February 16, 19 2 2
M U SIC AL COURIER
32
The Musical Courier in connection with its forum for the discussion of a general education for music students, sent out a list of questions to a large number of persons prominent in the world of music. Some of the answers are printed below. The questions were as follows:
QUESTION SHEET.
1.	Are the ages mentioned—between thirteen and seventeen, and between seventeen and twenty-one—very essential to the music student who wants to acquire a virtuoso technic, or can a virtuoso technic be acquired after twenty-one, with, of course, a certain amount of youthful training?
2.	Can a child give the time to school work as specified in our letter and still find time for the proper study of music?
3.	Will a general education aid a musician to be a better musician?
4.	Should a distinction be made between players and teachers? Should not all music students aspire pri-marily to be players, not teachers? In other words, should a teacher teach who cannot play? And should these distinctions and considerations make a difference in the course of education to be pursued by students?
ON SHIPBOARD.
Erna Rubinstein, the little violinist who made such a successful debut in New York recently icith the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under Willem Mehgelberg’s baton, snapped on board the Ryndam, on lohich she came to America with Mr. Mengelberg (to the right of the picture) and Captain W. Krol.
The Versatility of Harold Milligan
A musician who finds time to interest himself in other things beside music is Harold Milligan, who has been appearing this season with Olive Nevin, soprano, in the costume recital, “Three Centuries of American Song.” It is largely owing to Mr. Milligan’s efforts that the compositions of the earliest American composers have been brought to light and are now appearing on the programs of song recitalists. He has revised and edited three volumes of these works, beginning with the first one devoted solely to Samuel Hopkinson. His latest work is a collection of the songs of Stephen Foster. In addition he is the composer of several original songs. To the world of letters he has contributed a biography of Stephen Foster and is also the author of numerous magazine articles.
The accompanying photograph, taken in the studio of John Rea, the illustrator, in Caldwell, N. J., has a background which is appropriately symbolical of Mr. Milligan’s
HAROLD MILLIGAN,
whose interests are varied. (A. Toxvard, Jr., photo.)
varied activities. The candles represent religion and point to his positions as organist at both the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church and the West End Synagogue in New York. The harp, of course, stands fpr music, and it happens that this particular one was used by the Fuller Sisters at their concerts. The hearth indicates the home and Mr. Milligan’s devotion to his wife and family, while the book in his hand, refers to his literary interests.
Rudolph Polk’s Vienna Success
A cablegram from a Musical Courier correspondent in Vienna, dated February 3, says : ־ “Rudolph Polk, the young American violinist, scored sensational success in his concerts here.”
cally at all, and which, as a result of years of work as a teacher and public performer, I believe to be the Alpha and Omega of a successful career either as a teacher or performer. The thing is robust health, and by that I do not mean just an absence of actual disease but a positive, aggressive, vital physical state. Music, more than most professions, is a constant stimulation to the emotional side of our lives and the work of either teacher or performer is burdened with a very definite strain and drain upon the nervous organization. More careers are ruined and more studies made ineffective by loss of time through illness or by indifferent performance by bad health than through any other one source. I am not a crank on the subject. This is simply an observation as a result of watching a great many musicians and music students over considerable periods of time.
Francis Rogers
1.	In preparation for the career of a singer a general musical education is highly desirable, but so also is a good education in non-musical subjects. I believe children should attend school at least until eighteen. Serious training of the voice can not be undertaken until the student is completely adult. General musician-ship can not be initated too early. I am not in favor of a college education for musicians ambitious for a career as a public performer. College training in this country is not favorable to the development of artistic self-expression. From about the age of eighteen music should be the chief pursuit of the would-be musical artist.
2.	Up to the age of seventeen a child certainly ought to devote the major part of his time to the acquisition of a general education, even if this means a certain neglect of his musical studies. To learn how to study is the most valuable part of a good early education—the subjects studied are less important than the learning how to tackle them.
