Table Of Content

H O W T O P R E P A R E F O R K R E U T Z E R A BOOK FOR TEACHERS IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES, AS WELL AS THE PRO FESSION IN GENERAL, GIVING A THOROUGH ANALYSIS OF SUITABLE MATERIAL FOR THE FIRST FOUR GRADES, INCLUDING AN EXPLANA TION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES OF BOWING, TECHNIC AND TONE PRODUCTION BY EDITH LYNWOOD WINN. NEW YORK CARL FISCHER 1910 8 C H O T T A PUBLISHERS TO H.M. THE KINfi LONDON, W Copyright , 1910, BY CARL FISCHER International Copyright Secured CONTENTS. PAGE I. Introduction................................................................ i II. Scales........................................................................... 12 III. The Training of the Left Hand................................. 21 IV. The Study of Tone and Bowing................................ 24 V. The Study of Sevcik................................................. 37 VI. Fifty Easy Melodic Studies by F. Wohlfahrt, Op. 74, Book 1....................................................................... 45 VII. Fifty Easy Melodic Studies by F. Wohlfahrt, Op. 74, Book II..................................................................... 49 VIII. Duet-Playing.............................................................. 54 IX. Sixty Etudes by J. Wohlfahrt, Op. 45, Book 1....... 56 X. Sixty Etudes by J. Wohlfahrt, Op. 45, Book II..... 58 XI. Studies in all the Positions by J. Weiss, Op. 80, Book I. 64 XII. Studies in all Positions by J. Weiss, Op. 80, Book II.. . 66 XIII. Studies in all Positions by J. Weiss, Op. 80, Book III.. . 70 XIV. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part I, Book I.. . 72 XV. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part I, Book II. . 74 XVI. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part I, Book III. 78 XVII. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part II, Book IV. 82 XVIIa. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part II, Books V-VI....................................................................... 85 XVIIb. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part II, Books V-VI (Continued)................................................. 89 XVIIc. Technical Studies by H. Sitt, Op. 92, Part II, Book VI (Continued)............................................................. 93 XVIII. The Etudes of E. J. Dont, Op. 37 and 38a.............. 99 XIX. The School of Violin Technics by Henry Schradieck. . . in XX. Twenty-five Studies for the Violin by F. Hull week. ... 122 XXI. Scale Studies by J. Hrimaly...................................... 124 XXII. Ten Etudes by D. Alard, Op. 16.............................. 127 XXIII. The Etudes Brillantes by F. Mazas, Op. 36, Book II. . 135 iii iv CONTENTS PAGE XXIV. Etudes d’Artistes by F. Mazas, Op. 36, Book III........ 145 XXV. Scale and Arpeggio Studies by Emory L. Bauer............ 161 XXVI. The Technic of the Bow by A. Casorti, Op. 50.............. 163 XXVII. The Double-Stop Studies of Hans Sitt, Op. 32, Book V. 168 XXVIII. The Art of Bowing by Emil Kross, Op. 40.................. 176 XXIX. The Technical Studies of Carl Halir.............................. 190 XXX. Goby Eberhardt and his System for Practicing the Violin.............................................................................. 201 XXXI. Supplementary Remarks................................................ 207 H o w to Prepare fo r K reutzer. i. INTRODUCTION. IT is a question in the minds of modern violinists and teachers whether one should spend three or four years in preparation for Kreutzer, or, in view of the enormous amount of material which one must study before one has a command of the classics, whether it is wiser to abridge preparatory work and start as early as possible with the Etudes of Kreutzer, Fiorillo, Rode, Gavinies, and others. I find that it is best, in the case of students who are not going to be professionals, to spend a long time in the study of the works of Dont, Mazas, Sitt, Schradieck, and Sevcik, so that the founda tion for Kreutzer may be well laid, and the necessity for varied work of the amateur kind thoroughly and practi cally met. I have many students who play the violin merely as an accomplishment, and whose study will probably cease after Kreutzer. Among such students I may mention those who are attending secondary schools from which they graduate at about eighteen years of age, after which their violin study practically ceases. In some cases I am able to make Kreutzer so interesting and helpful that the student really desires to continue the work seriously during college life, or to specialize as a member of my city class. But these cases are rare, for secondary school education, while it fits one for a certain sphere of life, is, at best, superficial, except in its specific value to the student who is preparing for college. Many students who are in the High School find that two hours i 2 HOW TO PREPARE FOR KREUTZER. a day are all they can spare for the practice of the violin, so it has become a serious matter with me to select only those studies which will give to the student the funda mentals of violin playing, a fair technic of both the bow arm and the left hand, and a knowledge of a few useful and well-known works, which may be used as solos when the necessity arises. The violin is a difficult instrument, and comparatively few students become professionals. Hence, the wisest plan with our students must be one which cultivates taste, creates desire for knowledge, without being too specific, and fits into life. This implies only such attention to technic, tone, and bowing as belongs to good amateur work. You have often heard the remark made, “Mr. So-and-So is a business man, but a very good amateur musician. ” He is fortunate, in deed, who, instead of being a bad professional, ranks with good amateurs. We must make study interesting and hamper the stu dent with as few details as possible up to the fourth year of study. By that time character and taste are formed sufficiently so that on entering Kreutzer there may be no mistake as to the value of detailed professional work, in cases of specific talent or desire for a professional career. I would not advise any student of the violin to choose my instrument as a profession unless time, money, good health, and the most favorable conditions of life are possessed by the individual. The road to virtuosity is long and hard. Even under the best conditions of study, very few of us gain distinction. I would modify a plan of study to suit individual cases. Hands, fingers, brains, are different in different individuals. A hand which is naturally clever can do in one hour’s practice each day what another hand requires four hours to do. So it is with bowing; some students will always be stiff; others have elasticity and freedom from the first. No two brains have the same receptivity; no two individuals have the same tonal ear. “Many are called but few chosen,” when it comes to violin playing, but if we all had only the gifted to deal with, we should certainly have INTRODUCTION. 