Samuel Gardner, though born in Jelisavetgrad, Cherson province, in Southern Russia, in 1891, is to all intents and purposes an American, since his family, fleeing the tyranny of an Imperialistic regime of “pogroms” and “Black Hundreds,” brought him to this country when a mere child; and here in the United States he has become, to quote Richard Aldrich, “the serious and accomplished artist,” whose work on the concert stage has given such pleasure to lovers of violin music at its best.  The young violinist, who in the course of the same week had just won two prizes in composition—­the Pulitzer Prize (Columbia) for a string quartet, and the Loeb Prize for a symphonic poem—­was amiably willing to talk of his study experience for the benefit of other students.

       CHARLES MARTIN LOEFFLER AND FELIX WINTERNITZ AS TEACHERS

“I took up the study of the violin at the age of seven, and when I was nine I went to Charles Martin Loeffler and really began to work seriously.  Loeffler was a very strict teacher and very exacting, but he achieved results, for he had a most original way of making his points clear to the student.  He started off with the Sevcik studies, laying great stress on the proper finger articulation.  And he taught me absolute smoothness in change of position when crossing the strings.  For instance, in the second book of Sevcik’s ‘Technical Exercises,’ in the third exercise, the bow crosses from G to A, and from D to E, leaving a string between in each crossing.  Well, I simply could not manage to get to the second string to be played without the string in between sounding!  Loeffler showed me what every good fiddler must learn to do:  to leap from the end of the down-bow to the up-bow and vice versa and then hesitate the fraction of a moment, thus securing a smooth, clean-cut tone, without any vibration of the intermediate string.  Loeffler never gave a pupil any rest until he came up to his requirements.  I know when I played the seventh and eighth Kreutzer studies for him—­they are trill studies—­he said:  ’You trill like an electric bell, but not fast enough!’ And he kept at me to speed up my tempo without loss of clearness or tone-volume, until I could do justice to a rapid trill.  It is a great quality in a teacher to be literally able to enforce the pupil’s progress in certain directions; for though the latter may not appreciate it at the time, later on he is sure to do so.  I remember once when he was trying to explain the perfect crescendo to me, fire-engine bells began to ring in the distance, the sound gradually drawing nearer the house in Charles Street where I was taking my lesson.  ‘There you have it!’ Loeffler cried:  ’There’s your ideal crescendo!  Play it like that and I will be satisfied!’ I remained with Loeffler a year and a half, and when he went to Paris began to study with Felix Winternitz.