How to Handle Stubborn Pupils.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue IV, 28 July 1900, Page 152

How to Handle Stubborn Pupils.

Many teachers complain of tumble with stubborn pupils whom they are often unable to control. A teacher of music should be master of the situation, and not a hireling doing the bidding of an employer. How well I remember with what profound respect we entered the studio of our German professor. He had a certain degree of independence that might often be imitated. His reply to my remark (made Itefore engaging him) that 1 liked a conservatory on account of its musical atmosphere, wa.s very characteristic: ' the conservatorv?" With a studio, where pupils come to x ou instead of the house-to-house instruction, it is much easier to take on a proper degree of independence 1 he pupil who has taken a course under a teacher who has assumed the relation of a servant is the most annoying. He expects to get over so many pages of the music in a given time; he wishes to gratify this or that whim, and to advance upon such paths as he prefers to tread. I have had several whose pitrents were unable to control them, and in

a few months' time my trouble would be over. The controlling lever is firmness, —at all times,—but rarely to a degree of sternness. For example.—a mistake is made in a passage and you say: “Please repeat that from this measure.” Possibly the new scholar goes right on as if no request had been made. Let him play about half a dozen measures more, while you are getting your wrath under complete control, then stop him quietly and point to the tneasure where you wanted him to go back and say firmly: “Here is where I wanted you to begin,” and see that he does it. If you fly into a rage he will do the same, and then there, will be trouble. By making it hard for him to disobey, it will not l>e long till he finds that to ignore your requests invariably nets him a loss. Treat your pupils as if you liked them; throw in a few remarks occasionally about their sports and show that you are interested in their outside affairs. Let these influences tend to purity, refinement, and nobleness. Being far from a model teacher, yet I am pleased to be able to say, in my nine years’ experience. I have yet the angry word to utter while giving a lesson. A stern word is sometimes necessary, but the wrathful utterance is childish and only belittles him who permits it to pass his lips. I have been convinced recently of the power of long, persistent influence to create enthusiasm in a student for love of music. Like the never-ending drip, drip, drip of the falling water upon the stone, time will leave a mark; so T doubt not that he who declares he will never love the study may, by contact with persistent and continued enthusiasm, absorb a degree of love for it. Four years ago I began teaching a boy whose parents forced him to study the art. How he seemed to detest it. Lt was drudgery, he declared, he could never love. The first year all my enthusiasm was vain, the second the same, and so with the third; but now in the fourth year there is a mark on the adamantine surface. He. is showing an interest and a love in the work, and only recently ran all the way back home to bring a selection he wanted me to see, and which, in his hurry, he had forgotten. This has been a very important lifelesson to me. Persistent, enthusiastic influence is an irresistible power.— H. Patton in “The Etude.” A Pretty Story. A beautiful little incident is told concerning Jenny Lind and Grisi when they were rivals for popular favour in London. Both were invited to sing the-.same night at a court concert before the Queen. Jenny Lind, being the younger, sang first, and was so by the fierce, scornful look Grist that she was at the point of when, suddenly, an inspiration came to her. The accompanist was striking his final chords. She asked him to rise and took the vacant seat. Her fingers wandered over the keys in a loving prelude, and then she sang a little prayer which she had loved us a child. She hadn't sung it for years. As she sang she was no longer in the presence of royalty, but singing to loving friends in her fatherland. Softly at first the plaintive notes floated on the air. swelling louder and richer every moment. The singer seeind to throw her whole soul into that weird, thrilling, plaintive prayer. Gradually the song died away and ended in a sob. There was silence —the silence of admiring wonder. The audience sat spellbound. Jenny Lind lifted her sweet eyes to look into the scornful face that had so disconcerted her. There was no fierce expression now; instead a tear-drop glistened on the iong, black lashes and, after a moment, with the impulsiveness of a child of the tropics, Grisi crossed to Jenny Lind's side, placed her arm about her. and kissed her, utterly regardless of the audience. Marcella Sembrich, the operatic prima donna, will take to her home in Dresden next month, as tangible evidence of the public's recognition of her art, a sum approximated rt £ 19,000. This little fortune will represent her earnings during six months of her professional activity’ in the now ending season in America. While experimenting with a fluted, flexible brass tube Edison discovered that, by simply blowing through it, distinct flute-like tones were obtained. Other tones in an ascending octave

were produced by increased pressure of breath. This discovery may lead to the manufacture of a new musical instrument.

Perosi is a rapid writer. Recently there arrived in Rome from Lombardy a band of pilgrims led by Cardinal Ferrari. The night before their reception at the Vatican they asked Perosi to compose an appropriate piece of music. During the night he wrote it, early in the morning it was rehearsed, and before noon it was performed in presence of Leo. XIII.. who warmly congratulated the composer on his rapid-transit work.

Pictures of the human voice thrown upon a screen at the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia, created enthusiasm among the scientists present. It was demonstrated that the vibrations of each separate tone of the human voice possessed its own individual geometric figure.

The overture to Spoutini’s “La Vestale” was being rehearsed. Suddenly, with a violent blow on the desk. Berlioz stopped the orchestra. "The two clarionets are not in tune together!" he cried out. The two clarionetists, stupefied, simply stared. Like a lion he jumped down and ran at the terrified musicians. “(live me the A!" he yelled. One did so. then the other: but when the second A came out — “Oh. le brigand! Oh. le malfaiteur! Oh, le criminel! You sit upon your ears, then! What? You are at least a sixteenth of a tone apart, and you can stand it: and you still play on!" The late Sir Joseph Barnby was noted for his capacity for smart repartee. The following is a true story: A young contralto who is already known for her very fine voice was engaged at. a Handel concert which Sir Joseph was conducting, and in the course of rehearsal she was singing one of her solos. At the end of the solo she put in a high note instead of the less effective note usually sung. This innovation from so young a performer shocked the conductor, and he immediately asked if Miss thought she was right in trying to improve upon Handel. “Well, Sir Joseph." said she. “I've got an E, and I don’t see why I shouldn't show it off."

"Miss rejoined Barnby. "1 believe you have two knees, but T hope you won’t show them off here.” An operatic society is being formed at Palmerston North.

“M.A.P.” gives the following picture of Madame Antoinette Stirling's daughter:—Miss Jean Mackinlay is a born actress, and possesses all the requisites for success —youth, energy, perseverance, and an intense love of her art. as well as a touch of real genius. Miss Mackinlay, who ft of medium height, is somewhat powerfully built. She looks strong —physically. morally, ami mentally. She has quick, grey-blue eyes, a beautifullyshaped mouth (with a suggestion or irony in its curves), and masses of brown hair that drift away from the broad low brow, in a fashion that recalls the mother’s earlier style. Indeed. there is a good deal of Madame Sterling in her handsome and attractive young daughter.