mperament
is perhaps broader, neglecting sensuous beauty for beauty of idea,
developing the scholarly side. Sarasate, the Spaniard, is a unique
national figure. The Slavs seem to have a natural gift for the
violin--perhaps because of centuries of repression--and are passionately
temperamental. In their playing we find that melancholy, combined with
an intense craving for joy, which runs through all Slavonic music and
literature. Yet, all said and done, Art is and remains first of all
international, and the great violinist is a great artist, no matter what
his native land."

XIII

DAVID MANNES

THE PHILOSOPHY OF VIOLIN TEACHING

That David Mannes, the well-known violinist and conductor, so long
director of the New York Music School Settlement, would be able to speak
in an interesting and authoritative manner on his art, was a foregone
conclusion in the writer's mind. A visit to the educator's own beautiful
"Music School" confirmed this conviction. In reply to some questions
concerning his own study years Mr. Mannes spoke of his work with
Heinrich de Ahna, Karl Halir and Eugene Ysaye. "When I came to de Ahna
in Berlin, I was, unfortunately, not yet ready for him, and so did not
get much benefit from his instruction. In the case of Halir, to whom I
went later, I was in much better shape to take advantage of what he
could give me, and profited accordingly. It is a point any student may
well note--that when he thinks of studying with some famous teacher
he be technically and musically equipped to take advantage of all that
the latter may be able to give him. Otherwise it is a case of love's
labor lost on the part of both. Karl Halir was a sincere and very
thorough teacher. He was a Spohr player _par excellence_, and I have
never found his equal in the playing of Spohr's _Gesangsscene_. With him
I studied Kreutzer, Rode, Fiorillo; and to know Halir as a teacher was
to know him at his best; since as a public performer--great violinist as
he was--he did not do himself justice, because he was too nervous and
high-strung.

[Illustration: DAVID MANNES, with hand-written note]

STUDYING WITH YSAYE

"It was while sitting among the first violins in the New York Symphony
Orchestra that I first heard Ysaye. And for the first time in my life I
heard a man with whom I fervently _wanted_ to study; an artis