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Piano and Song - How to Teach, How to Learn, and How to Form a Judgment of Musical Performances by Friedrich Wieck
page 28 of 139 (20%)
and fall into a dull routine, which truly can lead to no success.

In conclusion, I beg you to invite the piano teacher, Mr. Strict, to
whom you have confided the instruction of your only daughter, Rosalie,
to pay me a visit, and I will give him particular directions for a
gradual development in piano-playing, up to Beethoven's op. 109 or
Chopin's F minor concerto. But I shall find him too fixed in his own
theories, too much of a composer, too conceited and dogmatic, and not
sufficiently practical, to be a good teacher, or to exert much
influence; and, indeed, he has himself a stiff, restless, clumsy touch,
that expends half its efforts in the air. He talks bravely of études,
scales, &c.; but the question with regard to these is _how they are
taught_. The so-called practising of exercises, without having
previously formed a sure touch, and carefully and skilfully fostering it
is not much more useful than playing pieces. But I hear him reply, with
proud and learned self-consciousness: "Music, music! Classical,
classical! Spirit! Expression! Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn!" That is
just the difficulty. Look at his pupils, at his pianists! See how his
children are musically stifled, and hear his daughter sing the classical
arias composed by himself! However, it is all musical! Farewell.




CHAPTER IV.

A CONVERSATION WITH MRS. SOLID, AND FOUR LESSONS TO HER DAUGHTER.


MRS. SOLID. I should be glad to understand how it is that your daughters
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