3 very small classes of pupils. We ought to give the best we have to those who come to us, irrespective of class, gifts, age, or environment. I enjoy especially teaching children the fundamentals, for they accept one’s creed without a word, and their struggles to overcome difficul ties might be a valuable lesson to many an older person. The average child who begins study at eight years of age ought, certainly, to be playing Kreutzer at twelve, if well taught, and if practice is regular. Professor Jacob sen, a late member of the teaching force in the Royal High School, in Berlin, was a splendid teacher of detail. When asked the proper time to begin Kreutzer he said, “I think the second year.” This is practically impos sible in America, but the good Professor probably erred in judgment, for it is doubtful if he ever had any student cf the grade preceding Kreutzer. In some colleges in which I have taught, girls of fifteen or sixteen years, who have had some piano training, were able to begin Kreutzer in their third year of violin study, but their general musical preparation was excellent. There is a great deal of violin literature which is mere repetition. If a thing is well done, supplement it with something more of the same kind. Truth is truth and does not need reinforcement. Josef Hofmann,1 in his excellent book on piano playing, offers many suggestions for students, which can be applied to violin study as well. He does not place technic before everything else in study, necessary as it is to have this medium of expression. He believes that free and individual expression, however, comes after the great fundamental principles of playing become, in a sense, automatic. He says there are many pianists who, despite the greatest technic, are not artists, and while technic is an indispensable necessity, it must not be exalted to such a point that one becomes a dry and life less player. “The first requisite,” says he, “for one who wishes to become a musicianly and artistic pianist, 1 Hofmann, Josef: Piano 'Playing. A little book of simple sug gestions. 4 HOW TO PREPARE FOR KREUTZER. is a precise knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of the piano as an instrument.” The great superiority of the literature of the piano over that of any other single instrument makes it a matter of prime importance and necessity that violin students have some previous piano training. I find that all my students who have studied piano, play with much greater steadiness and freedom on that account. They also memorize better \and master the content of violin works more easily, and their phrasing is broader and more beautiful. The intimate personal element of touch they transfer from the piano keyboard to the violin bow. While the rules of finger technic are in no degree similar in the two intru- ments, generally speaking the violinist who plays the piano has greater freedom in the left hand, but invariably raises the fingers too high for an attack. The piano has only one color; the violin has color and shades. It is capable of a great variety of tones, and each one of its four strings has its own specific tone color. Nevertheless, the violin is the exponent of melody, and the deep and serious student, outside of the music of Bach, which offers splendid examples of themes and accompaniments, finds himself thinking melody instead of harmony con stantly; hence it is that the violinist is rarely a great composer for other instruments or for the orchestra. The violin is, however, the most nearly like the human voice in its specific tone quality. The most intricate contrapuntal devices can be rendered completely by the piano. It is of prime importance that the violinist learns not only some piano literature each year, but that he compares the possibilities and limitations of piano playing with those of the violin. Steadiness, security, harmony, are only a few of the benefits which come from a knowledge of piano playing. The greatest masters chose the piano as their favorite instrument and wrote much music for it. Violin music is necessarily limited in scope, therefore the violinist must be broader than the scope of his instrument. The greater part of the violin literature which we have to-day has been written hy INTRODUCTION. S piano players. That is the reason, no doubt, why, after Viotti, Rode, Spohr, and Bach, very few composers have given us strictly violinistic work. To be sure Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps wrote music which lies well under the violin hand, but we cannot say as much for Brahms and Tschaikowsky. Now many a student of the violin has been so well-equipped in the preparatory stages of his work that, in spite of parental opposition or adverse con-, ditions of life, he has become, at length, a professional musician. This fact, and this alone, prompts me to say that we cannot be too careful in preparatory work, teach ing good music from the first and spending much time on the great principles which underlie true violin art, choosing material so wisely that no task seems drudgery, and no lesson trivial or uninteresting. I never give a child reasons for things. He does what I tell him to do without comments. In the cases of older students, I always explain principles and give reasons for stressing certain important points, for I never keep one playing this or that kind of an exercise merely for the sake of reinforcing a principle which has already been mastered. There is another point I wish to make. The prepara tory work for Kreutzer does not include technic alone. Duos, quartets, and all other forms of good music, give strength and security to tone and aid in the general cul ture of the student. I know of nothing in the world so valuable as ensemble work in its relation to the routine work, as outlined in the Etudes and other studies which the violinist has to study. Left entirely to himself, the violinist yields to the tendency to practice things which sound well, especially those which are melodious, ignor ing his own limitations and lack of knowledge of technic. We often hear that very decided amateurs “play with so much feeling. ” Our only conclusion is that their feeling is merely affectation, for they have no idea of tone, bow ing, nor the aesthetic requirements of a composition of any difficulty. They are, in reality, sensationalists, and the hardest kind of pupils to teach. Their place, if they ever become professionals, even in the smallest