Violin Technique - Some Difficulties and Their Solution

By Sydney Robjohns

Originally published in 1930, this little book is not an exposition of the art of violin-playing, nor does it claim to teach a system of technical study. The authors aim was to help students and less experienced teachers through some of the more frequent problems from which they will, almost inevitably, be faced. 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: Posture and the Holding of the Instrument 'Bow Measurement' On Bowing Generally Intonation Various Difficulties Playing of Chords and Chord Passages Shifting and the Portamento The Playing of Octaves Double-Stopping Harmonics 'Artificial' Harmonics Vibrato Tenths and Fingered Octaves Memorizing, Playing From Melody Conclusion, Inspiration, A Repertoire Always Ready

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Oct 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781447492566

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VIOLIN

TECHNIQUE

SOME DIFFICULTIES

AND THEIR SOLUTION

By

SYDNEY ROBJOHNS

First published in 1930

Copyright © 2021 Read & Co. Books

This edition is published by Read & Co. Books,

an imprint of Read & Co.

This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any

way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library.

Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.

For more information visit

www.readandcobooks.co.uk

Contents

A HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

I POSTURE AND THE HOLDING OF THE INSTRUMENT

II BOW MEASUREMENT. STACCATO

III ON BOWING GENERALLY

IV INTONATION

V VARIOUS DIFFICULTIES. UNANIMITY OF FINGERS AND BOW. FINGER EXERCISES

VI PLAYING OF CHORDS AND CHORD PASSAGES

VII SHIFTING AND THE PORTAMENTO

VIII THE PLAYING OF OCTAVES

IX DOUBLE-STOPPING

X HARMONICS

XI ARTIFICIAL HARMONICS

XII VIBRATO

XIII TENTHS AND FINGERED OCTAVES

XIV MEMORIZING—PLAYING FROM MEMORY

CONCLUSION

A HISTORY

OF THE VIOLIN

The violin, also known as a fiddle, is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola, the cello and the double bass. The violinist produces sound by drawing a bow across one or more strings (which may be stopped by the fingers of the other hand to produce a full range of pitches), by plucking the strings (with either hand), or by a variety of other techniques. The violin is played by musicians in a wide variety of musical genres, including such diverse styles as baroque, classical, jazz, folk and rock and roll.

The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern characteristics in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th and 19th centuries. Violinists and collectors particularly prize the instruments made by the Gasparo da Salò, Giovanni Paolo Maggini, Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century in Brescia and Cremona and by Jacob Stainer in Austria. A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier, and will almost always work with wood – utilising gut, perlon or steel to string the instrument.

The history of the violin is long and varied; and the earliest stringed instruments were mostly plucked (e.g. the Greek lyre). Bowed instruments may have originated in the equestrian cultures of Central Asia—for instance the ‘Tanbur’ of Uzbekistan or the ‘Kobyz’; an ancient Turkic string instrument. Such two-string upright fiddles were strung with horsehair and played with horsehair bows; they often features a carved horses head at the end of the neck too. The violins, violas and cellos we play today, and whose bows are still strung with horsehair are a legacy of these nomadic peoples.

It is believed that these instruments eventually spread to China, India, the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East, where they developed into instruments such as the erhu in China, the rebab in the Middle East, the lyra in the Byzantine Empire and the esraj in India. The modern European violin as we know it evolved from the Middle Eastern stringed instruments, and one of the earliest explicit descriptions of this musical device, including its tuning was made in France in the sixteenth century. This was a book entitled Epitome Musical, by Jambe de Fer, published in Lyon in 1556 – and helped popularise the instrument all over Europe. Several further significant changes occurred in violin construction in the eighteenth century – making it closer to our current instrument. These primarily involved a longer neck at a slightly different angle, as well as a heavier bass bar.

The oldest documented violin to have four strings, like the modern variant, is supposed to have been constructed in 1555 by Andrea Amati. However in the 1510s (some fifty years before the flourishing activity of Andrea Amati), there were sevedn ‘lireri’, or makers of bowed instruments, including proto-violins listed in the city. The violin was quickly hailed by nobility and street players alike, illustrated by the fact that the French king Charles IX ordered Amati to construct twenty-four violins for him in 1560. One of these instruments, now called the Charles IX, is the oldest surviving violin. The finest Renaissance carved and decorated violin in the world is the Gasparo da Salò (c. 1574), owned by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria and later, from 1841, by the Norweigian virtuoso Ole Bull. Bull used it for forty years, during which he became famed for his powerful and beautiful tone – it is now kept in the Vestlandske Kustindustrimuseum in Begen (Norway). Another famous violin, ‘Le Messie’ (also known as the ‘Salabue’), made in 1716 is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, England.

To this day, instruments from the so-called Golden Age of violin making, especially those made by Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù and Montagnana are the most sought-after instruments by both collectors and performers. The current record amount paid for a Stradivari violin is £9.8 million (US$15.9 million), when the instrument known as the Lady Blunt was sold by Tarisio Auctions in an online auction on June 20, 2011. We hope the reader is inspired by this book to find out more about the intriguing and complex history of this wonderful instrument.

PREFACE

THIS little book is not an exposition of the art of violin-playing, nor does it claim to teach a system of technical study. It consists, with slight additions, of a series of articles which have already appeared in The Music Teacher under the title of ‘A Violinist’s Difficulties and their Solution’. This apparently presumptuous title was already cumbersome, but a more exact description would have been—‘Certain difficulties of the violin student and some solutions’—for my aim was to help students and less experienced teachers through some of the more frequent problems with which they will, almost inevitably, be faced. The different points were taken up as they occurred to me at each moment of writing, not in any very systematic order, but as it seemed to me useful at the time.

I am grateful to have had many proofs that the articles have been of use to those for whom they were written, not only in this country, but also in other parts of the world. When, therefore, the suggestion was made to me that they should be published in book-form, I readily agreed, in the hope that they might thus reach a still larger number of readers and be of still further service.

Sydney Robjohns,

London, January, 1930.

INTRODUCTION

THE violin is often spoken of as the most difficult of all instruments. Perhaps it is, but, seeing that we have been playing stringed instruments with a bow for a few thousand years, we ought to have done something to find the easiest way to mastery! And of course we have. Apart from the almost infallible fluency and intonation of a Heifetz, and the compelling mastery of a Kreisler, even the average violinist of to-day has a technique that would be amazing, had not experience taught us to take it for granted.

Any child of ordinary intelligence, average musical and artistic feeling, and normal physical facility, should be able, under the right instruction, musical and technical, to become a sufficiently good violinist to be able to play with musicianly charm and interest, to take part in classical quartets, trios, and other chamber-music, and to derive uplifting happiness and satisfaction for himself and others from this musical activity.

We have recently passed through a period in which there was a very general falling off of interest in the study of stringed instruments. We need not stop now to