em. Hence, in order to understand instrumental music
we have, first of all, to make a beginning with the peculiarities,
individualities, beauty, and mastership of these great writers. Such
is the design of the following programs and explanatory matter.

My first intention has been to provide for the regular study of a
musical club, in which the playing is to be contributed by active
members designated in advance, the accessory explanations to be read
from these pages. I have thought that the playing might be divided
between several members, through which means the labor for each would
be reduced, and, on the whole, an intimate familiarity with the music
be more widely extended in the club. This method will have the
disadvantage of leaving a part of every program less well interpreted
than the others, whereby it will sometimes happen that valuable parts
will not be properly appreciated. The advantages of this method,
however, will outweigh the defects, since the awakening influence of a
course of study of this character will greatly depend upon having as
many members as possible practically interested in it.

While designed primarily for the use of a club, this course is equally
well adapted to serve as a manual for individual study, in which case
the individual himself will necessarily study every composition upon
the list, and advance to a new program only after having completely
mastered each and understood its relation to the remainder of the
course. The only exception to this rule will be in the case where
several programs of increasing difficulty are given. In this case the
player should take the easiest; after mastering this, let him go on to
the next most difficult, and, having succeeded with this, if possible
let him attack the most difficult given. In case the latter should be
impracticable for his technical resources, let him at least familiarize
himself with the general features of all of the pieces mentioned, and
get into their meaning and beauty as much as he can.

The course is also well adapted for use as a text-book in female
seminaries and the like. In this case the forms of a musical club or
definite musical organization had better be observed, and the meetings
conducted weekly or bi-weekly. The teacher should remember that all
the most important works, in which the maturity and mastership of the
composer come to their fullest expression, should be studied by the
most advanced members of th