Before the Chinrest: A Violinist's Guide to the Mysteries of Pre-Chinrest Technique and Style
168
Before the Chinrest: A Violinist's Guide to the Mysteries of Pre-Chinrest Technique and Style
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Overview
Drawing on the principles of Francesco Geminiani and four decades of experience as a baroque and classical violinist, Stanley Ritchie offers a valuable resource for anyone wishing to learn about 17th-18th-and early 19th-century violin technique and style. While much of the work focuses on the technical aspects of playing the pre-chinrest violin, these approaches are also applicable to the viola, and in many ways to the modern violin. Before the Chinrest includes illustrated sections on right- and left-hand technique, aspects of interpretation during the Baroque, Classical, and early-Romantic eras, and a section on developing proper intonation.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780253001115 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Indiana University Press |
| Publication date: | 07/16/2012 |
| Series: | Publications of the Early Music Institute |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 168 |
| File size: | 12 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Stanley Ritchie is an internationally recognized violinist, teacher, and recording artist. He is a professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington and the 2009 recipient of the Howard Mayer Brown Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Early Music.
Read an Excerpt
Before the Chinrest
A Violinist's Guide to the Mysteries of Pre-Chinrest Technique and Style
By Stanley Ritchie
Indiana University Press
Copyright © 2012 Stanley RitchieAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-253-22318-0
CHAPTER 1
Tone Production
Basic Right-Hand Technique
Two words that should never, in my opinion, be used to refer to the contact between hand and bow are "hold" and "grip," as both suggest some kind of effort. Ideally, in my view, one should balance the bow in the hand as lightly as possible, exerting no physical effort. The following are exercises I prescribe to convey this concept:
Preliminary exercise: Play a down-bow on the G or D string, and lift the fingers one by one from the stick (4–3–2–1) until only the thumb remains in contact with the bow. It is essential to keep the bow moving in this exercise, which is designed to demonstrate that tone can be produced with only the weight of the bow and the motion of the hair. [Hint: Allow the hair to rest against the outside of the thumb.] Then, touching the bow as lightly as possible, pull and push the bow, gently raising and lowering the fingers as though they were playing notes on the stick. In this way one can experience effortless tone production, the weight of the bow producing a surprising level of sound, the hand relaxed and ready to impart the subtle nuances required in Baroque violin playing. From there I proceed with the following tone production exercises:
Exercise 1: Resting the fingers lightly on the bow, draw it very slowly at a constant speed, using the index finger to make pulsations in the sound.
Exercise 2: Use the index finger to swell the sound, increasing and decreasing the bow speed with the swell. The little finger must remain in contact with the bow to balance it and control the weight.
The Importance of Arm Weight
When playing the Baroque violin one must never resort to pronation as a means of tone production. The lower tension of gut strings, especially when the violin is tuned to A=415 or 395Hz, will not permit the use of downward pressure of the kind generated by pronation, the inward rotation of the forearm, which has the effect both of stifling the sound and frequently causing the string to give slightly and the pitch of a note to waver. One should therefore use the weight of the right arm to produce a free, resonant tone quality. To achieve this the elbow should be allowed to hang naturally, with the forearm reaching upward to the plane of the bow. Avoid deliberately raising the upper arm, except when playing flautando or sotto voce.
Consider the following: when the upper arm, kept parallel to the stick, is used to transport the bow from one string to another, the natural weight of the arm is eliminated and it is then necessary to replace it by means of pronation. Something seems to be illogical in this, especially in view of the strain thereby placed upon the muscles and tendons of the upper arm—which cannot be healthy—and the tightness of the sound.
