72 LOLA 



the notes out of their order, and Lola was right in all 

 her replies with the exception of " h," and this she 

 soon identified after a comparison with the other notes. 

 I tried whether she could recognize the number of notes 

 in a chord. First I struck two, asking her the number ; 

 she replied "2." I then struck four and she replied 

 " 4 " without any hesitation. Then I struck five 

 together, c being associated with them twice. At 

 this Lola rapped "4," so I said : " You are to tell me 

 every note I strike," at the same time putting down the 

 chord again, after which she replied " 5." This had 

 been an experiment for which I had made few pre- 

 parations and I marvelled at such obvious evidences 

 of musical comprehension. But I felt that I should 

 nevertheless test her more closely still, and so I told 

 my experiences to a friend, a woman composer of great 

 professional distinction. This lady was both interested 

 and surprised, and seating herself at the piano, she 

 struck some notes. I placed myself so as not to see 

 the keyboard and tried to guess their pitch, yet I have 

 no " ear " in this way. I had in 1915 attended a course 

 of Delcroze lessons (given at Stuttgart by Fraulein 

 Steiner) and had tried to acquire the faculty to dis- 

 tinguish the basic tone of any chord given at random 

 for this can be acquired if one is to some extent 

 musical, yet could I but seldom succeed. I would 

 hover in doubt between c and d, and so on, without 

 sensing any connexion with the other tones. Here, 

 too, with one single note being struck I was unequal 

 to the test, but Lola's replies were excellent, yet was 

 it again the novelty that gave zest to the affair, for 

 later on her answers were good only when she was 

 inclined to take trouble. But in the beginning she had 

 been most obviously delighted with the whole matter 

 and leapt up at me in her joy and excitement whenever 



