loose in its
application here, but there seems to be no other word to describe what I
mean. The flavor of the Spanish bolero is very different from the
Hungarian czardas, and who could confound the intoxicating swirl of the
Italian tarantella with the stately air of cluny lace and silver rapiers
which seems to surround the minuet? The minuet, by the way, is
frequently played too fast. The minuet from Beethoven's Eighth Symphony
is a notable example. Many conductors have made the error of rushing
through it. Dr. Hans Richter conducts it with the proper tempo. This
subject in itself takes a tremendous amount of consideration and the
student should never postpone this first step in the analysis of the
works he is to perform.

THE POETIC IDEA OF THE PIECE

"Despite the popular impression that music is imitative in the sense of
being able to reproduce different pictures and different emotions, it is
really very far from it. The subject of program music and illustrative
music is one of the widest in the art, and at the same time one of the
least definite. Except in cases like the Beethoven _Pastoral Symphony_,
where the composer has made obvious attempts to suggest rural scenes,
composers do not as a rule try to make either aquarelles or cycloramas
with their music. They write music for what it is worth as music, not as
scenery. Very often the public or some wily publisher applies the title,
as in the case of the _Moonlight Sonata_ or some of the Mendelssohn
_Songs Without Words_. Of course there are some notable exceptions, and
many teachers may be right in trying to stimulate the sluggish
imaginations of some pupils with fanciful stories. However, when there
is a certain design in a piece which lends itself to the suggestion of a
certain idea, as does, for instance, the Liszt-Wagner _Spinning Song_
from the _Flying Dutchman_, it is interesting to work with a specific
picture in view--but never forgetting the real beauty of the piece
purely as a beautiful piece of music.

"Some pieces with special titles are notoriously misnamed and carry no
possible means of definitely intimating what the composer intended. Even
some forms are misleading in their names. The _Scherzos_ of Chopin are
often very remote from the playful significance of the word--a
significance which is beautifully preserved in the _Scherzos_ of
Mendelssohn.

STUDYING THE RHYTHM

"A third point in analyzing a new piece might be analyzing the rhythm.