Francesco Geminiani advises that in using the bow the hand moves most, the forearm less, and the upper arm least of all. One way of interpreting this is to imagine that the bow itself is leading the hand, whose job it is to adapt to the needs of the bow. This is, perhaps, the reverse of a traditional method of right-hand pedagogy in which one is taught to use each part of the arm in a particular way in order to keep the bow moving parallel to the bridge. I demonstrate to my students that if (on the E-string) the bow is allowed to slip through relaxed fingers it will fall straight downward; hence, if there is no tension in the fingers and one concentrates on following the bow rather than leading it, the bow will naturally move parallel to the bridge. This assumes, of course, that allowance be made for individual arm length, because an elbow that is advanced too far or held back will affect the direction of the bow. But it can also be a method of finding the appropriate elbow position.
The Use of Arm Weight
Here is an important exercise that demonstrates the practical use of arm weight: place the bow as close as possible to the bridge, as though you are about to play ponticello. Now, leaning the stick outward as you normally do, draw the bow slowly, with the hand relaxed and the elbow hanging, in such a way that you are pulling and pushing the string sideways, not pressing downward to produce the tone but directing your arm weight outward against the string. You'll find that this will enable you to play without the sound cracking but instead produce a strong, resonant tone, rich in fundamentals. The reason for this phenomenon would seem to be that when pulling the bow toward the bridge to produce the peculiar ponticello effect you are using less than a centimeter or two of vibrating string length, with no possibility of exciting the lower partials, whereas when directing your arm weight against the inertia of the full string length these are activated. At the same time, without vertical pressure on the string, there is no forcing of the sound, which is clear and resonant.
Please note that this is only an exercise and should not be construed as a method of tone production for constant use. The technique does, however, encourage the production of the richest, fullest tone your instrument is capable of, and, depending uponthe dynamic context, it can be used at any point of contact. You'll find that because of the lower tension of the strings it's not possible to play as far from the bridge as on the modern instrument. One should never force, but rather imagine the hand as a magnet that attracts the sound from the instrument.
The low elbow is an essential component of right-hand technique on a gut-strung, low-pitched violin or viola. To avoid confusion later on, note that I make frequent reference throughout the book to "raising" the elbow or forearm or arm when describing certain lifted or lightened strokes.
This does not negate the basic concept, for even when one raises the arm, the relationship of elbow to wrist and hand should always be the same—the elbow should always be relatively low, with minimal tension in the upper arm.
CHAPTER 2Bow-Strokes
The term "bow-stroke" has different connotations according to the context. In its simple form it defines the various ways in which the bow can be used: détaché, sautillé, legato, martelé, and so on. It can also refer, however, to the passage of the bow across the string or to the way in which a particular player uses the bow. To avoid confusion, therefore, I shall use the word "gesture" to describe what happens when a number of consecutive bow-strokes occur.
For me a bow-stroke of any kind is the motion of the arm through the air; that one has a bow in one's hand, and what results when the bow comes in contact with the string, are secondary. Indeed, in my teaching I will at times prescribe the following preliminary exercise: first sing a phrase silently, then without the bow make an imaginary bow-stroke, with the arm and hand moving appropriately to fit the dynamic shape and nuances you have in mind, and string crossings as needed. Then, with bow in hand, replicate the arm gestures so as to play the phrase as you imagined it. This is one example of what I term the "choreography" of bowing.
If I ask a student to assume a position of readiness to play, I want to see what he or she does with the right arm. Sometimes the student places the bow on the string, but this is an incorrect posture: correctly, the bow should be suspended about half an inch above the string in anticipation of the first stroke. It is also to this position that the bow should return upon completion of the stroke or gesture.
Lifted Strokes
Essentially there is no difference between the basic stroke used in playing separate legato notes and that for notes that require the bow to be lifted from the string. For instance, when playing short eighth-notes at a fast tempo, the arm should move back and forth in a fluid motion: there should be no active use of the fingers other than those of transmitting the weight of the arm and balancing the bow. To shorten the notes, one need only allow the bow to rise from the string by raising the arm slightly and using the fourth finger to take the weight. Note that the transition from the long note to the short is legato and that the bow should rise only after the short note.
