"That the editorial revisions of a number of our greatest living
violinists and teachers have passed through my editorial rooms, on their
way to press, is a fact of which I am decidedly proud. Leopold Auer, for
instance, is one of the most careful, exact and practical of editors,
and the fact is worth dwelling on since sometimes the great artist or
teacher quite naturally forgets that those for whom he is editing a
composition have neither his knowledge nor resources. Auer never loses
sight of the composer's _own ideas_.
"And when I mention great violinists with whom I have been associated as
an editor, Mischa Elman must not be forgotten. I found it at first a
difficult matter to induce an artist like Elman, for whom no technical
difficulties exist, to seriously consider the limitations of the average
player in his fingerings and interpretative demands. Elman, like every
great _virtuoso_ of his caliber, is influenced in his revisions by the
manner in which he himself does things. I remember in one instance I
could see no reason why he should mark the third finger for a
_cantilena_ passage where a certain effect was desired, and questioned
it. Catching up his violin he played the note preceding it with his
second finger, then instead of slipping the second finger down the
string, he took the next note with the third, in such a way that a most
exquisite _legato_ effect, like a breath, the echo of a sigh, was
secured. And the beauty of tone color in this instance not only proved
his point, but has led me invariably to examine very closely a fingering
on the part of a master violinist which represents a departure from the
conventional--it is often the technical key to some new beauty of
interpretation or expression.
"Fritz Kreisler's individuality is also reflected in his markings and
fingerings. Of course those in his 'educational' editions are strictly
meant for study needs. But in general they are difficult and based on
his own manner and style of playing. As he himself has remarked: 'I
could play the violin just as well with three as with four fingers.'
Kreisler is fond of 'fingered' octaves, and these, because of his
abnormal hand, he plays with the first and third fingers, where virtuose
players, as a rule, are only too happy if they can play them with the
first and fourth. To verify this individual character of his revisions,
one need only glance at his edition of Godowsky's '12 Impressions' for
violin--in every case the fingerings indicated are difficult in the
extreme; yet they supply the key to definite effects, and since this
music is intended for the advance player, are quite in order.
"The ms. and revisions of many other distinguished artists have passed
through my hands. Theodore Spiering has been responsible for the
educational detail of classic and modern works; Arthur Hartmann--a
composer of marked originality--Albert Spalding, Eddy Brown, Francis
MacMillan, Max Pilzer, David Hochstein, Richard Czerwonky, Cecil
Burleigh, Edwin Grasse, Edmund Severn, Franz C. Bornschein, Leo
Ornstein, Rubin Goldmark, Louis Pershinger, Louis Victor Saar--whose ms.
always look as though engraved--have all given me opportunities of
seeing the best the American violin composer is creating at the present
time.