as you deem wise.
38: "The Ethics," Book IX, Chapter VII.
39: Always I have it in mind that the teacher will read or make
reference to the original when the source is so obvious as in this
case. The teacher's, or mother's, discretion should, however,
decide what and how much of such original should be read, and what
it is best to say of it.
40: I have not attempted to quote the exact words usually given.
41: Socrates. This quotation is from the "Memorabilia of Xenophon,"
Book I, Chapter VI.
42: Mary Russell Mitford.
43: "Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," Bohn edition, p. 23.
44: "The Miserere" of "Gregorio Allegri." It was written for nine
voices in two choirs. "There was a time when it was so much
treasured that to copy it was a crime visited with
excommunication. Mozart took down the notes while the choir was
singing it." (See Grove's "Dictionary of Music and Musicians."
Vol. I, page 54.)
45: Dr. Bridge "On Simple Counterpoint." Preface.
46: Take, in August Haupt's "_Choralbuch zum häuslichen Gebrauch_,"
any simple choral. The one entitled "_Zion klagt mit Angst und
Schmerzen_" is of singular beauty and simplicity.
47: Peters Edition, No. 200, page 11.
48: I should advise the teacher to have the two volumes entitled "_Les
Maitres du Clavicin_." (They can be had in the Litolff
collection.)
49: Op. 106.
50: "_Der Erster Verlust_" in Schumann's Op. 68 is well conceived in
the sense that it is freely harmonic in some places, imitative in
others, while in the opening the melody is very simply
accompanied. Show the children how interesting the left-hand part
is in this little composition.
51: From a Letter of the Spectator.
52: From the eighth paragraph of the Lecture entitled "Nicholas, the
Pisan," in "Val D'Arno."
53: A blind beggar sitting on a bridge in an English town (it was
Chester) many times astonished me with the rapidity of his
hand-reading, and by the wonderful light of his face. It was
wholly free from the perplexity which most of us show. It must
arise in us from being attracted by so many things.
54: Eighty-first paragraph of "Val d'Arno."
55: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, "The Meditations," Book V, Par. 34.
56: See footnote, p. 119.
57: From the thirteenth paragraph of the fourth book. I have changed
the wording a very little to make it simple.
58: Sixteenth paragraph of the fifth book.
59: _Essi quam videri._
60: "The Memorabilia."
61: "Epictetus," H.W. Rollison's Translation.
62: Plato.
63: Mozart wrote three symphonies between June 26th and August 10th,
in the year 1778; and an Italian, Giovanni Animuccia, is said to
have written three masses, four motettes, and fourteen hymns
within five months. As an instance of early composition, Johann
Friedrich Bernold had written a symphony before he was ten years
of age, and was famous all over Europe.
64: Xenophon, "The Memorabilia," Book IV, Chapter VIII.
65: From the "Pleasures of Life." Eighth Chapter of the Second Series.
66: The little romance of N.B. Saintine is referred to.
67: Read to the children Chapter XIV in my "Chats with Music
Students."
68: "Rules for Young Musicians."