The Basis of Studying Music
Fundamental Expertise
The Testimony of the Great Musical Artists
The Great Musical Poets as Free and Independent Teachers
The Secret Science
The Perfect Personal Performance
The Creative Substance
The Secret Student
The Musical Career
The musical career truly begins where music begins. He who really desires to create music, must know how and from where it originates.
It may sound absurd but even the largest part of what is termed "classical music" today is being produced without fundamental expertise, because the official music-training institutions are lacking a system to scientifically investigate, or even teach, the origin of music.
In
institutionalized music education the origin of music is assumed to be where
the process of the actual creation of music has already ended.
By quoting the great composers of all times, the biographies confirm that
not one of them learned composing from outside, from any institution. In fact,
they even were often excluded from official studies because of their contempt
for the purely superficial standards of musical training.
Therefore, the great musical poets of mankind passed the love of music and the technique of composing quietly and directly on to each other – without the teaching institution as a mediator.
Understandably
therefore, the pure science of music was a secret science in which only very
few were accomplished – the great composers themselves.
Birth seemed to determine who was to be their disciple, and who was to pass
on the knowledge of creating music, with the means of his time, to his own
generation.
At one time or another in his life, maybe under the impression of a very poor
presentation of a great composition, such a young man would, within his mind,
free the masterpiece from the deficiencies of the interpretation, and then
experience his own perfect performance.
Such a mental revision meant deleting the aspect of interpretation, and realizing the very substance of the composition.
In this manner, after some practice, the secret talented student had acquired the skill of composing from the great musical poet, and the foundation for his own musical-creative task was laid.