the old friendly gentleman shook hands with me
and said some kindly words.
This, then, was Pan Joseph Elsner, the
ancestor of modern Polish music, the teacher of
Chopin, the fine connoisseur and cautious guide
of original talents. For he does not do as is
done only too often by other teachers in the arts,
who insist on screwing all pupils to the same turning-lathe
on which they themselves were formed, who always
do their utmost to ingraft their own I on the pupil,
so that he may become as excellent a man as they
imagine themselves to be. Joseph Elsner did
not proceed thus. When all the people of Warsaw
thought Frederick Chopin was entering on a wrong
path, that his was not music at all, that he must
keep to Himmel and Hummel, otherwise he would never
do anything decent—the clever Pan Elsner
had already very clearly perceived what a poetic
kernel there was in the pale young dreamer, had long
before felt very clearly that he had before him
the founder of a new epoch of pianoforte-playing,
and was far from laying upon him a cavesson, knowing
well that such a noble thoroughbred may indeed
be cautiously led, but must not be trained and
fettered in the usual way if he is to conquer.
Of Chopin’s studies under this master we do
not know much more than of his studies under Zywny.
Both Fontana and Sowinski say that he went through
a complete course of counterpoint and composition.
Elsner, in a letter written to Chopin in 1834, speaks
of himself as “your teacher of harmony and counterpoint,
of little merit, but fortunate.” Liszt writes:—
Joseph Elsner taught Chopin those things
that are most difficult to learn and most rarely
known: to he exacting to one’s self,
and to value the advantages that are only obtained
by dint of patience and labour.
What other accounts of the matter under discussion
I have got from books and conversations are as general
and vague as the foregoing. I therefore shall
not weary the reader with them. What Elsner’s
view of teaching was may be gathered from one of his
letters to his pupil. The gist of his remarks
lies in this sentence:—
That with which the artist (who
learns continually from his
surroundings) astonishes his contemporaries,
he can only
attain by himself and through himself.
Elsner had insight and self-negation (a rare quality
with teachers) enough to act up to his theory, and
give free play to the natural tendencies of his pupil’s
powers. That this was really the case is seen
from his reply to one who blamed Frederick’s
disregard of rules and custom:—
Leave him in peace [he said], his is
an uncommon way because his gifts are uncommon.
He does not strictly adhere to the customary method,
but he has one of his own, and he will reveal in
his works an originality which in such a degree has
not been found in anyone.
The letters of master and pupil testify to their unceasing
