246.—SCHUMANN'S FAILURE.
One of the fortunate accidents of musical history was that which occurred to Robert Schumann in his early days. Schumann had a great ambition to become a fine pianist, and had already made great strides in that direction, when his eagerness to hastily acquire a command of his instrument led him to make an unfortunate experiment. He found, as every one else finds, that a pianist is greatly hampered by the third fingers being bound down by extra tendons. This makes these fingers unwieldy and very slow of training. So Schumann, in order to more quickly acquire the necessary digital dexterity, rigged up a contrivance which should hold the unruly member quiet while he played with the other fingers. This treatment he carried to such excess that it resulted in an incurable lameness. By this, his career as a virtuoso was nipped in the bud.
For a while he was cast down by this misfortune, but soon determined to turn his energies to composition, and the result is that we have in his works a series of compositions second only in value to those of Beethoven.
This experience of Schumann's embittered him against all contrivances for aiding the pupil to more quickly acquire piano technic; and in his "Rules for Young Musicians" he warns all against mechanical apparatus. But because he made a failure of his clumsy contrivance is no reason why the student of to-day should be prejudiced against the contrivances which modern thought and skill have arranged to more quickly assist him toward his goal, at the same time saving him and his neighbors many hours of painful sounds.