meaning
advisers who, if they have their own way, may serve to confuse him. Some
virtuosos regard their well-meaning admirers and entertainers as the
worst penalties of the virtuoso life. Whether they are or are not must,
of course, depend upon the artist's character. If he accepts their
compliments and courtesies as an expression of the measure of pleasure
_they derived_ from his playing, he has tacitly allowed for that share
in their pleasure which is due to their power of appreciation, and he
can therefore only rejoice in having provided something worthy of it.
The manner of their expression, the observations they make, the very
wording of their compliments will reveal, quickly enough, whether he
has a case of real appreciation before him, or a mere morbid mania to
hobnob with celebrities, or at least with people who by nature of their
professional work are often compelled against their own desires to hold
a more or less exposed position in the public eye. If he deals with the
latter and still allows their compliments to go further than the
physical ear, he must be a man of a character so weak as to make it
doubtful that he will ever produce anything worthy of sincere and
earnest appreciation. More young students are misled by blatant flattery
than anything else. They become convinced that their efforts are
comparable with those of the greatest artist, and the desire for
improvement diminishes in direct ratio to the rate in which their
opinion of their own efforts increases. The student should continually
examine his own work with the same acuteness that he would be expected
to show were he teaching another.

QUESTIONS IN STYLE, INTERPRETATION, EXPRESSION
AND TECHNIC OF PIANOFORTE PLAYING

SERIES X

JOSEF HOFMANN

1. Has piano playing progressed since the time of Hummel?

2. How have the changes in the structure of the instrument affected
pianistic progress?

3. Why should students avoid becoming "piano-playing machines"?

4. What must be the sole aim in employing a technical exercise?

5. Will the technic of Liszt ever be excelled?

6. Why are stencil-like methods bad?

7. Is scale study indispensable?

8. Must the student know the characteristics of the instrument for which
the composer wrote?

9. What part did fashion play in the introduction of embellishments?

10. Why should the student determine problems for himself?

[Illustration: JOSEF LHEVINNE]

JOSEF LHEVINNE

BIOGRAPHICAL