Klarinet Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 1998/12

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Russianoff Method Books and students
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 09:25:52 -0500

I wrote:
> Didn't know what all the fuss was about until I ran into Vol. 1 of the
> Russianoff at a used book store recently. If not for the comments on this
> list, I probably would have passed up this book, since it's full of
illegible
> pencilled scribblings (which I'm erasing a few pages at a time while
watching
> TV).

Ed Wojtowicz wrote,
> >These illegible pencil scribblings may be some of Leon's own markings.
After all the discussion about the books, I was looking over my copy last
night and got a chuckle as I saw his markings from lessons with him. Most of
them are impossible to decifer.>>

Yipes! Maybe I've been defacing an historic document. (Or "codument" -- as I
spelled it in a hasty fax to the editor of _Scarlet Street_ last night. Looks
like it ought to be a real word, doesn't it?) I've got no samples of
Russianoff's handwriting for comparison. I've already erased more than half
of the book, but if these were Russianoff annotations, I'd be interested in
trying to decode what's left of them for wisdom. I can't read one word in ten
right now. Whoever it was scribbled right across the margins and between the
lines and all over the notes. The writing is very large, spiky and scrawling,
emphatic-looking, digging into the paper, with multiple exclamation points !!!
and arrows and circles around notes, all in black pencil with a broad lead,
like the lead in a child's fat pencil, although this is adult writing. Sound
like Russianoff?

BTW, I've seen this type of obsessional scribbling many times before in used
music and have grown to loathe it. How can anybody learn anything from such a
confusing mess? It's annoying enough in a method book, but when I see "real
music" mutilated that way, it makes me wonder if the teacher subconsciously
considered his or her hieroglyphics more important than Mozart or Brahms.
Arthur Eisler, my piano teacher, kept his markings small and neat, and wrote
only sparingly, in the margins or between the lines, so that he didn't ruin my
music books. He had me bring a spiral notebook to lessons. He made his more
extensive comments and all of my assignments in legible writing, in my
notebooks. I've kept those notebooks, and still occasionally consult them.
I've saved my old music, too, because he helped me to keep it in usable
condition. That was thoughtful of him, and all these years later I still
appreciate it.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Cleanliness is next to Godliness."
--Proverb

"Cleanliness is next to impossible."
--Mom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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