Interest in Music: A Case Illustrating Some Infantile Roots of Musical Talent

In order to illustrate the emotional background which sometimes leads to the fixation of a typical infantile attitude toward music I give this brief outline of a lengthy psycho-biographic account obtained from L. B., a very successful artist, in the course of psychoanalysis:

As a child she was neither specially talented nor precocious. She took up music probably because “the social set” to which her family belonged expected children to receive musical training. She felt no incentive to study and practice was irksome to her. The praise of her father, whom she greatly adored, was her chief compensation for the hard work of drilling when she would have preferred to play games.

Later, as the result of overwork and business worries her father became an invalid. She had just reached the adolescent stage. He required special care for a time and was staying in the house.

“It was his special delight during that period of invalidism to have me play and sing for him,” states L. B., “and I loved to do it. We spent many evenings together, he lying down on a couch close by, I at the piano playing my own accompaniments while singing. Occasionally he patted my hair in approval. Once or twice he kissed me. I was surfeited with happiness. My real love for music dates from that period; I believe I owe to the emotional experiences of that stage of my life the development of whatever musical talent I may possess. I wanted to play to please father as much as I ever wanted to succeed in after years. The fact that music seemed such a comfort to him opened my eyes for the first time to the meaning of the art. Before that time I played mechanically.

“Once, looking up towards him, I saw tears welling up in father's eyes. This moved me beyond expression. I stopped playing and threw my arms around him. He murmured something about the charm of music. I took the compliment to refer to my playing. Suddenly I realized that mastery of the art means the