3.	Yes.
4.	The first training should be the same for teachers and players. To have had a public career is a great asset for a teacher. In the history of singing the best teachers have usually been singers who have never attained to great success with the public. With a few exceptions only there are no instances of great singers becoming great teachers; many great teachers appear never to have sung at all—Porpora and Lamperti, .for instance. I fancy much the same state of things is to be found in the history of instrumental teaching. A successful public career is apt to develop an egotism unfavorable to teaching. In this country the vast majority of musicians, after a few years of trying to convince the public of their greatness,, are content to take a studio and instruct their juniors how to scale the heights they themselves never surmounted.
Dates for Boghetti Artist
Following are some of the recent and forthcoming dates booked for Marian Anderson, an artist pupil of Giuseppe Boghetti, the vocal teacher, of Philadelphia: February 13, Charleston, W. Va.; 14, Institute, W. Va.; 15, Huntington, W. Va.; 17, Louisville, Ky.; 21, Indianapolis, Ind.; 22, Chicago, 111.; 23, St. Louis, Mo.; 24, Fisk, Tenn.; 27, Birmingham, Ala.
Gerhardt to Give Second Boston Recital
Elena Gerhardt makes her second Boston appearance in Jordan Hall on Friday evening next in aid of the Massachusetts Quota of the $3,000,000 fund being raised for German Child Feeding. The concert is under the patronage of Governor Cox, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and ex-Gov-ernor Walsh.
Goldenberg Pupils to Be Heard
Albert Goldenberg, New York violin teacher, pedagogue and preparatory teacher to Leopold Auer, will present two young artist pupils (Nathan Radoff and Irma Frisch) in recital on February 18 at the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, N. Y. The concert is for the benefit of Master N. Radoff.
Louis Eckstein in New York
Louis Eckstein, general director of Ravinia (Chicago’s North Shore Opera resort), is now in the company’s spacious publishing offices in Aeolian Building looking over the field for talent for 1922.
Marshall Bartholomew
1.	Yes, decidedly. I think that a virtuoso technic for a vocal career can be obtained after twenty-one, particularly in the case of men. In fact, I think that is a mistake to begin intensive training of the voice before the individual is fairly mature physically and has a certain amount of general training. Certainly in the violin and piano there can be no question about the immense advantage accruing to the student who begins his work between the years of thirteen and twenty-one over anyone who starts after that time.
2.	It depends upon the school. Some schools are acknowledging music to be a definite and major subject in their curriculum and therefore allowing students to give definite time to it as a part of their school work. However, in the average school and high school curriculum, there is no place for music as a major subject and for a student who carries a full course of regular educational work and who tries to include a fair amount of recreation and sport, it is almost impossible to accomplish anything very intensive along the lines of musical training.
3.	By all means. Music, more than almost any other branch of art, requires a broad background, and one of the outstanding weaknesses of many first-class performers is their deplorable lack of general education. They represent virtuosity begun at an absurdly early date to the neglect of most of those things which go to make a well rounded character, a balanced personality, and a physically normal individual. I do think, however, that with proper guidance, music students can continue securing what you call a general education through reading and observation during the time that they are making the study of music their chief interest. In fact, we must all be students all our lives if we intend to arrive at any goal beyond that of mediocrity.
4.	I find your fourth question difficult to answer clearly. Naturally a distinction is to be made between players and teachers. A certain type of temperament and personality lends itself peculiarly to success in teaching, and while often that same type includes talent of brilliant individual performance, quite as often it does not; it is common knowledge that some of the greatest teachers of the world have not been outstandingly successful as public performers. I do think that every good teacher must also be a master of technic and performance in that subject which he proposes to teach. I do not think that a piano teacher has a right to teach who cannot also play. This is also true of the voice, although naturally a teacher who is giving instruction a good many hours a day cannot be expected to maintain his vocal apparatus in a condition equal to that of one who is saving all his powers for actual performance. I should like to add one observation which you do not bring up specifi-
?---------
SZYMANOWSKI?
His second symphony was performed recently in New York by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Do you know anything about him?
Read “Karol Szymanowski” by Zdzizlaw Jachimecki
HEINRICH HEINE
Who wrote more entertainingly and brilliantly about music than he?
Read “Heinrich Heine’s Musical Feuille-tons” with preface by O. G. Sonneck.
Both included in
The
Musical
Quarterly
For January, 1922	75 Cents Per Copy