th
equivocal compliments, with encouragement to continue in the same
course, with acknowledgment of fine hands for the piano, with uneasy,
forced congratulations to the parents and teacher; but it is always a
happy moment when the fatal soiree is over. The next day I am forced to
sigh again over the same, miserable, poorly and tediously performed
Funeral March of Chopin, and over the timorous B major Mazourka by
Schulhoff. The left hand is always left in the lurch in the difficult,
skipping basses of this piece, and in others of the present style, which
are rich in harmony and modulations. The bass part in this piece is apt
to suffer from timid and false tones; frequently the fundamental tone is
omitted, or the little finger remains resting upon it, instead of giving
the eighth note with a crisp, elastic, and sprightly touch, and the
chords are tame and incomplete. You do not give them their full value;
you leave them too quickly, because you are afraid of not striking the
next low note quickly enough; but, on the other hand, you do not strike
it at all, and one missing tone brings another one after it. The right
hand, being the most skilful, is supposed to play with expression, and
really does so; but this only makes the performance the worse. The
fundamental tone is wanting, and you are led to make a mistake in the
skip, and strike the wrong key. Finally, the whole thing is ended in
terror. I have an uneasy night; I dream of your fine hands, but the
false and the weak notes start up between like strange spectres or will
o' the wisps, and I wake with the headache, instead of with pleasant
memories.

Allow me to give you a piece of advice. Play and practise the bass part
a great deal and very often, first slowly, then quicker, during one or
two weeks, before playing the right hand with it, in order that you may
give your whole attention to playing the bass correctly, delicately, and
surely. Even when you can get through the mazourka tolerably well, you
must not think, on that account, that you will be able to play it in
company, under trying circumstances. You ought to be able to play the
piece by yourself with ease, very frequently, perfectly, and distinctly,
and in very rapid _tempo_, before you trust yourself to perform it even
slowly in company. At least, practise the more difficult passages for
the right hand very frequently, particularly the difficult and bold
conclusion, that it may not strike the hearer as rough