Early music articulation for modern instrumentalists

How to use Baroque bow techniques to build variety, lightness and flow into every phrase

Professor of violin at the Cologne Conservatory of Music and Dance, Germany

•BORN 

Boston, MA, US

•STUDIED WITH

  Eric Rosenblith, Szymon Goldberg, Ilan Gronich, Thomas Brandis

•

TEACHES 

Conservatoire students (pre-college to postgraduate)

Since the 19th century, string players have developed such a focus on beautiful sostenuto playing and smooth bow changes that articulation used by earlier players has become lost, forgotten or even disdained. That articulation, however, was an integral part of earlier musical language. The subtleties of early bow control can help us to give life to early music even when we use modern instruments and bows.

It is not my aim to imitate the Baroque violin on a modern instrument: I want to embrace my modern violin’s beauty and strength. My wish is to bring out the best of modern instruments while also doing justice to historical music.

EXERCISES

Music is like language: every note or word begins with an articulation that creates the sound and gives it expression. Varying the consonants that we use to begin each bow stroke helps us to add a spoken character to anything that we play. It also helps us to project and bring the music to life. Ps are short and sharp, Bs and Ms longer and rounder, Ks hard and spiky. Softer consonants allow us to play a legato line in separate bows; with harder consonants, we can articulate notes and intervals more clearly, without audible accents. In exercise 1:

• Use collé in the middle of the bow to imitate different consonants. ‘Speak’ with the right hand to bring the sound alive without exaggerated gestures. Start on the string, apply pressure, then release

• Notice how each string responds differently depending on its thickness. React to that resistance and experiment in all parts of the bow

AVOIDING HEAVY UP BOWS 

The emphasis in early music comes on the down bow main beats of the bar. On weaker beats the stroke must be lighter. This principle has to be translated consciously on to modern instruments, where it is easy to play up bows heavily, with poor coordination, especially after a slur. To do it well requires real right-arm control. In exercise 2:

• Imagine that your right-hand fingers are alive, communicating through the bow and responding to the natural resistance of each string Make sure that the separate note after the slur is not accented or louder, and bow in perfect coordination with the left hand

TAPERED SLURS 

Slurs connect notes just as words connect letters. Baroque musicians played them with a slight diminuendo, but modern players tend to sustain them, which can mean that the micro-phrases of the music are lost. Some modern players who wish to imitate Baroque style over-correct by clipping the end of each slur, but this can sound mannered and break the phrase. Instead it helps to be constantly aware of the life and tension in every slur, and of how that tension naturally subsides towards the end.

In exercises 3 and 4, practise playing slurs that are neither clipped nor over-sustained. Start from the string, articulate each slur, release the bow and let the sound taper away naturally.

REPERTOIRE

Knowledge of early articulation helps us to play all repertoire, whether modern or old. It enables us to play with variety and ‘speak’ in example 1, to play elegant slurs in example 2, and to play naturally and beautifully in example 3, without having to worry about how we end each stroke. It also helps us to avoid unwanted accents or heavy up bows in examples 4 and 5 (see page 79) without sounding flimsy or losing quality. Instead we can identify the main beats and harmonies in the bass-line and let them carry us through the notes that come in between, so that the music just flows.

IN YOUR PRACTICE

I would recommend practising the exercises in this article as part of a warm-up routine, with a good idea of how you will be using them in the pieces you are playing. Whenever you practise, make sure that you know why you are doing it. Even when you are playing

your scales, imagine that you are playing repertoire, like a Mozart concerto, or Bach, Tchaikovksy or Shostakovich. Find out how that affects you psychologically and impacts on your sound production and vibrato. It’s inspiring, and it makes practice more fun.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

So many students can do amazing things on the violin, but not enough really understand what the music requires of them.

I encourage students to look at the score of any piece that they learn, to be really aware of the different voices – especially the bass-line – and how they fit within the big picture. As teachers we can find a way to open their awareness to harmonic structure, whatever their age or standard. Once they understand the music’s structure, what they appreciate about it and what about it they would like to share, they will be able to take

their playing to an entirely new level. As their teachers we should be able to understand the most realistic and natural solutions to help each individual, and to leave room for flexibility depending on what type of musician they want to be. Would they prefer to focus on historical performance practice, modern playing, or are they going to go in a different direction? There is no check box to say ‘complete’: it’s a never-ending process.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

FURTHER MATERIALS

Leopold Mozart’s A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing is still a respected and clear source of information about early articulation

In my new CD with fortepianist Paolo Giacometti, Franz Schubert Music for Violin II, on BIS, I use early music techniques to inform my articulation and interpretation

NEXT MONTH Violist Evan Wilson on left-hand calisthenics