ke much of in my teaching, and that is Tone Color, as a
distinct factor in musical interpretation. It is not merely a question
of using the marks of expression, such as FF, MF, PP, and so on; it is
more subtle than that--it is the _quality_ of tone I seek after.
Sometimes I work with a pupil for several minutes over a single tone,
until he really comprehends what he has to do to produce the right
quality of tone, and can remember how he did it. The pedal helps
wonderfully, for it is truly the 'soul of the piano.'

"Some pupils have fancy but no imagination, and vice versa. The terms
are not synonymous. Reading poetry helps to develop the aesthetic sense;
pictures help also, and nature. I must necessarily take into account the
pupil's trend of temperament while instructing him.

"Interpretative expression is not a positive but a relative quantity.
One player's palette is covered with large blotches of color, and he
will paint the picture with bold strokes; another delights in delicate
miniature work. Each will conceive the meaning and interpretation of a
composition through the lens of his own temperament. I endeavor to
stimulate the imagination of the pupil through reading, through
knowledge of art, through a comprehension of the correlation of all the
arts.

"The musical interpreter has a most difficult, exacting and far-reaching
task to perform. An actor plays one part night after night; a painter
is occupied for days and weeks with a single picture; a composer is
absorbed for the time being on one work only. The pianist, on the other
hand, must, during a recital, sweep over the whole gamut of expression:
the simple, the pastoral, the pathetic, the passionate, the
spiritual--he is called upon to portray every phase of emotion. This
seems to me a bigger task than is set before any other class of
art-workers. The pianist must be able to render with appropriate
sentiment the simplicity and fresh naivete of the earlier classics,
Haydn, Mozart; the grandeur of Bach; the heroic measures of Beethoven;
the morbid elegance of Chopin; the romanticism of Schumann; the
magnificent splendor of Liszt.

"In choosing musical food for my pupils, I strive to keep away from the
beaten track of the hackneyed. The mistake made by many teachers is to
give far too difficult music. Why should I teach an old war-horse which
the pupil has to struggle over for six months without being really able
to master, and which he will thoroughly hate