Excerpt from The American History and Encyclopedia of Music, Vol. 2: Essentials of Music The complete mastery of any task which confronts man deserves appreciation and apt admiration, but nowhere in higher degree than in the masterly rendition of noble music, because here intellect and sentiment work together and, when harmoniously supporting each other, produce a magnetic effect which is quite irresistible. This art has, like everything else, a crude beginning. But its peculiar nature contains certain elements which are inspiring to the student, and after a fair advance in his chosen profession he will gradually forget the prosaic side of that primitive start. It is true, few reach the highest pinnacle of virtuosity, but with perseverance, a clear aim, willpower and intelligence even moderate talent may be so developed as to make the study of music a real pleasure. Violinplaying, of which the present article treats, requires at the beginning an understanding for certain matters of a mechanical nature, embracing the position of the body, arms, fingers of both hands and the holding of the violin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.