MUSIC.
Few pianists could read this expanded and rechristened edition of Mr. Hambourg's How to Become a Pianist without some profit. Bad piano-playing, like other crimes, is com- pounded largely of wrong habits and mistaken principles. These Mr. Hambourg sets right in several chapters on the elements of technique. The last half of the book deals with the subtleties of expression, memorizing and more advanced technique. There are also specimen lessons on works by Chopin and Beethoven. Mr. Hambourg makes such penetrat- ing and well-considered remarks upon the playing of Chopin generally that we wonder that his own interpretations do not come closer to his high ideals. Many diagrams, musical illustrations and a compendium of well-selected exercises (many of them, we believe, used by Leschetitsky, the master of both Mr. Hambourg and Mr. Paderevski) increase the undoubted value of this sane and stimulating book.
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