TECHNIQUE

Sautillé

DAVID KIM

Concertmaster, Philadelphia Orchestra and All-Star Orchestra; professor of violin studies at Cairn University, Philadelphia

BORN

Carbondale, IL, US

STUDIED WITH

Dorothy DeLay

TEACHES

Conservatoire students and young professionals

Over the past ten years, more and more people have come to me for coaching to help them prepare for orchestral auditions. During this time I have realised that sautillé is the most critical and practical stroke to have when you are auditioning for an orchestra. If you don’t have a good sautillé, it will send the message that you are not quite ready. If you do have a good sautillé, you will burst with a confidence that permeates everything else. From the perspective of the audition panel, we hear a lot of good left-hand technique, but we are looking for players who have also achieved incredible artistry with the bow, and who have great control of their off-string strokes at every speed and dynamic, from any height above the string. Many people mistakenly think that spiccato is the stroke that is the bellwether for orchestral extracts, but it’s not: in Schumann’s Second Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, the stroke is not off the string the whole way. They require a mixture of strokes and a good command of your bow arm and grip, to give the impression of off-the-string playing without actually being 100 per cent off the string. That is sautillé – or what I like to call ‘audition spiccato’.

EXERCISES

‘Sautillé’ comes from the French for hop, skip or jump, and it is good news for everyone: it releases you from having to figure out how to achieve a legalistic, continuous off-the-string stroke. It is like a fast détaché where you allow the stick to wobble and hop. The key is to hear it: it has a pearly roundness – more of a ‘U’ than a ‘V’ – that creates a beautiful, ringing bounce, without edginess.

EXPERIMENTATION

When it comes to bounced bowings, it is funny how even the best teachers simply tell their students to ‘go figure it out on your own’. This is partly because different techniques work for different people, and so the best way to learn is actually to flop around on your fiddle and experiment:

On one open string, play a détaché stroke starting at around q = 130, with four quavers (e) per beat Play in different parts of the bow, until you find the bouncing point Tilt the bow towards you, or away from you, or keep the bow hair flat – whatever works Experiment with different bow holds and fingers. I once saw a very famous violinist playing sautillé with the pinkie and the middle finger off the stick.

Try creeping up the bow, or playing with your thumb bent and then straight Practise the stroke on every open string, and then on scales, playing eight sautillés on each pitch Work your way up to q = 150. I don’t know of any orchestral excerpts at a faster tempo than that Maintain a pearly, ringing sound at every speed

AN INDIVIDUAL APPROACH

I like to hold the bow square, using the eye as a guide for where to place my third finger. I keep my thumb and pinkie nicely rounded, with the pinkie sitting softly on top of the bow. This helps me to engage my arm muscles, and I find that having all four fingers on the bow gives me more control over my speed.

Beginning the stroke can be difficult. For the most part, sautillé starts on the string; it can be useful to begin with a small accent, to kick-start the bow and get it moving. It’s not a method from Russia or Paris – it’s just a way of doing it. When you find a technique that works for you, it will give you a much more organic understanding of how to control your bow and violin.

PERFORMING UNDER PRESSURE

When I ran a Google search for ‘violin bow stroke: sautillé’, I got 46,000 hits, of videos by different violin teachers all over the world. Several of them suggested that sautillé is only a wrist and finger stroke. I happen to disagree: I think that it is more productive and easier to do when you use the bigger muscles. That is because I discovered a long time ago, from playing golf, that the bigger muscles are more dependable under pressure. When I’m nervous I get jittery, the smaller muscles in my wrist and fingers quickly betray me, and my bow starts to bounce in an uncontrolled way. For me, the arm is the engine of the sautillé stroke: it gives me the propulsion and energy I need to get the stick bouncing.

My most recent revelation has been about bow grip. When I am playing something really delicate under pressure and I feel jittery – and that happens all the time – I find it comforting to hold the bow just three per cent firmer, so that I am a bit more connected to it. If I hold it too loosely, all the little muscles start to twitch and then I’m in trouble! To test what happens to your sautillé when you feel a bit nervous, practise playing in front of people – even if it’s just a group of preschool kids – to help you figure out what works for you.

REPERTOIRE

Orchestral excerpts are far easier if you realise that many of the standard passages don’t have to be played entirely off the string. Mostly you can use a sautillé bow stroke, mixed in with détaché and occasional spiccato. It’s a subtle way of showing an audition panel that you have a good spiccato, even though most of the time you’re doing sautillé. Adjust as necessary when you play and, above all, use your ears to guide you. You will need to adapt your playing depending on the day, the weather, the concert hall – every day is different, psychologically and physically! The more ready and flexible you are, the more success you are going to have in auditions, because that is the kind of colleague we are all searching for.

The more decisions you make about bow strokes before you play, the more prepared and free you will be in performance. Try marking up your music with combinations of strokes that give an overall bounced, sautillé effect, as shown in examples 1–3