MUSICAL COMPOSITION

92 MUSICAL COMPOSITION.Write in the style oj whatever instrument you arewriting Jor, and remember its compass. For this reasonit is wiser for a beginner (at all events after he hasmade a fair start) to avoid writing for the instrumentwhich he is most accustomed to play. . An organistcomposer will gain much more benefit from writing forthe piano or the strings than by writing for the organ;though he will find it very difficult at first to accustomhimself to florid passage writing, or to an instrumentsuch as the piano, which, on the one hand, is incapableof sustaining a note at the same power throughout itslength, and which, on the other hand, can produce asense of dynamic rhythm, accent and phrasing whichthe organ can only hint at. All are safe in writingfor strings, if only for the reason that they play in thepure scale; but a string player who composes will begreatly handicapped if he is not at home in writing fora keyed instrument as well. A pianoforte player oran organist who is unacquainted with violin techniquecan very speedily find the way of writing suitablyfor it by studying violin music, and by losingno opportunity of listening to it and getting the style,sound and colour of it into his system. The firsttendency of the composer of piano music (especially ifhe is an organist or violinist) is to write wholly andsolely in the middle three octaves of the instrument, ahabit which is still further encouraged if he begins histraining with a long course of harmony exercises. Hemust remember the seven-octave range, and he will besurprised at the contrasts of pitch which it provides soeasily. (Compare bars 10-15 of the sonata analysedabove.) When the student has thoroughly grasped allthis groundwork and practised writing in extended