Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

ii6 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
I could perceive from his manner— his expressive
silence—that he was still of the same opinion. This
surprised, and not a little vexed me ; but, not
choosing to let him perceive my annoyance, I
changed the subject by asking him to play a little
to me. The fact of the matter was, that I had then
not the remotest notion of what technique really was.
All true cirtuosi are well aware that it is one of the
subtlest of all physical movements. Something at
that moment, however, dawned on me, and the result
of this very dim and faint surmise regarding the
cause of my deficiencies in pianoforte-playing was
that I resolved, on reaching Berlin, to seek out Herr
' case,
Deppe, and get him to help me through the haze,
which seemed to grow all the denser the more I
thought on the subject. Miss Fay's book (which
placed him as a teacher of the pianoforte above
Tausig, KuUak, and even above Liszt) had greatly
interested me, but I had then so little notion of what
was meant by ' a method,' that I actually thought
that if there was a mechanical deficiency in my way
of approaching the keyboard, a few weeks of good
earnest study would easily remedy it. Having ascer-
tained Herr Deppe's address, and heard that he lived
in a small inn close by the Anhalter Bahnhof , I went
there, and was told by the waiter to go up to the
highest story of the building, where the Herr Kapell-
meister had a suite of rooms. I set off up the stair-
and was on the first step of the stairs which led