"What special editorial work of mine has given me the greatest personal
satisfaction in the doing? That is a hard question to answer. Off-hand
I might say that, perhaps, the collection of progressive orchestral
studies for advanced violinists which I have compiled and annotated for
the benefit of the symphony orchestra player is something that has meant
much to me personally. Years ago, when I played professionally--long
before the days of 'miniature' orchestra scores--it was almost
impossible for an ambitious young violinist to acquaint himself with the
first and second violin parts of the great symphonic works. Prices of
scores were prohibitive--and though in such works as the Brahms
symphonies, for instance, the 'concertmaster's' part should be studied
from score, in its relation to the rest of the _partitura_--often,
merely to obtain a first violin part, I had to acquire the entire set of
strings. So when I became an editor I determined, in view of my own
unhappy experiences and that of many others, to give the aspiring
fiddler who really wanted to 'get at' the violin parts of the best
symphonic music, from Bach to Brahms and Richard Strauss, a chance to do
so. And I believe I solved the problem in the five books of the 'Modern
Concert-Master,' which includes all those really difficult and important
passages in the great repertory works of the symphony orchestra that
offer violinistic problems. My only regret is that the grasping attitude
of European publishers prevented the representation of certain important
symphonic numbers. Yet, as it stands, I think I may say that the five
encyclopedic books of the collection give the symphony concertmaster
every practical opportunity to gain orchestral routine, and orchestral
mastery.