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 "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 1841. PRICE THREE SHILLINGS. 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. |