the prime factors in the process of
committing music to memory.

Michael von Zadora, pianist and teacher, said to me recently: "Suppose
you have a difficult passage to learn by heart. The ordinary method of
committing to memory is to play the passage over and over, till the
fingers grow accustomed to its intervals. That is not my manner of
teaching. The only way to master that passage is to analyze it
thoroughly, know just what the notes are, the sequences of notes, if you
will, their position on the keyboard, the fingering, the positions the
hands must take to play these notes, so that you know just where the
fingers have to go before you put them on the keys. When you thus
thoroughly understand the passage or piece, have thought about it, lived
with it, so that it is in the blood, we might say, the fingers can play
it. There will be no difficulty about it and no need for senseless
repetitions."

PHRASE BY PHRASE

Most of the artists agree that memorizing must be done phrase by phrase,
after the composition has been thoroughly analyzed as to keys, chords,
and construction. This is Katharine Goodson's way, and also Eleanor
Spencer's and Ethel Leginska's, three of Leschetizky's pupils now before
the public. "I really know the composition so thoroughly that I can play
it in another key just as well as the one in which it is written, though
I do not always memorize it each hand alone," says Miss Goodson. "I
first play the composition over a few times to become somewhat familiar
with its form and shape," says Eleanor Spencer, "then I begin to analyze
and study it, committing it by phrases, or ideas, one or two measures at
a time. I do not always take the hands alone, unless the passage is very
intricate, for sometimes it is easier to learn both hands together."
Germaine Schnitzer avers that she keeps at a difficult passage until she
really knows it perfectly, no matter how long it takes. "What is the use
of going on," she says, "until you are absolutely sure of the work in
hand."

It is plain from the opinions already cited and from many I have heard
expressed that the artists waste no time over useless repetitions. They
fully realize that a piece is not assimilated nor learned until it is
memorized. When they have selected the composition they wish to learn,
they begin at once to memorize from the start. The student does not
always bring to his work this definiteness of aim; if he did, much
precious time would be s