BOOKS

Sight Reading Strings: A progressive method Naomi Yandell, Celia Cobb

VIOLIN INITIAL–GRADE 2: 72PP ISBN 9780857368539 GRADES 3–5: 76PP ISBN 97808557368546

GRADES 6–8: 76PP ISBN 97808557368553

VIOLA INITIAL–GRADE 2: 72PP ISBN 97808557368560 GRADES 3–5: 72PP ISBN 97808557368577

GRADES 6–8: 76PP ISBN 97808557368584

CELLO INITIAL–GRADE 2: 68PP ISBN 97808557368591 GRADES 3–5: 76PP ISBN 97808557368697

GRADES 6–8: 76PP ISBN 97808557368614

DOUBLE BASS INITIAL–GRADE 2: 68PP ISBN 97808557368621 GRADES 3–5: 76PP ISBN 97808557368638

GRADES 6–8: 80PP ISBN 97808557368645

TRINITY COLLEGE LONDON PRESS £14 EACH

Celia Cobb and Naomi Yandell have produced a comprehensive, progressive method to develop sightreading skills for all four of the bowed stringed instruments. The stated purpose is to help students to prepare for Trinity College London’s instrumental graded music exams. While this preparation is clearly central to the volumes, there is more to appreciate in addition, and the method will be useful irrespective of any exam timetable.

There are three books for each instrument: Initial to Grade 2; Grades 3–5 and Grades 6–8. The music used is identical for each instrument, making it ideal for any teacher wishing to work on sightreading in groups, or as a string orchestra, with the bonus of developing ensemble skills at the same time.

Every grade is divided into ten lessons, each one neatly occupying a double page. The lesson sets out a specific aim, such as tackling a new time signature, and is followed by exercises to develop and use this new skill. Cobb and Yandell are always encouraging the reader to ‘Think Before You Play’. They ask questions about aspects of or patterns in the music, reinforcing the learning, and helping pupils find a sense of welcome familiarity. Every lesson concludes with a sightreading duet.

At the end of each set of ten lessons, a number of specimen Trinity tests allow students to measure their progress against the standard of music they might expect for sightreading in the exam.

As one would expect from these distinguished educators, Cobb and Yandell are well versed in the varying demands of the different stringed instruments at each exam grade level. At Grade 2, a cellist will need to recognise where to use the second finger in C major on the A string, while violinists need only ‘standard fingering’ at the same stage.

In the higher grades (6–8), Cobb and Yandell include adaptations of ‘real music’ in their duets. Pleasingly, a violist or cellist might find themselves reading a version of the first violin part of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, while a violinist might find themselves learning the harmony of the Bach E major Violin Concerto.

All of this means that while a student is preparing for an exam, they are also adding analytical and musical skills at the same time. Even if a teacher does not use Trinity exams with their students, these volumes are an excellent educational resource.

ALEX LAING

Feine und bedeutende Streichinstrumente Rudolf Eckstein

525PP (TWO VOLUMES) VOL.1: 261PP ISBN 9783000660160 VOL.2: 264PP ISBN 9783000660177 RUDOLF ALBERT ECKSTEIN €359.90

These days, the general trend in violin books tends towards hyperspecialised publications which focus on a very particular maker, or a narrow school. Often, the best books are those that show the most typical examples of a maker’s work. While this presents an ‘ideal’, it runs the risk of propagating a very insular view of the capacity and mindset of different makers, and it can narrow the focus in a way that is unrealistic within the broader realities of studying the violins of centuries past. With this in mind, I found this new book deeply stimulating, although in ways that may not be altogether obvious. It is an autobiographical chronicle of the instruments that Rudolf Eckstein has enjoyed and sold over a 30-year period. With text in both German and English, it gives the sensation of experiencing a connoisseur’s-ear survey of instruments that had been picked out for their musical success, rather than the usual curator’s-eye view which governs most new publications.

There is a fair inclusion of the usual suspects – Rogeri, Testore, Gagliano, and Vuillaume, and these are helpful to draw the eye back to the kind of instrument we see more regularly across the literature of the violin, but the overwhelming majority of instruments are Italian from the early-to-middle part of the 20th century. Internal details, where they appear, prove extremely helpful. I would not, for example, have known what to make of Paolo de Barbieri’s mid-20th-century work, had I not seen pictures of the wraparound linings passing over the corner-blocks in the example illustrated. I may have assumed, incorrectly, it was something Hungarian. There are many small details like this, and they all go a long way to justify this book on my shelf.

I can’t review this without being cautiously critical of the photography. In fairness, 30 years ago or even 10 years ago we weren’t able to make photos the way we see on a monthly basis in The Strad without going to great expense, and it would be a vast undertaking to bring in all of these instruments to be re-photographed.

There are issues with lighting, angles and digital cropping, and the occasional pixellated image. However, this is far from being the only book with these problems. I would not recommend this book as a first step towards understanding 20th-century Italian instruments, but the more that I return to it with a strong foundation of knowledge, the more I have come to be grateful for it, and the more I find it an invaluable critique of this difficult sub-discipline of violin expertise.

A mid-20th- century violin by Paolo de Barbieri

BENJAMIN HEBBERT

Notes for Violists: A Guide to the Repertoire David M. Bynog

448PP ISBN 9780190916114 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS £25.99

OUP’s ongoing Notes for Performers series is aimed at helping musicians to ‘connect performance studies with pertinent aspects of scholarship’.

While undergraduate students are the principal target audience, they are not the only readers who will profit from the wealth of information provided here. David Bynog, long-time editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society and an active player, is uniquely qualified to introduce his instrument’s repertoire to all interested readers regardless of background. While one may miss personal favourites in his selection of 35 pieces, it would be hard to argue that any of them should not have been included. (Owing to his unique relevance for viola players, the ‘one piece per composer’ rule is broken in Paul Hindemith’s case.)

Each chapter is similarly structured: the piece is introduced with a register card-style listing of essential data such as date of composition, premiere performance, first printed publication and selected later editions. A general introduction starts with a quotation, often stemming from the composer, to set the scene. After a potted biography the main section begins.

This describes the work’s genesis and its place within the author’s oeuvre, followed by a detailed formal and harmonic analysis. The chapter ends with an overview of the work’s reception, illustrated by contemporary reviews and a reflection on its importance for present-day violists.

Pragmatically, Bynog bends this scheme to deal with the different characteristics of each particular piece and its history. Thus, the controversy surrounding Tibor Serly’s posthumous edition of Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto sketch is revisited, and subsequent alternative editions briefly introduced. In the case of William Walton’s Concerto, no fewer than six different versions of the solo part were published over the years with varying phrasing, articulation and even the occasional diverging pitch. In these and other comparable cases, Bynog refrains from recommending one solution above others. His goal is rather to provide players with all the necessary information to arrive at their own conclusions, guided by their personal preferences, which – as he points out – will evolve over time. For the same reason, technical or interpretative advice is eschewed, but Bynog consistently provides food for further thought. I was fascinated to read that Rebecca Clarke – who consistently refused any special treatment as a ‘woman composer’ – thanked Toby Appel, the violist whose 1977 performance of the Viola Sonata kick-started the revival of her music, with a lovely album leaf, her very last composition; all four bars of it are reproduced in the book. The numerous music examples are clearly printed. There are few other illustrations, but footnotes and an up-to-date bibliography complete this indispensable publication.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE