WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:06.719
How to remember music. Like all
of the other faculties of the mind,

2
00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:14.599
that of music or tune is manifested
in varying degrees by different individuals. To

3
00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:20.120
some, music seems to be almost
instinctively grasped, while to others it is

4
00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:26.199
acquired only by great effort and much
labor. To some, harmony is natural

5
00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:32.600
and in harmony a matter of repulsion, while others fail to recognize the difference

6
00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:38.280
between the two. Except in extreme
cases. Some seem to be the very

7
00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.159
soul of music, while others have
no conception of what the soul of music

8
00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:48.799
may be. Then there is manifested
the different phases of the knowledge of music.

9
00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:54.439
Some play correctly by ear, but
are clumsy and inefficient when it comes

10
00:00:54.439 --> 00:01:00.560
to playing by note. Others play
very correctly in a mechanical manner, but

11
00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:04.640
failed to retain the memory of music
which they have heard. It is indeed

12
00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:11.840
a good musician who combines within himself
or herself both of the two last mentioned

13
00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:17.920
faculties, the ear perception of music
and the ability to execute correctly from notes.

14
00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:23.599
There are many cases of record in
which extraordinary powers of memory of music

15
00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:30.079
have been manifested. Fuller relates the
following instances of this particular phase of memory.

16
00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:36.359
Carolyn, the greatest of Irish bards, once met a noted musician and

17
00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:42.159
challenged him to a test of their
respective musical abilities. The DeFi was accepted,

18
00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:49.799
and Carolyn's rival played on his violin
one of Vivaldi's most difficult concertos.

19
00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:55.280
On the conclusion of the performance,
Carolyn, who had never heard the piece

20
00:01:55.359 --> 00:02:00.200
before, took his harp and played
the concerto through from beginning to end without

21
00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:07.520
making a single error. His rival
thereupon yielded the palm. Thoroughly satisfied of

22
00:02:07.639 --> 00:02:14.800
Carol and superiority as well, he
might be. Beethoven could retain in his

23
00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:21.479
memory any musical composition, however complex, that he had listened to, and

24
00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:25.439
could reproduce most of it. He
could play from memory every one of the

25
00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:32.879
compositions in Bach's well tempered Clavichord,
there being forty eight preludes and the same

26
00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:38.039
number of figures, which, in
intricacy of movement and difficulty of execution,

27
00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:45.240
are almost unexampled, as each of
these compositions is written in the most abstruse

28
00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:52.199
style of counterpoint. Mozart, at
four years of age, could remember note

29
00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:57.680
for note elaborate solos and concertos which
he had heard. He could learn a

30
00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:02.719
minuet in half an hour, and
even composed short pieces at that early age.

31
00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.159
At six, he was able to
compose without the aid of an instrument,

32
00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:15.280
and continued to advance rapidly in musical
memory and knowledge. When fourteen years

33
00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:20.400
old, he went to Rome.
In Holy Week, at the sixteen Chapel

34
00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:27.240
was performed each day Allegre's Miserrere,
the score of which Mozart wished to obtain,

35
00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.639
but he learned that no copies were
allowed to be made. He listened

36
00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:38.000
attentively to the performance, at the
conclusion of which he wrote the whole score

37
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:44.680
from memory without an error. Another
time, Mozart was engaged to contribute an

38
00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:50.879
original composition to be formed by a
noted violinist and himself at Vienna before the

39
00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:57.479
Emperor joseph On. Arriving at the
appointed place, Mozart discovered that he had

40
00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:02.319
forgotten to bring his part. Nothing
dismayed, he placed a blank sheet of

41
00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:10.360
paper before him and played his part
through from memory without a mistake. When

42
00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:15.919
the opera of Don Giovanni was first
performed, there was no time to copy

43
00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:20.360
the score for the harpsichord, but
Mozart was equal to the occasion. He

44
00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:28.480
conducted the entire opera and played the
harpsichord accompaniment to the songs and choruses without

45
00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:34.600
a note before him. There are
many well attested instances of Mendelssohn's remarkable musical

46
00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:41.439
memory. He once gave a grand
concert in London, at which his overture

47
00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:46.360
to Midsummer Night's Dream was produced.
There was only one copy of the full

48
00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:51.560
score, which was taken charge of
by the organist of Saint Paul's Cathedral,

49
00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:59.759
who unfortunately left it in a Hackney
coach, whereupon Mendelssohn wrote out another score,

50
00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:04.600
a memory without an error. At
another time, when about to direct

51
00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:11.480
a public performance of Bach's Passion Music, he found, on mounting the conductor's

52
00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:15.680
platform that instead of the score of
the work to be performed, that of

53
00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:24.360
another composition had been brought by mistake. Without hesitation, Mendelssohn successfully conducted this

54
00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:30.720
complicated work from memory, automatically turning
over leaf after leaf of the score before

55
00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:35.120
him as the performance progressed, so
that no feeling of uneasiness might enter the

56
00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:42.279
minds of the orchestra and singers.
Gotzchok, it has said, could play

57
00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:48.560
for memory several thousand compositions, including
many of the works of Bach. The

58
00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:56.199
noted conductor Vannessey rarely has the score
before him, and conducting an opera knowing

59
00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:01.600
every note of many operas from memory, it will be seen that two phases

60
00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:06.600
of memory must enter into the memory
of music, the memory of tune and

61
00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:12.680
the memory of the notes. The
memory of tune, of course, falls

62
00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:16.600
into the class of ear impressions,
and what has been said regarding them is

63
00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:24.279
also applicable to this case. The
memory of notes falls into the classification of

64
00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:29.560
eye impressions, and the rules of
this class of memory applies in this case.

65
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.639
As to the cultivation of the memory
of tune, the principal advice to

66
00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:40.680
be given is that the student take
an active interest in all that pertains to

67
00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:46.360
the sound of music, and also
takes every opportunity for listening to good music

68
00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:53.360
and endeavoring to reproduce it in the
imagination or memory. Endeavor to enter into

69
00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:59.000
the spirit of the music until it
becomes a part of yourself. Rest not

70
00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:03.199
content with merely hearing it, but
lend yourself to a feeling of its meaning.

71
00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:09.879
The more the music means to you, the more easily you will remember

72
00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:15.959
it. The plan followed by many
students, particularly those of vocal music,

73
00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:20.120
is to have a few bars of
a piece played over to them several times

74
00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:26.519
until they are able to hum it
correctly. Then a few more are added,

75
00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:30.519
and then a few more, and
so on. Each addition must be

76
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:35.079
reviewed in connection with that which was
learned before, so that the chain of

77
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:42.720
association may be kept unbroken. The
principle is the same as the child learning

78
00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:49.519
his ABC, he remembers B because
it follows a. By this constant addition

79
00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:56.439
of just a little bit more,
accompanied by frequent reviews, long and difficult

80
00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:01.680
pieces may be memorized. The memory
of notes may be developed by the method

81
00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:07.480
above named the method of learning a
few bars well, and then adding a

82
00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:13.079
few more, and frequently reviewing as
far as you have learned, forging the

83
00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:20.199
links of association as you go along
by frequent practice. The method being entirely

84
00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:26.279
that of eye impression, and subject
to its rules. You must observe the

85
00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:31.720
idea of visualization, that is,
learning each bar until you can see it

86
00:08:31.799 --> 00:08:37.440
in your mind's eye as you proceed. But in this as in many other

87
00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:43.279
eye impressions you will find that you
will be greatly aided by your memory of

88
00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:48.120
the sound of the notes, in
addition to their appearance. Try to associate

89
00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:52.200
the two as much as possible,
so that when you see a note,

90
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:56.519
you will hear the sound of it, and when you hear a note sounded,

91
00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:03.039
you will see it as it appears
on the score. This combining of

92
00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:07.120
the impressions of both sight and sound
will give you the benefit of the double

93
00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:15.679
sense impression, which results in doubling
your memory efficiency. In addition to visualizing

94
00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:20.519
the notes themselves, the students should
add the appearance of the various symbols denoting

95
00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:26.600
the key, the time, the
movement, expression, et cetera, so

96
00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:31.200
that he may hum the air from
the visualized notes with expression and with correct

97
00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:39.360
interpretation. Changes of key, time, or movement should be carefully noted in

98
00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:43.799
the memorization of the notes. Memorize
the feeling of that particular portion of the

99
00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:48.960
score, that you may not only
see and hear it, but also feel

100
00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:56.720
that which you are recalling. We
would advise the student to practice memorizing simple

101
00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:01.559
songs at first, for various reasons. One of these reasons is that these

102
00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:09.080
songs lend themselves readily to memorizing,
and the chain of easy association is usually

103
00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:13.960
maintained throughout. In this phase of
memory, as in all others, we

104
00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:22.879
add the advice to take interest,
bestow attention, and practice and exercise as

105
00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:28.279
often as possible. You may have
tired of these words, but they constitute

106
00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:35.679
the main principles of the development of
a retentive memory. Things must be impressed

107
00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:41.559
upon the memory before they may be
recalled. This should be remembered in every

108
00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:43.799
consideration of the subject.