Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
dark he could lay his hand on anything that was
wanted without a moment's loss of time.
And now that I allude to order, I feel bound to say
that all who studied with Henselt found that they
were learning from him a good deal more than music.
If there was a spot or even a crease on a cover of the
piece brought to him, a new cover had to be supplied.
No pupil ever dared to lay one piece inside another
on the desk when playing to him ; the first piece was
to be removed before the other was laid on the music-
desk. This precision was carried into all that one
studied. The shakes, for instance, and their fingering,
must be all written out, and likewise any passage in
which there was a difficulty in the fingering ; and he
insisted that all this should be done so clearly and
with such exactness, that anyone who took up the
piece on which this was written out could make no
mistake as to what was intended.
Some of Henselt's friends and pupils were inclined
to turn me into ridicule for saying that to be under
him was to be in ' Die Schule der Demuth '—the
school of humility. But when the Meister heard the
expression, he gave a cordial smile of approval and
looked well pleased. He did, indeed, stimulate his
pupils to strive and aim at virtuosity, yet the special
tendency of his teaching—a tendency which should
be the true end of all earnest study—was to awaken
and intensify in those who came under his influence
a perception and appreciation of an excellence lying