The Violin and Its Technique - As a Means to the Interpretation of Music

Achille Rivarde

Description

"My object in writing this book is to encourage and help those students of the violin who are sufficiently intelligent to wish to advance with the times and who realise that in order to free violin playing from the rut of tradition in which it has complacently remained for so long, it is necessary to bring greater insistence to bear on the imaginative and poetical side of violin playing than has been done up to the present" Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: The Bow Technique Vibrato Practice Interpretation, To What Extent it Can Be Taught

Sujets

• Musique
• Technique musicale
• Technique musicale
• Techniques musicales
• Music
• Strings
• Musical Instruments

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473388468
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Musician s Library
THE VIOLIN AND ITS TECHNIQUE
THE VIOLIN AND ITS TECHNIQUE
AS A MEANS TO THE INTERPRETATION OF MUSIC
BY ACHILLE RIVARDE
COPYRIGHT
TO THE PROGRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG STUDENTS
PREFACE
M Y object in writing this book is to encourage and help those students of the violin who are sufficiently intelligent to wish to advance with the times and who realise that in order to free violin playing from the rut of tradition in which it has complacently remained for so long, it is necessary to bring greater insistence to bear on the imaginative and poetical side of violin playing than has been done up to the present.
I have always regretted that Paganini, who made such a revolution in the technical resources of the instrument, died without bequeathing to the world the secret of his wonderful skill. Had he done so he would have saved his work from the unhappy fate of being greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Paganini s reputation has been killed by his admirers. Dazzled by his amazing technical achievements, they have so concentrated their attention on that part of his work as to see in it nothing but a fascinating challenge to their own ability in that respect, and in performing his works they seem to have no other aim than a desire to show what skill they possess in being able to play with accuracy difficult arrangements of notes.
This exaggerated mania for technique, this insistence on the letter rather than the spirit, has retarded the development of violin playing on more artistic and musical lines. It has produced an enormous number of players who overlook the fact that violin playing is not a mechanical process but a musical art, in which music should conceal art and not art the music.
CONTENTS
T HE B OW
T ECHNIQUE
V IBRATO
P RACTICE
I NTERPRETATION -T O WHAT E XTENT IT CAN BE T AUGHT
THE VIOLIN AND ITS TECHNIQUE
I
THE BOW
W HEN Joachim was questioned as to the proportion of time that should be given to the practice of the bow and to technique, he said:
For an inch of technique practice an arm-length of bow.
He often insisted that far too much time was spent on acquiring technique of the left hand and not enough on gaining a mastery of the bow.
It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of good bowing, since it is the principal means of expression, a fact which is generally overlooked or neglected by most modern violinists, however great their repute.
There are two forms of bowing: that of the virtuoso and that of the quartet player. The former is outwardly brilliant and showy in character and correspondingly superficial. There is little or no variety in this form of bowing, and its chief concern is to show off the technical brilliancy and possibilities of the instrument. It has a distinct tendency to throw dust in people s eyes by creating a false outward impression of temperament. Its main attributes are freedom, fluency, and attack; but it does not go further than the outward presentation of violinistic qualities. For this reason it is suitable only in music that might perhaps be described as violin music-in such concertos for example as those of Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski.
Quartet playing demands a mastery of far greater variety and subtlety of bowing than is needed for virtuosity.
That is where Joachim proved himself so immeasurably superior to other violinists; his bowing had the subtlety and power of expression that is necessary for the interpretation of great music. Unlike present-day violinists, Joachim regarded his bow as the means through which his imagination could find expression. The possibility of developing command of the bow is dependent upon the acquirement and control of certain movements, but before the student can begin to study the different movements he must first learn to hold the bow correctly, so that he starts from a perfect position. Realising that difficulties may be experienced in following written instructions accurately, I intend later to publish a book of my exercises in which the different positions of the bow arm will be illustrated by means of photographs, with which the student can compare his results; but without the guidance of a master he will run the risk of entertaining unwittingly many defects which will not be made clear to him by the study of photographed positions.
The bow should be held with the thumb near, but not touching, the nut; the middle finger opposite but not touching the thumb; and the little finger placed on its tip close behind the third on the inner edge of the stick, to balance the bow. The first finger should be so placed that the bow lies between the first and second joint, counting from the finger tip, and care should be taken that the first finger never leaves this position on the bow. The hand when turned round should present a nicely rounded appearance, the fingers lying well together, showing no gaps, and the thumb leaning a little towards the first finger, with the joint bent slightly outwards. The thumb joint must never be bent inwards, as that is an invariable sign of stiffness, and it is of the greatest importance that there should be no stiffening of the hand. The bow must not be gripped at all; the hand, wrist and thumb must all remain completely pliable. The balance of the bow is maintained by the little finger; if this is lifted from the stick when the bow is held over the string, the point of the bow will fall immediately.
A perfect position at the half bow must be acquired as the starting point from which the different movements of the bow can be studied. When the bow is placed on the string at the half-bow, it will be found, if the elbow is held in line with the wrist and hand, that the upper part of the arm and the fore-arm together form a right angle. The student must be guided as to the half-bow position by the accuracy of this right angle and not by the actual half of the bow, which will vary a little according to the arm length of the individual-the hand must lie in a straight line from the wrist, turning neither inwards nor outwards, and the wrist itself should be just the faintest shade higher than either the knuckles or the elbow. From this position the different movements of the bow can be studied. There are, in reality, only five of these: three of the arm and two of the hand. All other complications of bowing are derived from these five movements. They are:
1. Independent movement of the fore-arm.
2. Upward and inward movement of the upper part of the arm.
3. Crossing strings movement-upward and downward movement of the whole arm.
4. Wrist movement.
5. Finger movement.
The practice of these last two is especially to teach the player to loosen. Complete independence of the forearm is perhaps the most important and usually the most difficult to acquire of these five movements.
In order that the fore-arm may work freely and independently from the elbow it is necessary that the upper part of the arm should be held rigid. This is done by a contraction of the muscles of the upper arm, but the tightening of the muscles must be confined as far as possible to the upper arm and not allowed to affect the free swing of the fore-arm from the elbow-when the arm is held in the half-bow position, either with or without the bow, and the muscles of the upper arm have been contracted; the professor should test this freedom by quickly pulling the student s fore-arm towards him, and the test is all the surer if he manages to keep the student unaware of his intention. If the student is contracting the right muscles, there will be no resistance to the pull, and the fore-arm will be moved as freely and easily as a door on its hinges. Sometimes the muscular contraction is overdone in the other direction by stiffening the muscles of the shoulder, often by raising the shoulder itself. Both these tendencies must be carefully guarded against.
The result of this contraction when properly done is that the weight of the bow and fore-arm does not rest upon the string but is sustained instead by the upper part of the arm, and this not only facilitates freedom and swiftness of movement from the fore-arm, but is also the means of producing a clear, pure quality of tone.
Most students find it difficult at first to contract the upper part of the arm and at the same time to keep the hand and wrist entirely loose.
The student should begin by holding his arm in the half-bow position, without the bow in hand, until he is able to loosen and contract this muscle at will, the hand hanging loose from the wrist. Then, still without the bow, having the upper part of the arm contracted, he can practice the independent movement of the fore-arm.
Starting from the half-bow position the bow should be drawn down to the tip, using the fore-arm alone, and back in the same way.
Since the first finger is not allowed to leave its position on the stick, the movement of the fore-arm will force the wrist to give in slightly at the tip; but the returning movement of the fore-arm will naturally restore the wrist to its original position at the half-bow.