THE LAST PART.

I have composed the fourteen following studies in order to inculcate in pupils an unconquerable strength of will. They will doubtless be fatigued, especially at the outset, by pieces requiring such length of breath; study and experience will teach them to triumph over this difficulty, and will provide them with resources which will enable them, without difficulty, to reach the end of their task. Among the means to this end offered by almost every composition, I will point out the cantabile passages, which I would recommend the student to perform with the utmost expression, modifying the tone at the same time as much as possible. On the cornet, as with the voice, clear tones may be obtained by widening the lips, and veiled tones by contracting them. This circumstance affords the performer an opportunity of resting while still continuing to play, and, at the same time, enables him to introduce effective contrasts into the execution. I repeat, that by little artifices of this kind, and by skillfully husbanding his resources, the artist will reach the end of the longest and most fatiguing MORCEAU, not only without difficulty, but even with a reserve of strength and power, which, when brought to bear on the final bars of a performance, never fails to produce its effect on an audience.

The GRANDE MORCEAUX which follow are the embodiment of the various instructions contained in this volume: they will be found to contain all the articulations, all the difficulties, of which I have in turn already given the solution. They will also be found to contain melodiøs calculated to form the taste of the student, and to render it as complete and as perfect as possible.

At that point, my task of professor (employing as I now do the WRITTEN instead of the SPOKEN word) will end. There are things which appear clear enough when uttered VIVA VOCE, but which cannot be committed to paper without engendering confusion and obscurity, or without appearing puerile.

There are other things of so elevated and subtle a nature, that neither speech nor writing can clearly explain them. They are felt, they are conceived, but they are NOT to be explained, and yet these things constitute the elevated style, the GRANDE ECOLE which it is my ambition to institute for the cornet, even as they already exist for singing and the various kinds of instruments.

Such of my readers as may wish to arrive at this exalted pitch of perfection, should, above all things, endeavor to hear good music, well interpreted. They must seek out, amid singers and instrumentalists, the most illustrious models; and this practice having purified their taste, developed their sentiments, and brought them as near as possible to the beautiful, may perhaps reveal to them the innate spark which may some day be destined to illume their talent, and render them worthy of being, in their turn, cited and imitated in the future.


[back]