BOOKS

GÜNTER KÜHNEL/SEBASTIAN KIRSCH

Joachim Tielke: Kunstvolle Musikinstrumente des Barock Friedemann and Barbara Hellwig

456PP ISBN 9783422070783 DEUTSCHER KUNSTVERLAG €78

Joachim Tielke: Neue Funde zu Werk und Wirkung Friedemann and Barbara Hellwig

80PP ISBN 9783422982116 DEUTSCHER KUNSTVERLAG €30

Published in 2011, Joachim Tielke: Kunstvolle Musikinstrumente des Barock (‘Ornate musical instruments of the Baroque’) by Friedemann and Barbara Hellwig is a reworking and continuation of Günther Hellwig’s 1980 German-language work Joachim Tielke: Ein Hamburger Lauten und Violenmacher der Barockzeit (‘A Hamburg lute and violin maker of the Baroque era’). A decade later, this text has been brought to the fore with the release of a short follow-on volume, Joachim Tielke: Neue Funde zu Werk und Wirkung (‘New discoveries about his work and its effect’), which documents five newly identified instruments accompanied by updated scholarship. These rich volumes are beautifully illustrated with high-quality photos, creating two books worthy of ‘coffeetable’ status as well as being important contributions to scholarship.

Musical instruments are as much about their visual appearance as they are their sound. We design instruments to be attractive, decorative objects that delight observers even when silent. Instruments need to catch the eye of potential customers in order to be commercially viable in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

A 1684 guitar by Joachim Tielke

The bowed and plucked stringed instruments from the Hamburg workshop of Joachim Tielke (1641– 1719) captures this essence through a large number of surviving instruments, often exquisitely finished in the latest fashions of their day. Tielke produced the main instruments in use at the time, including lutes, guitars, bell citterns, violins and viols, as well as less common instruments like the early wire-strung viola d’amore, the dancing master’s pochette (or kit) violin, and the baryton. It is this sheer volume of largely intact instruments, and their very distinctive designs, that have drawn the attention of many musicians and scholars.

The first book is divided into four sections, starting with the life and work of Joachim. A brief history of the Tielke family is followed by discussion of the organisation of the Tielke workshop, and is a fascinating insight into the complexities of a manufacturing trade often obscured and romanticised by a single maker’s name. Further valuable information is provided on possible students of Tielke who used his designs after his death; his labels and how they evolved over his career; and the intricate decoration Tielke’s work is most known for, all being information that will be most valued by curators, auctioneers and scholars alike.

Part two serves as an extensive compendium of the 169 instruments and fragments identified from the Tielke workshop (at the time of publication), being 34 more than originally collated by Günther Hellwig in 1980. Organised by instrument types, this book brings instruments together from disparate collections, allowing side-by-side comparison of analysis and physical attributes. What is most startling is the different permutations of designs in use by the workshop, while all strongly pertaining to what we now recognise as characteristically Tielke. The workshop’s output serves as a model in marquetry skills, combining the visual and auditory arts in instruments that were destined for some of the wealthiest clients of the era. The examinations of the instruments are treasure-troves of data for anyone working with stringed instruments of this time, many entries including useful measurements and commentary. The remaining two sections of the book consist of appendices detailing the work of related makers, such as Joachim’s brother Gottfried, and a register of instruments and their locations at the time of publication.

Since the publication of the first volume, a few additional instruments have appeared on the book’s website, available as printoffs for those wishing to augment the book they had purchased. It was therefore welcome when these newly discovered items were formally inducted to the Tielke catalogue by the publication of a follow-on volume in 2020. This thin but important annex to the original volume provides entries for a further five instruments, bringing the total number of instruments and fragments documented by the Hellwigs to 174. In addition, three lengthy chapters on dendrochronology, originally published in 2018, have been updated and republished in this volume, creating a near-complete consideration of Tielke’s instruments and legacy to date.

While it would now be most welcome to see these books as a single volume translated into English (which would undoubtedly improve accessibility to these valuable scholarly assets), at present the two volumes are a must-have for anyone interested in Baroque stringed instruments, and a credit to the expertise and dedication of Friedemann and Barbara Hellwig.

RACHAEL DURKIN

London College of Music Violin Handbooks

STEP 1: 16PP ISMN 9790570123483 £7.95 STEP 2: 20PP ISMN 9790570123490 £7.95 GRADE 1: 48PP ISMN 9790570123506 £8.95 GRADE 2: 56PP ISMN 9790570123513 £9.50 GRADE 3: 64PP ISMN 9790570123520 £9.95 GRADE 4: 80PP ISMN 9790570123537 £10.95 GRADE 5: 88PP ISMN 9790570123544 £11.95 GRADE 6: 112PP ISMN 9790570123551 £12.95 GRADE 7: 120PP ISMN 9790570123568 £13.95 GRADE 8: 156PP ISMN 9790570123575 £14.95

The new London College of Music (LCM) violin handbooks are a handsome set of volumes. Everything from the attractive covers to the beautifully spaced-out content, printed on non-dazzling slightly off-white paper indicates that these books have been carefully planned and thought out. Each volume contains not only repertoire and accompaniments, but technical work, specimen sightreading and aural tests, as well as comprehensive notes on the pieces, including violin-specific technical suggestions, and information about the composers, their backgrounds and compositional styles. LCM offers an impressive array of assessments, including ‘traditional’ exams as well as ones that are more focused on repertoire and performance, with in-person, recorded and online options. While the handbooks are designed to prepare fully for the traditional exams, which include scales or studies, sightreading, aural tests and a ‘discussion’, they could also be used for the ‘Leisure play’ or ‘Recital’ options as well as by those who are not looking to prepare for an exam.

The series includes two pre-Grade 1 books, called Step 1 and Step 2. Both are well thought out, but reasonably difficult in terms of what one might expect from learners in the first year; the repertoire is more difficult than the Trinity or ABRSM Initial grades, for example, and an ‘average’ student might find the rate of progress towards Grade 1a little demotivating. Although there is much excellent material in these early grade studies, all but the most able learners would probably struggle to master much of it. Techniques used include long double-stopped notes, fast string-crossings, left-hand pizz followed by fingered arco notes, hooked bows and more – all worthy of study, but possibly a little out of the comfort zone of young beginners.

From Grade 2 onwards, the repertoire seems more in line with that of other exam boards. The lower grades include a good mixture of compositions and arrangements by favourite educators such as Kathy and David Blackwell, Adam Carse, Mary Cohen, Sheila Nelson and Polly Waterfield, as well as some new works, and the upper grades include some of the ‘standard’ repertoire as well as introducing some lesser-known works. Female composers are well represented throughout the series, and efforts have clearly been made to produce a syllabus that is as diverse as possible, without ignoring wellknown favourites.

Of all the handbooks, the Grade 4 book stands out as a gem. Whether or not you plan to make use of the LCM exam system, the repertoire in this volume makes it a fabulous teaching resource, perfect for that slight post-Grade 3 slump experienced by many students of ‘I can shift but haven’t yet mastered vibrato, and I need to work more on bow division – what can I play now?’ Old favourites such as Küchler’s Concertino in D nestle by a great mixture of ‘fun’ pieces. There are also opportunities to work on expression and tone with Richard Rodney Bennett’s gorgeous All in a Garden Green and a very satisfying arrangement of Smetana’s Vltava.

It is worth noting that there is no audio content to accompany the handbooks. Since ABRSM has its all-singing, all-dancing Violin Practice Partner app and Trinity has plenty of digital content available to stream and download, it seems that LCM has slightly missed a trick here.

CELIA COBB