:: Historical Notes ::

THE DANGER OF PRACTICING TOO MUCH.
TECHNICAL MASTERY AND
TEMPERAMENT

Mature in virtuosity—the modern virtuosity which goes so far beyond the mere technical mastery that once made the term a reproach—though young in years, Jascha Heifetz, when one makes his acquaintance “off-stage,” seems singularly modest about the great gifts which have brought him international fame. He is amiable, unassuming and—the best proof, perhaps, that his talent is a thing genuine and inborn, not the result of a forcing process—he has that broad interest in art and in life going far beyond his own particular medium, the violin, without which no artist may become truly great. For Jascha Heifetz, with his wonderful record of accomplishment achieved, and with triumphs still to come before him, does not believe in “all work and no play.”

Violin Mastery
Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers
by Frederick H. Martens
Published 1919

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DEBUSSY’S POÈME FOR VIOLIN

“Debussy came near writing a violin piece for me once!” continued Mr. Hartmann, and brought out a folio containing letters the great impressionist had written him. They were a delightful revelation of the human side of Debussy’s character, and Mr. Hartmann kindly consented to the quotation of one bearing on the Poème for violin which Debussy had promised to write for him, and which, alas, owing to his illness and other reasons, never actually came to be written:

“Dear Friend:

“Of course I am working a great deal now, because I feel the need of writing music, and would find it difficult to build an aeroplane; yet at times Music is ill-natured, even toward those who love her most! Then I take my little daughter and my hat and go walking in the Bois de Boulogne, where one meets people who have come from afar to bore themselves in Paris.

“I think of you, I might even say I am in need of you (assume an air of exaltation and bow, if you please!) As to the Poème for violin, you may rest assured that I will write it. Only at the present moment I am so preoccupied with the ‘Fall of the House of Usher!’ They talk too much to me about it. I’ll have to put an end to all that or I will go mad. Once more I want to write it, and above all on your account. And I believe you will be the only one to play the Poème. Others will attempt it, and then quickly return to the Mendelssohn Concerto!

“Believe me always your sincere friend,

“Claude Debussy.”
“He never did write it,” said Mr. Hartmann, “but it was not for want of good will. As to other transcriptions, I have never done any that I did not feel instinctively would make good fiddle pieces, such as MacDowell’s To a Wild Rose and others of his compositions. And recently I have transcribed some fine Russian things—Gretchaninoff’s Chant d’Automne, Karagitscheff’s Exaltation, Tschaikovsky’s Humoresque, Balakirew’s Chant du Pechêur, and Poldini’s little Poupée valsante, which Maud Powell plays so delightfully on all her programs.”

Violin Mastery
Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers
by Frederick H. Martens
Published 1919

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ARRANGING VERSUS TRANSCRIBING

Arthur Hartmann, like Kreisler, Elman, Maud Powell and others of his colleagues, has enriched the literature of the violin with some notably fine transcriptions. And it is a subject on which he has well-defined opinions and regarding which he makes certain distinctions: “An ‘arrangement,’” he said, “as a rule, is a purely commercial affair, into which neither art nor æsthetics enter. It usually consists in writing off the melody of a song—in other words, playing the ‘tune’ on an instrument instead of hearing it sung with words—or in the case of a piano composition, in writing off the upper voice, leaving the rest intact, regardless of sonority, tone-color or even effectiveness, and, furthermore, without consideration of the idiomatic principles of the instrument to which the adaptation was meant to fit.

“A ‘transcription,’ on the other hand, can be raised to the dignity of an art-work. Indeed, at times it may even surpass the original, in the quality of thought brought into the work, the delicate and sympathetic treatment and by the many subtleties which an artist can introduce to make it thoroughly a re-creation of his chosen instrument.

“It is the transcriber’s privilege—providing he be sufficiently the artist to approach the personality of another artist with reverence—to donate his own gifts of ingenuity, and to exercise his judgment in either adding, omitting, harmonically or otherwise embellishing the work (while preserving the original idea and characteristics), so as to thoroughly re-create it, so completely destroying the very sensing of the original timbre that one involuntarily exclaims, ‘Truly, this never was anything but a violin piece!’ It is this, the blending and fusion of two personalities in the achievement of an art-ideal, that is the result of a true adaptation.

“Among the transcriptions I have most enjoyed making were those of Debussy’s Il pleure dans mon cœur, and La Fille aux cheveaux de lin. Debussy was my cherished friend, and they represent a labor of love. Though Debussy was not, generally speaking, an advocate of transcriptions, he liked these, and I remember when I first played La Fille aux cheveaux de lin for him, and came to a bit of counterpoint I had introduced in the violin melody, whistling the harmonics, he nodded approvingly with a ‘pas bête ça!‘ (Not stupid, that!)

Violin Mastery
Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers
by Frederick H. Martens
Published 1919

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NINE BEATITUDES FOR VIOLINISTS

“Blessed are they who early in life approach Bach, for their love and veneration for music will multiply with the years.

“Blessed are they who remember their own early struggles, for their merciful criticism will help others to a greater achievement and furtherance of the Divine Art.

“Blessed are they who know their own limitations, for they shall have joy in the accomplishment of others.

“Blessed are they who revere the teachers—their own or those of others—and who remember them with credit.

“Blessed are they who, revering the old masters, seek out the newer ones and do not begrudge them a hearing or two.

“Blessed are they who work in obscurity, nor sound the trumpet, for Art has ever been for the few, and shuns the vulgar blare of ignorance.

“Blessed are they whom men revile as futurists and modernists, for Art can evolve only through the medium of iconoclastic spirits.

“Blessed are they who unflinchingly serve their Art, for thus only is their happiness to be gained.

“Blessed are they who have many enemies, for square pegs will never fit into round holes.”

Violin Mastery
Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers
by Frederick H. Martens
Published 1919

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