Scan 27
Violin mastery; talks with master violinists and teachers, 1919
10 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Eugène Ysaye
3His own definition of tone is worth recording. He says it should be "In music what the heart suggests, and the soul expresses!"
5THE TOOLS OF VIOLIN MASTERY
7"With regard to mechanism," Ysaye continued, "at the present day the tools of violin mastery, of expression, technic, mechanism, are far more necessary than in days gone by. In fact they are indispensable, if the spirit is to express itself without restraint. And the greater mechanical command one has the less noticeable it becomes. All that suggests effort, awkwardness, difficulty, repels the listener, who more than anything else delights in a singing violin tone. Vieuxtemps often said: Pas de trait pour le trait—chantez, chantez! (Not runs for the sake of runs—sing, sing!)
9"Too many of the technicians of the present day no longer sing. Their difficulties—they surmount them more or less happily; but the effect is too apparent, and though, at times, the listener may be astonished, he can never be charmed. Agile fingers, sure of themselves, and a perfect bow stroke are essentials; and they must be supremely able to carry along the
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