ding, despite the arduous demands of his patriotic
duties, found time to answer some questions of the writer in the
interests of "Violin Mastery" which, representing the views and opinions
of so eminent and distinctively American a violinist, cannot fail to
interest every lover of the Art. Writing from Rome (Sept. 9, 1918),
Lieutenant Spalding modestly said that his answers to the questions
asked "will have to be simple and short, because my time is very
limited, and then, too, having been out of music for more than a year, I
feel it difficult to deal in more than a general way with some of the
questions asked."

VIOLIN MASTERY

"As to 'Violin Mastery'? To me it means effortless mastery of details;
the correlating of them into a perfect whole; the subjecting of them to
the expression of an architecture which is music. 'Violin Mastery' means
technical mastery in every sense of the word. It means a facility which
will enable the interpreter to forget difficulties, and to express at
once in a language that will seem clear, simple and eloquent, that which
in the hands of others appears difficult, obtuse and dull.

THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTIST

"As to the processes, mental and technical, which make an artist? These
different processes, mental and technical, are too many, too varied and
involved to invite an answer in a short space of time. Suffice it to say
that the most _important_ mental process, to my mind, is the development
of a perception of beauty. All the perseverance in the study of music,
all the application devoted to it, is not worth a tinker's dam, unless
accompanied by this awakening to the perception of beauty. And with
regard to the influence of teachers? Since all teachers vary greatly,
the student should not limit himself to his own personal masters. The
true student of Art should be able to derive benefit and instruction
from every beautiful work of Art that he hears or sees; otherwise he
will be limited by the technical and mental limitations of his own
prejudices and jealousies. One's greatest difficulties may turn out to
be one's greatest aids in striving toward artistic results. By this I
mean that nothing is more fatally pernicious for the true artist than
the precocious facility which invites cheap success. Therefore I make
the statement that one's greatest difficulties are one's greatest
fa