Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1896 — THE PIANO NUISANCE. [ARTICLE]

THE PIANO NUISANCE.

Protracted Practicing Leads' to Severe Nervoua Maladies. Gounod, the composer, bitter# resented the omnipresence of the average piano player, says the St. Louis GlobeDemocrat. He was strongly. In favor of a somewhat severe pianoforte tax. His argument was that ninety-nine out of every one hundred who learned to play the instrument failed to attain to more than a superficial stage, either of conception or execution, and that they wasted valuable time, which might otherwise be employed In doing something that would benefit them. He also contended that piano practice of students constituted a public nuisance, .and was irritating and exasperating to such a degree as to become an outrage on ‘peacefully Inclined citizens. The proposed tax was never levied, but some figures published by a French scientist may possibly in some measure tend to restrict .the indiscriminate teaching to music to very young children. It Is declared that a large number of nervous maladies from which girls of the present day suffer are to be attributed to playing the piano. Children who ought to be exercising jn the open air are kept at dreary and distasteful work at the keyboard hour after hour daily, and the nerves simply will not stand the strain, It is said to be proved by statistics that of 1,000 girls who study this instrument before the age of 12, no less than 600 suffer from this clas*s of disorders, while of those who do not begin until later there are only some 200 per 1,000. The prosecution of the study of the violin by the very young is proved to be equally injurious. The remedy suggested is that children should not be permitted to study either instrument before the age of 16 at least, or, in the case of delicate constitutions, not until a later age. So far’as the pland is concerned, however, It Is possible that the true remedy may be found In a better method of teaching. The main point in early tuition is to “form” the hands and give them flexibility and strength. This is purely mechanical, and it can be done away from the pianoforte keyboard. The endless repetition of sound, which is responsible for much of the wear and tear of the nerves of young musical students, Is thus avoided, and better progress is made from the concentration of the miud and technique only. The objection has been raised that such a system makes only those “mechanical” players who would be so under the ordinary system of tuition. To those of true artistic instinct it is an Inestimable help, and shortener of labor. - »