As an exercise, in the lower half of the bow, start by playing repeated eighthnotes legato with loose wrist and hand. Then, without changing tempo, hesitating, or altering the motion of the arm, allow the bow to rise occasionally from the string. For example:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Then try reversing the process, so that you begin the exercise with a lifted stroke and randomly lower the elbow to create a longer articulation:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Here is a passage from Bach's C-major Fuga that requires the alternation of longer and shorter bow-strokes:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The purpose, then, of this kind of bowing is to give more melodic value to certain notes so that they stand out from the rest of the texture or, conversely, that the shorter notes retreat.
Slurred Notes
Articulations of two or more slurred notes require special attention according to the context in which they occur. Here is a typical passage:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Each pair of notes must be played with a diminuendo and a delicate lightening or lift of the bow. The balancing function of the fourth finger is the key to successful execution of this and similar strokes—at the end of each pair the pressure of the finger must be increased to reduce the amount of arm weight. This particular example would usually be played in the lower half of the bow where it rises more easily from the string, but the illustration can be performed in any part of the bow depending on the desired degree of articulation. I have chosen leaping thirds to demonstrate the point, and these are normally played in a more energetic or lively way than those in a passage such as the following, which are usually played in the upper part of the bow, although a "tempo" indication such as vivace might suggest a stronger dynamic or degree of articulation.
The style described here, whereby slurred notes will be played with a slight diminuendo, is also applicable to groups of three, four, six, or even eight notes. (Below, in the section "Swift-Bows," I talk about "combination strokes," in which slurred notes and separate notes occur in repeated patterns.) As for dynamic shading, the rule about playing slurred notes with a diminuendo is true until such time as the shape of the notes in a group changes from the simple diatonic. Obviously a passage such as the following in Bach's Dminor Allemanda has a more complex dynamic shape!
Retaking
The so-called hook-stroke is generally inappropriate in Baroque music, not only because stopping the bow stifles the natural resonance of the instrument but also because of its tendency to cause a stiff predictability in an otherwise lyrical musical line. However, energetically articulated passages in dotted rhythms, which occur frequently, require a lifted stroke that involves retaking the bow. Here is a useful basic exercise: in the lower half of the bow, in one curving motion, draw a swift down-bow, returning through the air to the point at which you started:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Then repeat this stroke several times without stopping or changing its speed until you return to the frog at the fermata. Be sure to keep wrist and fingers relaxed:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Next, repeat the exercise, executing it in one swift motion—but this time collide with the string close to the frog, as if by accident:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Now join the groups together:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Now you should practice long chains of retaken notes. Once you're comfortable with the stroke, start using it in "five-finger exercises" on one string, and then in simple scales. Remember always to execute the stroke in one constant, smooth, swift motion:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Z-Bowing
This is a name given to a stroke frequently employed in Baroque music, where a passage in dotted rhythm needs to be played legato rather than lifted. The complex technique involved in its execution requires a relaxed elbow and a loose wrist, and is a combination of a continuous motion of the forearm and a flicking action of the hand.
In the down-bow version, during each of the dotted notes the hand must fall slightly faster than the bow and be flicked upward again for each of the short notes. In the up-bow version the opposite action is used: during the dotted note, allow the hand to rise slightly faster than the arm and then flick it downward to rejoin the forearm. In both versions, above all, one must maintain the smooth motion of the forearm, using only the hand to create the short notes.
To practice this stroke, begin without using the bow: imagine that you are plucking something swiftly from a table, flicking the hand upward without moving the forearm. Then, on an open string, first play a continuous, slow down-bow, focusing your attention on the sensation of the descent of the forearm. Then repeat the stroke, this time flicking the hand upward without disturbing the smooth descent of the forearm.
