In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> John Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: KCM: >>1) Why are string fingerings taught by positions? does it result in the >>pupil learning to choose good fingerings quickly, or is it just the >>easiest way to teach?
JH: >Much in string playing (and not just in string playing!) is grounded >in tradition, and stays around even when the original reasons no >longer apply. I can't cite authority for this, but I do suspect that >it relates to the fact that 18th century violinists not only did not >use shoulder pads, but did not use chin rests either. (Just for >comparison, my father, born in 1907, always used a chin rest but >never used a shoulder pad, while I have never played without a pad!) >The iconography shows a pretty uniform loose instrument position, >with the instrument resting on the collar bone or even a bit lower, >but not gripped or held fast. That means shifting up to higher >positions was easy, since the left hand would be pressing the >instrument against the collar bone or neck, but shifting down to >lower positions was difficult, since the left hand would be pulling >the instrument away from the body. Modern teachers of historical >playing techniques use the chin (actually the jaw) to BRIEFLY grip >the instrument on downshifts to solve this problem, and this makes >sense of the scale manuals (I'm most familiar with Carl Flesch) which >have 3-octave scales crawling up the E string with small shifts, but >using wide leaps in coming down the E string. (18th century >technique also means that a modern intense vibrato was impossible. >It was not just a matter of taste and fashion, but a physical >impossibility without a firm grip on the instrument. And vibrato was >found in tables of ornaments, as a kind of trill.) Yes, I have the Spohr Violin Method, c. 1845. (in English translation, c. 1880), describing it as such, and I have been told that the Joachim one, 1910, says much the same. Roger Norrington claims that continuous vibrato was first used by Kreisler, but I suspect that he may just have been an early and famous user of it. > >So, 1st position is a kind of home base, and 3rd position is a stable >position because the wrist is against the instrument's body. >Learning 5th position give a stable range up to F on the E string, >which takes care of all but the most virtuosic music of the time. >This sets up a mindset toward using, and teaching, the odd positions >rather than both odd and even positions. The Sevcik etudes are >definitely locked into individual positions. And even in a stable >position it's easy enough to stretch the 4th finger up or extend the >1st finger back when needed, as cellists well know. > >>2) How were you taught and how do you choose fingerings now? > >I started out learning traditional technique, with my father as my >teacher. However, in the 1940s he took string pedagogy classes at >Teachers College, Columbia University, with George Bornoff. Bornoff >took a definitely non-traditional approach to string technique and >string teaching, and my brother and I took private lessons with him >as a demonstration to my father (and other skeptical class members) >of the effectiveness of those non-traditional methods. Bornoff's >goal was to open up the entire fingerboard instead of locking the >student into set positions, allowing fingerings and alternate >fingerings that were chosen for their sound and phrasing. He >approached this goal, on the basic level, with one-finger scales up >the fingerboard on single strings. Later (but not all that much >later!) this became double-stop and artificial harmonic scales up the >fingerboard. When I play above 3rd position, I quite literally do >not know what position I am in, and do not care. That information >has become irrelevant, while the actual sound that is produced is >paramount. And I often spend as much time in 2nd position as in 1st >or 3rd, because the fingering patterns are better in many passages. This all sounds very convincing to me. How much does what you do now differ from what good players achieve through conventional teaching? The Bornoff teaching could be a different (possibly faster) route to a similar destination. >I choose fingerings that, of course, work in the passages in >question, but beyond that give me the musical sounds I decide are >appropriate to the music. This is most important in solo music, of >course, and has always been in the bag of tricks of an artist >performer, but it can also be used in ensemble music. A passage that >stays on the G string has an intensity that is missing when the same >passage is played by crossing over to the D and A strings, for >example, and artistic players have always known that. I love that rich sound at four measures before rehearsal 13 in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. The whole work shows his understanding of the violin family, including the double bass at the three measures before 20, where a relatively easy part sounds much harder. >>3) I recall very little emphasis on positions when I was learning the >>'cello and I was shifting from about the second lesson. I am self >>taught on the double bass and don't even know what position I am in most >>of the time. Players with a better technique than me seem to shift more >>than I do. > >Yes, both cello and bass must start shifting much earlier than violin >or viola students. Since Bornoff's "Finger Patterns" book (which was >laid out for publication on the kitchen table of my parents' sublet >New York appartment in the 1940s) was based on the methods he had >developed as a violinist for teaching violin students, who can cover >the interval of a 5th on a single string with the open string and 4 >fingers, he needed supplements for the cello and bass books that >introduced shifting much earlier so those instruments could play the >same finger patterns (actually tonal patterns) on a single string >along with the violins and violas. The cello supplement was written >by Suzanne LeCarpentier, a fine cellist and teacher who was in >Leonard Rose's class at Juilliard, and the bass supplement by Al >Warner, who played violin concertos on his bass for fun! > Are these books still available? >[...] >OK, I'm enthusiastic, and my mother and I wrote the book about >Bornoff's life and work. What can I say!? > -- Ken Moore [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web site: http://www.mooremusic.org.uk/ I reject emails > 100k automatically: warn me beforehand if you want to send one _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
