, and the regular school studies.
Electricity interests me more than I can tell you and I like to learn
about it, but my greatest interest is in the study of astronomy. Surely
nothing could be finer than to look at the stars. I have friends among
the astronomers of Berlin who let me look through their telescopes and
tell me all about the different constellations and the worlds that look
like moons when you see them enlarged. It is all so wonderful that it
makes one never cease thinking.

I also like to go to factories and learn how different things are made.
I think that there are so many things that one can learn outside of a
school-room. For instance, I went to a wire factory recently, and I am
sure that I found out a great many things I might never have found out
in books. One also learns by traveling, and when I am on my tours I feel
that I learn more of the different people and the way they live than I
ever could from geographies. Don't you think I am a lucky boy? One must
study geography, however, to learn about maps and the way in which
countries are formed. I have toured in Germany, Russia, and England, and
now in America. America interests me wonderfully. Everything seems so
much alive and I like the climate very much.

THEORETICAL STUDIES

Musical theory bores me now, almost as much as my first technical
studies did. Richard Strauss, the great German composer, has very kindly
offered to teach me. I like him very much and he is so kind, but his
thundering musical effects sometimes seems very noisy to me. I know many
of the rules of harmony, but they are very uncomfortable and
disagreeable to me.

I would far rather write my music as it comes to me. Herr Nikisch says
that when I do it that way, I make very few blunders, but I know I can
never be a composer until I have mastered all the branches of musical
theory. I am now writing a symphony. I played some parts for Herr
Nikisch and he has agreed to produce it. Of course, the orchestral parts
will have to be written for me, but I know what instruments I want to
express certain ideas.

Putting down the notes upon paper is so tiresome. Why can't one think
the musical thoughts and have them preserved without the tedious work of
writing them out! Sometimes before I can get them on paper they are
gone--no one knows where, and the worst of all is that they never come
back. It is far greater fun to play the piano, or play football, or go
rowing.

READING AND