Some Questions With My Answers (Part one)

(the questions are unedited)
 

Vibrato

 

Dear Mr Redrobe, the vibrato makes violin playing sound interesting. Does it also make a violin louder?

WOW!, I'm afraid you have got this all the wrong way around. It's a bit like "does the sun orbit the earth?" or "does the cart push the horse?". Let me tell you a little about the history of vibrato as it is now understood. In the latter part of the 19th Century, the Great Polish Virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski found himself playing at larger and larger venues and finding it difficult to be heard. He discovered that by using vibrato of more or less speed (not width) he was able to lean on the bow to a greater or lesser extent and squeeze the string into the bridge, so to speak.

He discovered that the faster the vibrato, the more it protected the bow. That is to say that it allowed this extra transmission of power to the bridge without a scratchy sound, indeed with an improved sound as this procedure seemed to be unlocking previously inaccessible tonal qualities "hidden" in the instrument. The sound also carried to the farthest reaches of these new large venues. One thing soon became apparent with this new, well-thought-out approach to vibrato - the width of the vibrato could cause problems. As is obvious the higher one travels up the fingerboard, the closer together are the notes, therefore the narrower must be the vibrato. "Yes, but just how important is this?". It is massively important.

 Now, you see, it is a seldom understood property of the concert hall that some halls "prefer" certain notes over others. So in one particular hall an F (for example) may always sound louder than the adjacent F#, regardless of which instrument one tries this on. Now let us say that a violinist is performing in that particular hall, he is high up the board on a long held F#, but is vibrating too wide and drifting well into the F. On stage he will be in tune (and he is playing in tune), yet all the audience will hear is the out-of-tune F.

It is for reasons such as these that a budding soloist MUST seek out a teacher with an experience of full-time solo performance as the teacher whose only experience is the orchestral desk, or worse only the classroom, cannot possibly guide him/her in these matters. This knowledge was passed down via Auer, Heifetz, Friedman and by other lineages. It is seldom understood by the amateur player or the professional who has not been fortunate enough to have access to training by a world-class soloist, that the Bow gives an artist his lovely sound. The vibrato just allows it to do so. Stephen Redrobe 2002.

 

Staccato

 

I having real problems with doing up-bow staccato, particularly in Zapateado - the sixteenth note scales. How do you do it so fast?!

The staccato in this example is usually executed "flying" or volante. The bow off the string. The bow is hurled - no, allowed to fall upon the string at the commencement of an up-bow; the natural spring of the stick is then allowed to continue for the duration of the run together with tremulant impulses of the upper arm - the biceps vying with the triceps for superiority (this is so hard to describe outside of the classroom and across cyberspace!). Try experimenting with different heights above the string prior to release of the bow. Different arm speeds, different firmness of bow-hold and different bow tensions - oh and don't forget to say some prayers!

 

Dear Mr Redrobe, I was almost feeling retarded on my hands with i was doing this kind of a bowing... is it the same for down bow staccato?.. e.g hora staccato.... how would u advice on this? Alvin

Dear Alvin, the type of staccato I described earlier was the appropriate type for that specific piece. Hora Staccato requires the bow to remain on the string, is of the stiff-arm Wieniawski type and is almost the same up-bow and down-bow. There are some components of the flying staccato in this however, particularly with regard to the upper arm.

 

Dear Mr Redrobe, Thanks for your prompt reply, i would like to hear your comments on the bowing of Kreutzer etude no 4, i am starting to get the hang of the up bow staccato, it's some sort of tensing up the hand a little and giving the bow an extra "boost" of energy to create the "zghhh" sound between each staccato notes right?... correct me if i am wrong...... And how would u advice to practice onthe down bow sort of staccato? Alvin

Dear Alvin, you are practising the correct type of staccato for Kreutzer 4. This again is performed with the bow very definitely on the string. It is not as fast as the Wieniawski stiff arm staccato and is called Martele-staccato or Martellato. It has also been referred to as the Spohr type staccato. The notes are separated with use of hand and fingers. The fingers being particularly important for the down-bow.

In the Wieniawski type (eg hora staccato) the right hand must be totally relaxed along with the forearm. However the upper arm must be stiff - one has to flex the biceps and the triceps at the same time, creating a tremble in the arm which, thanks to the looseness of forearm and hand, is transmitted to the bow. The natural speed of one's tremble will be the speed of one's solid-staccato and nothing on earth will alter it. For instance Michael Rabin (God rest his dear soul) had a faster staccato than Heifetz. This is simply because his upper arm happened to tremble at a quicker rate and is nothing to do with accomplishment.

