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MUSICAL EDUCATION;

WITH

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS

ON THE ART OF

PIANO-FORTE PLAYING

BY

ELEANOR MARGARET GEARY,

(PROFESSOR OF MUSIC,)

No. 61, ST. JAMES'S STREET.

"Music is the only symbol-the only language, that can fraternize all men
at one and the same instant."

"The science of method may be considered the key of all sciences."

LONDON:

D'ALMAINE AND CO., 20, SOHO SQUARE;

CRAMER, ADDISON, AND BEALE, Regent Street; CHAPPELL, New
Bond Street; LONSDALE, Old Bond Street; BOOSEY, Holles Street,
Cavendish Square; KEITH AND PROWSE, Cheapside; AND TO BE
HAD OF ALL PRINCIPAL BOOK AND MUSIC SELLERS.

1841.

PRICE THREE SHILLINGS.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.

OLETAY

PRINTED BY GEO. NICHOLS, EARL'S COURT, SOHO.

PREFACE.

IN preparing the following pages for general perusal, the aim of the writer has been to lessen that intense

application, and superfluous waste of time, so frequently

sacrificed at the shrine of musical practice, and to exemplify the influence of fundamental principles as the talisman of future excellence.

61, St. James's Street, ·

Dec. 1st, 1841.

MUSICAL EDUCATION.

FIRST PART.

THE general diffusion of the science of sweet sounds imposes upon the highly educated of the present generation an extension of time for its study, adequate to the degree of musical proficiency demanded in cultivated society.

That quantity, however, is to be surpassed by quality, has travelled into a proverb, and should be a maxim of constant recurrence to those who are entrusted with the charge of youth, during the fleeting years of early education.

The period of youth is time twice blessed-time that no after period can retrace, and is, consequently, time in which mental pursuits of the highest order should not be made subservient to the study of the mechanical branch of an art; for such, to a certain extent, I deem the brilliant execution of any instrument to be-though the mind, the grand focus, must perfect it.

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