[Gutenberg 44910] • Descriptive Analyses of Piano Works / For the Use of Teachers, Players, and Music Clubs

"[...]feelings, and those of every Polish patriot, on receipt of the news that Warsaw had been taken and sacked by the Russians. Where such data cannot be found concerning a composition, one can make the content of a work fairly clear by means of description, of analogy and comparison, by the use of poetic metaphor and simile, by little imaginative word-pictures, embodying the same general impression; by any means, in short, -any and all are legitimate, -which will produce the desired result, namely: to concentrate the attention of the student or the listener on the most important elements in a composition, to show him what to listen for and what to expect; to prepare him fully to receive and respond to the proper impression, to tune up his esthetic nature to the required key, so it may re-echo the harmonious soul-utterances of the Master, as the horn-player breathes through his instrument[...].