Page:Letters to a Young Lady (Czerny).djvu/59

 composition, and gradually learn by experience to know their real significations.

No less important is the proper mode of treating the pedals; and I beg of you, Miss, to observe strictly all that I have said on this subject in my Pianoforte School.

By a proper employment of the forte or damper pedal, the player is enabled to produce effects which would seem to require that he should have two pair of hands at his command. But, used at an improper time, this pedal causes an unpleasant and unintelligible noise, which falls on the ear as disagreeably as a writing on wet paper falls on the eye.

I have already explained how important to the pupil is a gradual and easy progression, as to difficulty, in the selection of pieces intended for him; and I shall now add a few words more on this head. Every composer, as well as every player, founds his art and his science on what his predecessors have already done; adding to that the inventions of his own talent. By these natural steps in advance, it is evident that the compositions of the present distinguished pianists are in many respects much more difficult than those of times gone by; and that whoever desires to study them must already possess great knowledge of music, and a very considerable degree of execution.