Violin Playing as I Teach It

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... Chapter X NUANCE--THE SOUL OF INTERPRETATION PHRASING The average young violin student does not take to heart as he should the great importance of shading, of nuance, in music. He is inclined to believe that if he plays correctly, rhythmically, and, perhaps with temperament, he is doing all a player can be asked to do. Nevertheless, he can never hope to be a genuinely accomplished violinist if he neglects that important phase of music which involves musical sensibility, a proper understanding of the composition to be played, and that great wealth of nuance of which the violin is peculiarly capable. A genius of Beethoven's caliber excels in teaching us how to shade, how to develop nuance. Study his quartets, his trios, his violin sonatas--not to forget his symphonies !--and you will find them replete with the greatest imaginable abundance of nuances. In addition to his great genius and power he insisted on bringing to his music all this varied and colorful wealth of shading. He did more: he was at particular pains to indicate these shadings by means of countless signs, in order to lend his compositions even more color and greater animation than they would otherwise possess. For Beethoven knew very well that tonal monotony may easily impair the effect of any work--and I know of no other composer who has made such subtle use of nuance in general as he. But the young student preoccupied with the technical possibilities of his instrument, is all too likely to forget this side of his art, which he should really regard from the first as an essential part of his technical development, and the sole means of raising his execution to an artistic level. The average student pays no attention to the difference between a piano and a pianissimo, to...