Books › Voice and violin, 1898 › scan 144
Scan 144
Voice and violin, 1898
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 124. See the scan on archive.org.
1immensely during the last thirty years, and there is now no longer the difficulty in procuring good and true strings which was formerly the case. It is, therefore, needless to say more on this point; but I will add a few words on violin music.
3Our composers for the opera and symphonic concerts have generally made a sufficient study of the violin to enable them to avoid useless difficulties, such as extraordinary keys and impossible chords, or writing long passages that can only be performed in the second or fourth positions. A good composer will never be guilty of such faults. In some of the bad music for the violin which falls into the hands of the amateur, the score is simply copied from piano, flute, or clarionet pieces; and sometimes we see elementary music announced as "for flute or violin," which is often quite unworthy the attention of a violinist, except as a pastime, or amusement for the moment.
5Young violinists, after five or six years' good practice, will play admirably in tune in the first and third positions, in good compositions; but when they come to make use of the second or fourth position the intonation will be often false, because these are, so to say, unnatural positions of the left hand, based on theory rather than on practice.
7It is essential that those who write for the violin as a solo instrument should study the works left us by Rode, Spohr, Ernst, Paganini, and De Bériot.
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