Books › Modern Violin-playing, 1920 › scan 98
Scan 98
Modern Violin-playing, 1920
20 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Owing to the length of this movement at the heel, it takes a relatively longer time to execute there than at any other point. The idea is, of course, to move the bow at the same speed during the change as during the stroke proper.
3If the player experimentally sets the bow in position about four inches from the heel, and then raises the knuckles while bending the fingers and the thumb, he will find, not only that the hair is high above the string, but that it has moved considerably towards the tail-piece. Hence the necessity for these compensating movements of which we have already made mention.¹
5They are doubly difficult here. They are greater in extent and duration; the function of the forefinger is specially trying; and the business of lowering the wrist, as the knuckles rise, has to be undertaken with much caution. Otherwise, at the slightest sign of relief, the muscles holding the arm aloft will act too precipitately and cause the bow to grind into the string.
7The sensitiveness of the fingers must direct the flexibly controlled and balanced wrist, so that the desired contact is maintained throughout the operation.
9It can not be too clearly recognized that, though the ear has a great deal to do with fine tone-production, its function is purely critical—not operative.
11Let us add one last word with regard to the change of bow. Great patience is necessary in practising it. And it is only by perfect co-ordination of the vital parts of the whole operation that full control and beauty of tone can be assured.
13The welding of the changes of bow into the stroke is best accomplished in three stages, the directions for which apply equally to the two halves of the bow and to the whole bow.
15In the first stage, the player makes the stroke, taking care that the hand is always at right angles to the stick. Then, after a halt, he performs the change, again halting before the stroke in the opposite direction.
17Fig. 17 shows this graphically. The two horizontal lines are the up-bow and the down-bow strokes. The arrow-heads give the direc-
19¹ Their logic will probably seem more urgent now that we are dealing with the heel. In the middle, the player may easily delude himself into the belief that no part of the weight of the bow is resting on the strings. But that delusion can not be so readily indulged in at the heel, when the hand is compelled to have hold of the bow in order to lift it from the string.
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