f music. The violin player
and the singer, and in a less degree the performers upon some of the
wind instruments, are obliged to form the musical tone--which, in the
case of the pianist, is latent in the instrument, ready to present
itself in two of its attributes in answer to a simple pressure upon
the key. The most unmusical person in the world can learn to produce a
series of tones from a pianoforte which shall be as exact in pitch and
as varied in dynamic force as can Mr. Paderewski. He cannot combine
them so ingeniously nor imbue them with feeling, but in the simple
matter of producing the tone with the attributes mentioned, he is on a
level with the greatest virtuoso. Very different is the case of the
musician who must exercise a distinctly musical gift in the simple
evocation of the materials of music, like the violinist and singer,
who both form and produce the tone. For them compensation flows from
the circumstance that the tone thus formed and produced is naturally
instinct with emotional life in a degree that the pianoforte tone
knows nothing of.

[Sidenote: _Technical manipulation._]

[Sidenote: _Touch and emotionality._]

In one respect, it may be said that the mechanics of pianoforte
playing represent a low plane of artistic activity, a fact which ought
always to be remembered whenever the temptation is felt greatly to
exalt the technique of the art; but it must also be borne in mind that
the mechanical nature of simple tone production in pianoforte playing
raises the value of the emotional quality which, nevertheless, stands
at the command of the player. The emotional potency of the tone must
come from the manner in which the blow is given to the string.
Recognition of this fact has stimulated reflection, and this in turn
has discovered methods by which temperament and emotionality may be
made to express themselves as freely, convincingly, and spontaneously
in pianoforte as in violin playing. If this were not so it would be
impossible to explain the difference in the charm exerted by different
virtuosi, for it has frequently happened that the best-equipped
mechanician and the most intellectual player has been judged inferior
as an artist to another whose gifts were of the soul rather than of
the brains and fingers.

[Sidenote: _The technical cult._]

[Sidenote: _A low form of art._]

The feats accomplished by a pianoforte virtuoso in the mechanical
department are of so extraordinary a nature that