A. C. Mackenzie.
Most of Dr. Mackenzie's work is done in the morning from nine to one-thirty, and he never touches it in the afternoon. As a rule he leaves scoring for the orchestra or looking over the morning's work for the evening hours. "But," in his own words, "if I feel capable of inventing, why, I begin to work again about eight-thirty and continue until I am tired."
As a rule, the principal of the Royal Academy of Music sketches his music on two or three lines, as shown in the illustration.
"When I am engaged upon anything that absorbs my entire attention," he continues, "I carry a little musical note-book about with me and jot down roughly any idea which may occur to me, and I have found this plan useful. When I am composing I never lose the thread of it, morning, noon, or night; even at meals I am unconsciously occupied with it—this goes on until the work is finished."
We have waited for long ... waited for long!
Dr. Mackenzie decidedly disapproves of the manner in which composers in England are made to work—viz., to order.
"Such pressure," he says, emphatically, "is unproductive of the best work, and highly detrimental to one's general health and comfort."
For those reasons he objects to undertake commissions.