To practice the stroke in an up-bow, imagine that you are trying to shake something off your hand, flicking it downward. Then, as with the down-bow, first play a long, sustained up-bow on an open string and repeat it while flicking the hand:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
When you are comfortable performing the stroke on an open string, proceed to play a simple "five-finger exercise" several times, focusing on smooth forearm motion:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Then, without hesitation, switch to the Z-bowing version:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Bach's D-minor Corrente contains a number of passages that call for Z-bowing:
In this case the up-bow on the first note in the second measure brings the bow to the frog, and the following two bars, when executed with Z-bowing, bring the bow to the point, where it needs to be for what follows. All similar passages in this movement should be bowed the same way. The hook-stroke, which is a type of martelé, should rarely be used, normally not for more than a few notes, and definitely not in this passage.
An important variation of this technique, which is used in many situations in the Baroque repertoire, involves playing a long note followed by shorter notes and returning to the frog to play another long note without accenting the note before the bar line. Practice the following exercises so as to have the sensation of making a constant up-Z-bow. Raising your arm slightly to avoid accenting the first eighth-note, gradually work your way back to the frog:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Remember that the note that follows a dot or a suspension is to be played lightly.
Martelé and Spiccato
Neither of these bow-strokes is applicable in Baroque performance nor, for that matter, in Classical music. Quite apart from being historically inappropriate—in the case of martelé the stroke is certainly intended for use with a Tourte-style bow, and it is recorded that spiccato was first experimented with in Vienna in the late years of the eighteenth century, regarded as a fad, and soon rejected—neither of these strokes works well with a Baroque bow. Furthermore, a better effect can be achieved by the use of other strokes.
I tell my students that the Baroque bow never stops moving until you put it back in the case. By this I mean, simply, that the right arm must always be fluid in motion, that one should always make use of the kind of "follow-through" that a golfer or tennis player utilizes in any stroke. Indeed, there is a very good physiological reason for this: just as the follow-through in sports prevents injury that could result from an abrupt cessation of motion, so it is with the string player's right arm: the use of a stroke that requires a sudden freezing of motion can eventually cause injury. Short sounds can be produced on the violin without the jarring motion of the martelé, usually with lifted strokes, but even staccato strokes at the point of the bow do not require a sudden stop of the forearm's motion and can be completed with a "follow-through."
From the musical point of view any stroke that inhibits the instrument's natural resonance is really a special effect and should be used sparingly. For this reason the hook-stroke, a variation of martelé, is generally not appropriate in Baroque music because of its tendency to stifle the resonance of the sound. Unless a special effect of the kind is called for, it is preferable to lift the bow slightly.
When a passage calls for short notes that sound better played on the string in the upper half of the bow one must use the fourth finger to balance the bow and lighten each stroke, releasing the pressure of the first finger. Once again, be sure to use a fluid, constant arm motion, never stopping the bow between notes. One example is the subject of Bach's G-minor Fugue (which is best bowed "as it comes," even in reverse):
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Example XX in The Art of Playing on the Violin is an invaluable source of information regarding what one may assume to be the Corelli school of technique and expression as transmitted by Geminiani. He provides a list of notes of decreasing value, each with different bowing styles— swelled, uninflected detaché, staccato, or slurred—labeling them buono (good), cattivo (bad), particolare (special effect), meglio (better), ottimo (the best), or pessimo (the worst). They are grouped, furthermore, in two categories of tempo: Adagio or Andante, and Allegro or Presto. It is worth noting, for example, that sixteenth-notes with uninflected détaché are classified as cattivo when played slowly but as buono when played rapidly (our sautillé). On the other hand, sixteenth-notes played in a rapid tempo with a lifted stroke (our spiccato) are considered to be cattivo, and eighth-notes played with an uninflected détaché are dismissed as pessimo!
These categorizations give us, accustomed as we are to playing with the Tourte-style bow, an important insight into the eighteenth-century musicians' understanding of pre-Tourte bow-strokes and tasteful expression in the Italian style; Example XX, therefore, is an indispensable aid to modern-trained musicians wishing to approximate their way of playing.
