Whatever interest the reader may have taken in this survey of Chopin’s pupils, he is sure to be more deeply interested by the account of the master’s manner and method of teaching.  Such an account, which would be interesting in the case of any remarkable virtuoso who devoted himself to instruction, is so in a higher degree in that of Chopin:  first, because it may help us to solve the question why so unique a virtuoso did not form a single eminent concert-player; secondly, because it throws still further light on his character as a man and artist; and thirdly, because, as Mikuli thinks may be asserted without exaggeration, “only Chopin’s pupils knew the pianist in the fulness of his unrivalled height.”  The materials at my disposal are abundant and not less trustworthy than abundant.  My account is based chiefly on the communications made to me by a number of the master’s pupils—­ notably, Madame Dubois, Madame Rubio, M. Mathias, and Gutmann—­ and on Mikuli’s excellent preface to his edition of Chopin’s works.  When I have drawn upon other sources, I have not done so without previous examination and verification.  I may add that I shall use as far as possible the ipsissima verba of my informants:—­

As to Chopin’s method of teaching [wrote to me M. Mathias], it was absolutely of the old legato school, of the school of Clementi and Cramer.  Of course, he had enriched it by a great variety of touch [d’une grande variete dans l’attaque de la touche]; he obtained a wonderful variety of tone and nuances of tone; in passing I may tell you that he had an extraordinary vigour, but only by flashes [ce ne pouvait etre que par eclairs].

The Polish master, who was so original in many ways, differed from his confreres even in the way of starting his pupils.  With him the normal position of the hand was not that above the keys c, d, e, f, g (i.e., above five white keys), but that above the keys e, f sharp, g sharp, a sharp, b (I.E., above two white keys and three black keys, the latter lying between the former).  The hand had to be thrown lightly on the keyboard so as to rest on these keys, the object of this being to secure for it not only an advantageous, but also a graceful position:—­

[Footnote:  Kleczynski, in Chopin:  De l’interpretation de ses oeuvres—­Trois conferences faites a Varsovie, says that he was told by several of the master’s pupils that the latter sometimes held his hands absolutely flat.  When I asked Madame Dubois about the correctness of this statement, she replied:  “I never noticed Chopin holding his hands flat.”  In short, if Chopin put his hands at any time in so awkward a position, it was exceptional; physical exhaustion may have induced him to indulge in such negligence when the technical structure of the music he was playing permitted it.]