Scan 41
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 25. See the scan on archive.org.
1limit to the varieties of tone. Step by step you must scale the ladder of fame; practice will help you to do it.
3I proceed to treat next of some other points in bowing. These may be comprised under four heads: emphasis, change of stroke, modulation of tone, and gracefulness of bowing. Emphasis is meant to be a stronger and fuller sound of tone, by which is distinguished the accented note of any phrase on which you design to lay particular stress, and to show how it affects the rest of the phrase. Sometimes the emphasised note must be distinguished by a particular kind of tone, as well as by a stronger accent. On the right management of the bow depend the life and spirit of the phrase. Playing without emphasis is rendered monotonous and lifeless. The whole force and beauty of a phrase often depend on the accent. To lay the emphasis with exact propriety is a constant exercise of good sense and attainment. It is one of the greatest trials of a true and just taste. Let me caution, at the same time, against one error, that of multiplying emphasised notes too much. It is only by prudent reserve in the use of them that you can give them any weight. If they recur too often you soon learn to pay little regard to them. To crowd every phrase with accents, is like crowding all the pages of a book with italic characters, which, as to effect, is just the same with using no such distinction at all.
5What pleasure it gives to hear a fine, singing, penetrating tone like Wilhelmj's. Its fulness and purity is almost inconceivable. Such a glorious tone would always meet with enthusiasm. It has admirers throughout the universe. I hold that such fulness and purity is a perfect model for beauty of tone. A considerable portion of young players neglect it. There is no branch of violin playing which is of greater importance, and yet it is a fact, no less melancholy than certain, that there is nothing so much ignored. I consider tone to be so essential to solo-playing, that without it, nothing which deserves the name of solo-playing can exist. In all generations of violinists, it is one of the principles by which the true artist is distinguished from the superficial performer.
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