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.
APPENDIX.
Pictorial representation
of the bow-strokes.
The signs in general use indicating the down and up strokes, are these ┌─┐ ٧.
The first sign indicates the lower end of the bow, or nut (Ger. “Frosch”), the second, the upper part or point (“Spitze”).
Hermann Schroeder, in his edition of Kreutzer’s 42 Studies (dedicated to Joachim), has introduced a further development of these signs. They are not placed in their usual position, but sideways.
Example:—
