The writer talked with Lieutenant David Hochstein, whose death in the
battle of the Argonne Forest was only reported toward the end of
January, while the distinguished young violinist, then only a sergeant,
was on the eve of departure to France with his regiment and, as he
modestly said, his "thoughts on music were rather scattered." Yet he
spoke with keen insight and authority on various phases of his art, and
much of what he said gains point from his own splendid work as a concert
violinist; for Lieutenant Hochstein (whose standing has been established
in numerous European as well as American recitals) could play what he
preached.


SEVČIK AND AUER: A CONTRAST IN TEACHING

Knowing that in the regimental band he was, quite appropriately, a
clarinetist, "the clarinet in the military band being the equivalent of
the violin in the orchestra"--and a scholarship pupil of the Vienna
_Meisterschule_, it seemed natural to ask him concerning his teachers.
And the interesting fact developed that he had studied with the
celebrated Bohemian pedagog Sevčik and with Leopold Auer as well, two
teachers whose ideas and methods differ materially. "I studied with
Sevčik for two years," said the young violinist. "It was in 1909, when a
class of ten pupils was formed for him in the _Meisterschule_, at
Vienna, that I went to him. Sevčik was in many ways a wonderful teacher,
yet inclined to overemphasize the mechanical side of the art. He
literally _taught_ his pupils how to practice, how to develop technical
control by the most slow and painstaking study. In addition to his own
fine method and exercises, he also used Gavinies, Dont, Rode, Kreutzer,
applying in their studies ideas of his own.