measure of his work as a composer had revealed to him. The dire position
of Wagner presented itself. He abandoned his own ambitions--ambitions
higher than those he ever held toward piano virtuosity--abandoned them
completely to champion the difficult cause of the great Wagner. What
Liszt suffered to make this sacrifice, the world does not know. But no
finer example of moral heroism can be imagined. His conversations with
me upon the subject were so intimate that I do not care to reveal one
word.

LISZT'S PEDAGOGICAL METHODS

His generosity and personal force in his work with the young artists he
assisted are hard to describe. You ask me whether he had a certain
method. I reply, he abhorred methods in the modern sense of the term.
His work was eclectic in the highest sense. In one way he could not be
considered a teacher at all. He charged no fees and had irregular and
somewhat unsystematic classes. In another sense he was the greatest of
teachers. Sit at the piano and I will indicate the general plan pursued
by Liszt at a lesson. Reisenauer is a remarkable and witty mimic of
people he desires to describe. The present writer sat at the piano and
played at some length through several short compositions, eventually
coming to the inevitable "Chopin Valse, Op. 69, No. 1, in A flat
major." In the meanwhile, Reisenauer had gone to another room and, after
listening patiently, returned, imitating the walk, facial expression and
the peculiar guttural snort characteristic of Liszt in his later years.
Then followed a long "kindly sermon" upon the emotional possibilities of
the composition. This was interrupted with snorts and went with
kaleidoscopic rapidity from French to German and back again many, many
times. Imitating Liszt he said,

"First of all we must arrive at the very essence of the thing; the germ
that Chopin chose to have grow and blossom in his soul. It is, roughly
considered, this:

[Illustration]

Chopin's next thought was, no doubt:

[Illustration]

But with his unerring good taste and sense of symmetry he writes it so:

[Illustration]

Now consider the thing in studying it and while playing it from the
composer's attitude. By this I mean that during the mental process of
conception, before the actual transference of the thought to paper, the
thought itself is in a nebulous condition. The composer sees it in a
thousand lights before he actually determines upon the exact form he
desires to perpetuate.