d music the better for
the future. He is passing on the message according to his ability.
Therefore that individual who is merely seeking for compass, technique,
press notices, or his fee, shows that he has not appreciated the
elements of his task. Being thus in search of all the things that really
do not matter, he is putting himself into a position that will ensure
him a more or less comfortable mediocrity, provide he is lucky enough
to escape actual failure.

We call to mind a press criticism that appeared in a first-class London
daily newspaper, with reference to a singer quite unknown to fame. It
stated that "every note was pure joy." Could one say anything finer than
this, and would not anything added to it but serve to spoil it? It
epitomises what we have here been endeavouring to express. There could
be no "pure joy" apart from spirit, and in giving this forth in song the
singer achieved the aim of Art. This joy would become part of the life
of those who heard her, because it can never be too clearly understood
that we are built of our memories, and though we seem to forget, yet
these memories are absolute. So the joy that the singer gave out went to
gladden the world, and that which she gave, paradoxically enough,
remained with her. That which we express, by the record of that
expression we tend to become.

Herein the personality of the interpreter counts for much. The music, it
is true, carries its own meaning and message, but this is reinforced by
the mediumship and the imagination of the performer. "Imagination is the
life of art. Why so many performers give such little pleasure and leave
the audience coldly critical is simply because their imagination is of
the feeblest."[12] Necessarily there is always a certain coloration from
the mind which transmits the message, just as the tones of two violins
though played by the same hand might be different. Moreover, as a
resonant instrument would amplify the sound and an inferior one would
hamper it, so a greater artist would interpret a message to more effect
than one less capable. The gramophone will give us the actual notes of
the singer, but it depends upon ourselves as to whether we catch the
real thing or not. What is actually there is the shell: there is no
personality unless we ourselves build up that personality of the singer
in our imagination. We must supply that which the machine lacks, or else
perforce go without. When the artist is present in person