Spiccato, the term used in string playing to refer to a stroke produced by the rapid vertical motion of the hand, literally means "distinct," and one finds the word frequently in Baroque music, often in strange-sounding combinations such as "Largo e spiccato." Spiccato, the bow-stroke, has no use in Baroque music and is much misused in Classical music. The appropriate stroke for clearly articulated 16th-note passagework is sautillé.
Sautillé
To practice sautillé, begin by drawing the bow slowly back and forth on an open string, watching the frog or tip of the bow to be sure the stroke is continuously lateral. Then gradually move the bow faster and shorten the stroke until rapid, clear notes result, with the hair never leaving the string. When executing this stroke in the middle of the bow the stick tends to rise and lift the hair from the string, and the harder you press on the bow, the more it tries to do so. One may vary the degree of articulation according to the mood of the passage by playing further toward the point, where the notes will be less clear; however, the closer to the middle of the bow one plays, the clearer and more "spiccato" the effect will be. Most significantly, however, allegro sixteenth-notes should be played on the string, not off. This instruction is in accordance with that of Bismantova, who says that passaggi (fast notes) should be played "with short strokes at the point of the bow."
Bariolage
This is a term that refers to a rapid stroke, usually notated in sixteenth-notes, in which the bow passes back and forth between two strings, specifically when an open string is repeated. One frequently encounters such passages in the music of Vivaldi and Bach, and often one note is held as a pedal tone. Here is a familiar example in Bach's E-major Preludio:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Before the Chinrest by Stanley Ritchie. Copyright © 2012 Stanley Ritchie. Excerpted by permission of Indiana University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
How to Support the Pre-Chinrest Violin
I. Right Hand Technique
General Observations
1. Tone Production
Basic Right-Hand Technique
The Importance of Arm Weight
The Use of Arm Weight
2. Bow-Strokes
Lifted strokes
Slurred notes
Retaking
Z-bowing
Martelé and Spiccato
Sautillé
Bariolage
Ondeggiando
3. Chordal Technique
4. Bow Division
5. Swift-Bows
6. Combination Strokes
II. Left-Hand Technique
7. Position-Changing Exercises
Some Basic Concepts
The Position Of The Left Hand
The Swing
Shifting
Half-position
Vibrato
III. Interpretation
8. Expression
Affect and rhetoric
The role of analysis
The importance of the bass-line
The tyranny of the barline
The significance of metre
Shaping notes and gestures
Beware of the beam!
The trouble with notation
The reality of rubato
9. Dynamics and Nuance
Harmony
Melody
Figures of musical speech
(i) Repetition
(ii) Sequences
(iii) Tessitura
(iv) The question
(v) The exclamation
(vi) Silence
10. Tempo
Metrical symbols
Harmonic motion
Technical complexity
Affective words
Cautionary and qualifying words
Baroque dance movements
11. Ornamentation
Symbolic
Notated ornaments
Un-notated ornaments
12. Baroque Clichés
The classic cadential formula
Slurred articulations
The hemiola
Pulsations
Suspensions
Syncopations
Melodic accents
"Down-downs"
The ultimate Baroque cliché
IV. Technique and Practice Guide
13. Tuning
A word about intonation
Tuning
Difference tones
Difference tone exercise
Visualizing
Warm-up exercises
A shifting exercise
14. Exercises Starting on First Finger
Scales
Broken Thirds
Double-stopped Thirds
Sixths
Octaves
Fingered Octaves
Tenths
Arpeggios
15. Exercises Starting on G
Scales
Broken Thirds
Double-stopped Thirds
Sixths
Octaves
Fingered Octaves
Tenths
Arpeggios
16. Half Position
Notes
Index
What People are Saying About This
Useful and elegantly written, Stanley Ritchie's book will be a most valuable resource to accomplished modern violinists wishing to learn to play the baroque violin.
Useful and elegantly written, Stanley Ritchie's book will be a most valuable resource to accomplished modern violinists wishing to learn to play the baroque violin.