Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

DEPPE AND SCHARWENCKA 127
should be as clear and definite as the first principles
of drawing and perspective.
But now the question was, ' Where should 1 find a
master who would be able and willing to guide me to
these lines ?' And turning over the matter in my
mind, I remembered that Scharwencka was in Berlin,
and that three of his pupils—Miss Stephens (an
American), Prauleih Eichter (now married and settled
in London), and Herr Paul Eckhoff—had all taken a
prominent part at the Liszt afternoons. I went then
to Scharwencka, and told him that I was anxious to
get a thorough training in technique. I said that I
had heard that he was a great authority on this point,
and I begged him to give me lessons. I had then
between thirty and forty pieces thoroughly under my
fingers, which I could play by heart, besides a con-
siderable number more which I was quite able to play
when I had the music before me. When I went to
Scharwencka, I put a list of these into his hands, and
he stood opposite to me as I played, and called for a
Rhapsody of Liszt's, for the Tausig-Bach Prelude and
Fugue, for Chopin's Third Scherzo, and some of
Chopin's Studies. His comments on .my mechanical
deficiencies were, that I did not work the small joints
of the fingers, and that I did not use the hand suffi-
ciently in pressing out the tone. He told me to bring
him for the first lesson his own staccato study, and
Liszt's transcription of Bach's Organ Prelude and
Fugue in A Minor. In the former, he took great