Excerpt: ...and the great violinist is a great artist, no matter what his native land." TABLE OF CONTENTS 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 Eugène 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. David Mannes 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 artist whose whole attitude with regard to tone and sound reproduction embodied my ideals. "I worked with Ysaye in Brussels and in his cottage at...
