Читать книгу How to Appreciate Music - Gustav Kobbé - Страница 10

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“Touching thy request for permission to play upon the monochord,” begins Bembo’s quaint answer, “I reply that because of thy tender years thou canst not know that playing is an art for vain and frivolous women, whereas I would that thou shouldst be the most chaste and modest maiden alive. Besides, if thou wert to play badly it would cause thee little pleasure and no little shame. Yet in order to play well thou must needs give up from ten to twelve years to the exercise, without so much as thinking of aught else. How far this would benefit thee thou canst see for thyself without my telling thee. But thy schoolmates, if they desire thee to learn to play for their pleasure, tell them thou dost not care to have them laugh at thy mortification. Therefore, content thyself with the pursuit of the sciences and the practice of needlework.” These words of the poet Bembo to his daughter Elena—are they so wholly lacking in application to our own day? And I wonder—did or did not Elena learn to play the monochord? If not, it was because she lived a few centuries too soon. She would have had her own way to-day!