playing impossible. Too many amateurs try to play _spiccato_ from the
arm. And too many teachers are contented with a trill that is merely
brilliant. Kneisel insists on what he calls a 'musical trill,' of which
Kreisler's beautiful trill is a perfect example. The trill of some
violinists is _invariably_ brilliant, whether brilliancy is appropriate
or not. Brilliant trills in Bach always seem out of place to me; while
in Paganini and in Wieniawski's _Carnaval de Venise_ a high brilliant
trill is very effective.

"As to double-stops--Edison once said that violin music should be
written only in double-stops--I practice them playing first the single
notes and then the two together, and can recommend this mode of practice
from personal experience. Harmonics, where clarity is the most important
thing, are mainly a matter of bowing, of a sure attack and sustaining by
the bow. Of course the harmonics themselves are made by the fingers; but
their tone quality rests altogether with the bow.


EDISON AND OCTAVES

"The best thing I've ever heard said of octaves was Edison's remark to
me that 'They are merely a nuisance and should not be played!' I was
making some records for him during the experimental stage of the disk
record, when he was trying to get an absolutely smooth _legato_ tone,
one that conformed to Loeffler's definition of it as 'no breaks' in the
tone. He had had Schubert's _Ave Maria_ recorded by Flesch, MacMillan
and others, and wanted me to play it for him. The records were all
played for me, and whenever he came to the octave passages Edison would
say: 'Listen to them! How badly they sound!' Yet the octaves were
absolutely in tune! 'Why do they sound so badly?' I inquired.