Under the heading “Real Musical Understanding,” here’s something that Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote in 1910: “…Some teachers lay a great deal of stress upon the necessity for the pupil learning the source of the composer’s inspiration. This is interesting, of course, and may help to stimulate a dull imagination..." " It is a mistake[, however,] to suppose that the knowledge of the fact that Schubert was inspired by a certain poem, or …Chopin…by a certain legend, could ever make up for a lack of the