Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

174
MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
It was not for months afterwards that I understood'
what he meant hyfleisch. He meant technique—the
body through which the spirit reveals itself to our
senses.
After an hour's lesson he dismissed me, putting the
Hummel sonata into my hands, saying, ' Go home
and work at this, and when you are ready to play it
to me you can let me know.' And I did work away
constantly and vigorously for several days, having in
the first instance not the least doubt of being able to
master it, and thus show him that I could do a great
deal more than he seemed to give me credit for. But
the more I studied the more clearly did I become
aware that to get it in any degree approaching to
what he had demanded would be the work, not of
days, but of weeks. When I was quite convinced of
this, I wrote and told him so. The characteristic
lines in which he replied to me are still in my posses-
sion.
' I did not expect you to conquer the Hummel
sonata, but you can come and show me how you have
been working at it.'
I went to him accordingly the next day, and he
received me most kindly, heard me play two move-
ments, and was rather more encouraging than I had
ventured to hope. I was, however, intensely irritated
by a sort of growing consciousness that he regarded
me as a mere dabbler in art, and that he would not
and could not give me all he had to give, because he