e class, according to their ability, and
afterward played by the teacher himself, should he happen to possess
the necessary technical qualifications. When the maturity of the
teacher comes in to supplement the immaturity of the pupil, after the
latter has done his best, the best results will be produced.

It will be noticed, and with disappointment to some, that the analyses
and comments are free from so-called "poetry," and gush of every kind.
Particularly are they free from attempts to connect each piece with a
story or poetic idea. In the opinion of the writer, the first step
toward musical growth lies in learning to appreciate music, as music.
In instrumental music the development of a musical idea, the creation
of musical symmetries, figures, and arabesques, and the legitimate
building up of musical climaxes upon purely harmonic and rhythmic
grounds are the phases of thought which interested the composer and
gave rise to the composition. And while we may not attempt to assign
limits to the inspiration and uplifting effects of great tone-poetry,
it is quite certain that effects and influences of this kind are
arrived at in the consciousness of the listener only when purely
musical appreciation is active and deep. Without the background of
living musical appreciation of this kind, the highest flights of the
composer will pass as mere noise and fury, the hearer being in no whit
uplifted or inspired. The uplifting which comes from the supposed
assistance of a "story" or a poetic idea attached to the composition by
some outside person is quite likely to fail of being the same in
quality as that intended by the composer. Music is one thing, poetry
another. While aiming at like ends,--the expression of spiritual
beauty,--they move in different planes, which in the more highly
organized minds are not proximate. The hearer specially gifted in
music does not need the story or the poem; he finds it a hindrance.
The hearer specially gifted in poetic sensibility does not care very
much for the music; to him it is merely a foreign speech, trying to say
vaguely and imperfectly what the poetry has said definitely and well.
To put the immature and unspecialized hearer upon the poetic track as
an aid to understanding a piece of music is, therefore, to place him at
a disadvantage, leading him to expect phenomena which he will find only
in literature; just the same as it would be a mistake to intrude pieces
of music as explana