Don't forget that the staccato also has to be controlled. Let me relate a little story from the Heifetz classroom at the University of Southern California:- One day (around 1966/67) the subject of staccato was being broached - in the Heifetz class the only type of staccato worthy of mention was the stiff-arm "Wieniawski" type (I suppose much is the same in my classroom!) - with Heifetz demonstrating various passages in both up and down-bow. When he had finished a student (who shall remain nameless) had the temerity and appalling manners to comment "Mr. Heifetz, your staccato isn't very fast - is it?". Whereupon Heifetz looked at him - and I mean looked! - and replied very calmly "It has served me well all these years". In other words:- let us see how long your career lasts?. I do so hope this was in some way informative and hopefully a little interesting, Stephen.

 

I have observed, in films of Heifetz's downbow staccato, that he totally changed his hand position on the bow to play this stroke. As I recall, he seemed to completely remove the middle fingers from the bow, as though a slight rotation with forces from the index and pinky fingers would sustain the bow's vertical motion. Any comments, Stephen? Andy

Andy, that is exactly right. Galamian learnt a lot about the violin by observing Heifetz. He could not play himself, you know.

 

Mr Redrobe, I do my staccato from wrist, it's not as fast as Wieniawski type staccato you described above, but it's a decent speed with great deal of control. I'd like to give the stiff upper arm staccato a try. How do you actually keep the forearm relaxed while making the upper arm stiff? When I try to do this, I feel the muscles at the top end of my forearm (elbow end) also become tense and stiff, in another words, the forearm is not 100% relaxed, but the hand is. Oh, the upper arm gets tired very quickly, which I guess it's a message from body telling me not to do this too often. Thanks.

Dear "maestro",the idea is to flex the biceps and triceps simultaneously. As each vies for supremacy so to speak the tremor kicks in. The upper part of the forearm will be tensed as you describe but the hand shoul be relaxed - floppy - at the wrist joint. This is a good starting point. It is tiring for the upper arm. Practice it sparingly. Stephen Redrobe.

 

Hello Meister Redrobe, I've been following your posts on upbow staccato with great interest, particularly your comments on the so-called stiff-arm, or Weiniawski staccato. I've managed over the years more or less to play this stroke fairly well. However the catch is at times I have difficulty synchronizing the left hand fingers with the rapid trembling of the bow. Any pointers? Also, someone here made a comment once about the necessity of having a GOOD bow. Does this play a major factor in being able to play this stroke well (or ANY stroke for that matter), or is this overexagerration? Thanks again!

Even if one can already play the violin at a reasonable level, when it comes to mastering a new bow stroke it is always best to go back to basics for a little while. First practice playing little groups of say four notes on an open D. Then go for 4 ds and 4 Es (8 notes) on the same bow. Then 4 Ds, 4 Es and 4 F#s. Continue along these lines until you can play a single up-bow of 36 notes:- Ds Es F#s Gs As Gs F#s Es Ds all on the D string.

Once you get the "knack" of each phase of this don't practice it incessantly - get on to the next. This will now be beginning to establish the stroke somewhat with a degree of co-ordination with the left hand involved. Now we need to up the level of co-ordination. The next phase is to repeat each note only twice. DD EE F#F# GG AA GG F#F# EE DD EE F#F# GG AA GG F#F# EE DD. Followed by single notes D E F# G A G F# E and so on. Where most students' staccato runs break down is upon the change of string.

This needs special attention - take the bowing back to basics again. The first step is to play 4 open As and 4 open Ds on one bow. Now the point here is that we do not want a sudden raising of the right arm at the point of string change - rather there should be a gradual raising whilst still playing on the previous string. As soon as the bow begins the four notes on the A string the arm begins to raise so that by the fifth note - the 1st note on the new string - the bow is already where it needs to be.

Taking this further to play 4 open Es, 4 As, 4 Ds and 4 Gs - 16 notes on one up bow - the right elbow does not raise at each change of string, it must be seen to be gradually raising in a nice smooth curve all the way from E string level to G string level (in the same way that it does in chordal arpeggio figures [Mendelssohn concerto- cadenza; Pag cap 1; Chaconne central section]). To get it exactly right one should also be very aware of the number of notes played on each string and put a little accent on each change of string from the shoulder.

The final stage in this co-ordination "installation" is to play, for example, a descending scale in G major starting on 4th finger B on the E string all the way to open G. Be very aware of counting the number of notes on each string (5 on E, 4 on the others) as it is the point of string change that will be the likely place of collapse. In more complicated runs (say in Wieniawski) it is this awareness of the number of notes on each string that is the key to success and this should be the uppermost thought in one's mind.

That is what went on in the mind of the great Lithuanian and it's more than good enough for the rest of us. This stroke is very tiring on the upper arm - no matter how strong you are (in order to create the tremble the biceps and triceps have to use their full capability){I can rip a telephone directory in half and this stroke tires me] - so don't over practice it. Be satisfied on mastering each phase; each one is an achievement. Above all please be patient. If you use these steps to acquire it you will have a staccato to be proud of!. Stephen Redrobe 2002.