Phrasing.
Upon this subject no exhaustive treatise will be given, but only some observations upon intelligent phrasing as applied technically to violin playing. As in singing, and in wind instruments the breath, so in the playing of stringed instruments the change of bowing, is the potent medium through which phrases are divided, distinguished from each other, and rendered clear. Stringed instruments present considerably greater difficulty in this respect than singing, on account of the manifold kinds of stroke in bowing,—often within the compass of a short phrase the most varied bowings occur; moreover, it cannot be laid down that with each phrase or period the stroke must be changed. These phrases may, however, in many cases coincide with the change of bowing, and the player must in general make it his aim to obtain correct phrasing by a suitable application and adjustment of the changes in the stroke.
The following examples from Mendelssohn’s violin concerto are often incorrectly phrased, through changing the bow in the wrong places:—
The above passage is thus rendered by many violinists:
and in David’s edition of the concerto it is even marked thus:—
and a similar passage in this way:—
A prolongation of this theme also shows incorrect changes of bow, from which wrong phrasing ensues:—
The bowings indicated underneath the notes show the correct phrasing, and also the effect aimed at in connecting the idea with the previous example.
In passages where the phrasing is not plainly defined by the changes of bow, the change occurring in the middle of a phrase, the strokes must be made to follow each other as smoothly as possible (i. e. without a break):
Passages which, owing to rapid time and bowing, are not easily to be rendered clear by the player, must at least have the real meaning of the phrase indicated with correct accentuation. It will then become apparent in the rendering; for example.
c. Concerto by Lipinski (Bowing marks by David).
Here the phrasing would become clearer and more intelligible if the legato signs were made to include the notes next to them in the following passages: (1) the E in the second bar; (2) as far as D in the fourth bar; (3) E in the sixth bar, (which would be better tied to the F♯); then in the following bar the two d’s could be played in one bow, &c.
It is still harder than in compositions by violinists or in pieces marked by them, to make the right changes of bow in the sense of the phrasing in the works of composers who are not thoroughly familiar with the technical handling of the violin, and whose indications of bowing are somewhat eccentric, or merely mark the difference between staccato and legato. Even our classical composers have not always been sufficiently strict in this respect, and the appropriate phrasing has been supplied by many violinists, as for example in the Quartets of Mozart and Beethoven.
The fingering is just as essential to correct phrasing as the bowing. Generally the changes of position are made so as to suit the requirements of the phrasing, that it may be rendered smoothly. This is particularly needful in long sequences of notes on one string.
In the first four bars the positions are not so well suited to the phrasing as compared to bars 5 and 6.
In this passage from Richard Wagner’s “Siegfried”, most players change the position with the first note of the third bar, whereas it should occur after this note, on the C♯. In order to render it so, the 4ᵗʰ finger may be taken three times in succession, beginning with the highest C♯. Here also the changes of bowing should coincide with the phrasing marked.
It is essential to a correct rendering that, even in the first pieces played by a beginner, a perception of the phrasing as a whole should be acquired; not, as is usually the case, regarding the bowing marks and the legato signs as exclusively determinative of it. In this respect, unfortunately, there is nothing offered for the student’s enlightenment and the improvement of his taste in the existing violin methods; at least, no method is known to me containing apposite suggestions and remarks on this head.