The Child Prodigy
The musical child prodigy has always been something of a mystery to scientific inquirers and others who seek for the cause of things, partly for the reason that music seems to be the only art which produces them to any noticeable number. Some precocious children may be found who are able to draw, to paint, or even to make carvings in stone or wood with some accuracy of technique, but there are very few, if any instances, of children displaying extraordinary knowledge, or outstripping their talented elders in any of these arts. On the other hand, there are quite a number of children—a good many more than ever appear in public—who seem to be endowed with extraordinary talents for interpreting music; talents which in some respects are as great as those displayed by the mature artists. Child prodigies seem to be restricted more or less to two instruments, the violin and the piano, both of which require great digital dexterity as one of the essentials of a highly developed technique.
Almost anyone familiar with a piano keyboard or a violin fingerboard can move his fingers over either at the tempo required for the most rapid passages ever written, but very few possess the control which enables them to move them at that speed in the order and manner indicated by the music. From that it would seem that the child prodigy possesses an exceptionally highly developed sense of muscular control, which is further enhanced by purposely conducted practice. The same explanation applies to the "bowing arm" of the violinist, for the wonderfully varied effects which can be obtained by the bow are due in a great measure to muscular control of the right arm and fingers. The essentials of other artistic pursuits are more along intellectual lines and usually require a maturer mentality, only obtainable through years of general worldly experience, hence the precocious performer in these arts is almost unknown.
It is sometimes claimed, though erroneously, that most child prodigies do not, in later years, redeem the brilliant promise of early youth, but disappear from the musical firmament. This view is due to a failure to realize that youthful virtuosity does not at all imply continued development to a mature age, as in the case of the average artist, but rather the fact that a wonder child is merely one who has reached artistic and technical maturity earlier in life than others. He is not so much a greater as a younger virtuoso. The case of the great pianist, Josef Hofmann, as well as those of Mozart, Liszt, Rubinstein, Chopin, and others, are indications of what may be accomplished when precocious talent is properly developed.