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
