LIBERTY OF PERFORMANCE. 191 before his mind. Before this is done it is not possible for him to shut out of mind every other object, every other idea, a condition so necessary for the highest degree of dramatic power. The tragedian who can so throw himself into his character or subject as to be oblivious of everything but that, is the one that is most natural and therefore moves the audience most powerfully. It is said of Mrs. Siddons that she was wont to throw herself into the character of the person she was representing to such a degree that she would lose sight of her own personality, would become so completely engrossed in the part she was playing, as to be, for the time, rather than act, the character assumed. The same principle holds in the performance of a great piece of music, and the same reason for memorizing applies. A true style of rendition cannot be otherwise formed. Closely connected with this is another advantage of memorizing music, namely, liberty of performance. Listen to the words of Dr. Mertz: "Not only does it enable him to afford pleasure to willing listeners at any time or place, but by playing or singing without the aid of notes, he is free, and is thereby enabled to perform with more liberty and sentiment. The close musical reader is fettered, a good share of his mental activity is expended upon reading the notes, upon observing expression marks, while, if he were free from his bondage, he could throw his whole soul into the performance. The musician who sings or plays from memory is a second-hand improviser, he forgets self, he lives in the music and not in the notes or in his surroundings. This is the reason why musicians prefer to play from memory, and it is the lack of this faculty that keeps so many respectable players from soaring aloft on the wings of their imaginations. The musician who plays from memory is as the bird that flies unfettered; the musician, however, who is tied to his notes, is as a bird that is tied to a string.' A few general hints may here be given. All rules and practical hints as to musical memorizing must be based on a knowledge of the human mind. He who would use the mind, whether his own or that of his pupil, must know the mind. We have seen that the maximum of memory-development is reached at the age of about twelve to fourteen years. The memory of youth is far more vigorous than that of more advanced years. It follows that during this period the memory should receive special attention. The best time of the day for memory work is in the morning, because then the mind is free and the brain substance yields more readily to impressions. There is sound practical wisdom in the German adage: 2. Name three elements involved in an act of memory. Explain each. 3. Describe the physiological basis of memory. 4. Explain the physical basis of retentiveness. 5. What is said of memory as a faculty of the soul? 6. On what does excellence of memory depend? 7. What is said of the native persistence in different people? Illustrate. 8. When is the activity of memory greatest, and why? * Mertz, "Music and Culture." 9. What of the child's acquisitions in the first five to ten years of its life? 10. When and what is the period of equilibrium? 11. What of memory in old age? Explain. 12. On what does facility of recall depend? 13. Explain diagram. 14. Give substance of quotation from James. 15. Show need of coherent concept-system in relation to memory. 16. Object of referring to various pathologic cases? 17. Give case of Mr. Tennent, and what does it show? 18. Give case of Mezzofanti, and what does it prove? 19. What does the case of the German servant girl illustrate? Give other similar cases. 20. Give case reported by Dr. Abercrombie. 21. What significance have these facts to the psychologist? 22. What is said of the personal element in memory? 23. What of varieties of memory? 24. Give examples of memories remarkable for the power of recalling names. 25. Give examples of memories remarkable for remembering figures. 26. What does the case of Magliabechi illustrate? 27. What is said of Mozart's memory? Give examples. 28. Give example of Samuel Wesley. 29. Facts about cultivation of memory. 30. Show importance of memory-cultivation. 31. Quote Hering and Bain on importance of memory. 36. Explain the visualizing principle. 37. Importance of first impressions? Explain. 38. Quote Galton on the subject of first impressions. 39. State third suggestion for memory training. Explain the principle. 40. What of order and classification of ideas? 41. Give example of "Betty," the servant girl. What does it show? Psychology. 13 42. What is said of cramming? 43. Fourth suggestion for memory training? 44. Define attention. 45. Show importance of attention. 46. Can the mind attend to more than one thing at a time? 47. Quote remark of Isaac Newton. 48. Fact about imbeciles and idiots? 49. Explain the evil of reading or playing mechanically. 50. Fifth suggestion for improving the memory? Explain the principle. 51. Give saying of Carpenter and Ribot. 52. Effect of practice? 53. Explain the principle of interest. Illustrate. 54. Explain philosophy of illustrations. 55. Value of parables and fables? 56. What of stories as an educational agency? 57. Substance of quotation from Nora Archibald Smith. 58. Explain pedagogical value of memorizing music. 59. Further advantage of memorizing music? 60. Show influence of memorizing on technique. 61. Influence of memorizing on musical style? 62. Explain reference to the tragedian. 63. What does Mertz say about liberty of performance? 64. When should memorizing be done? 65. Why should a piece be memorized at the first study. IMAGINATION AND MEMORY. 195 CHAPTER IX. Imagination. MAGINATION is that power of mind by which we form pictures of things not present. It is the power of representing a mental product as an image. As the name denotes, imagination is the image-making, or image-showing faculty. The Germans call it Einbildungskraft. According to Krauth and Fleming, "Vocabulary of Philosophy," "In the language of modern philosophy, the imagination seems to denote -first, the power of apprehending or conceiving ideas, simply as they are in themselves, without any view to their reality; secondly, the power of combining into new forms or assemblages, those thoughts, ideas, or notions, which we have derived from experience or from information." Relation to Memory. Imagination stands in close relation to memory- in fact, depends on memory for its materials. Memory holds and brings back our past experiences just as they were without any modification. Memory is the faculty of unaltered reproduction, while imagination is the faculty of altered reproduction. Memory is the grand storehouse from which imagination draws the materials for its strange creations. "Memory retains and recalls the past in the form which it assumed when it was previously before the mind. Imagination brings up the past in new shapes and combinations. Both of them are re |