INTRODUCTION

THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIOLINS SCHOOLS IN EUROPE

In the introduction of the text, the importance of Italian musicians in the

eighteenth century is presented. Names such as Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio
Vivaldi, Giuseppe Tartini and many other composers – violinists. The unique
way of perceiving the sonata and the co, by using cantabile motives combined
with a bold virtuosity, dramatic expression of the musical figures. It had a
huge impact not only in Italy but in other countries as well, since Britain was a
great place for music publishing and flourishing concert life.
The following paragraph mentions more nations, where violin school was
developing. Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, America, Scandinavian
countries... Germany stood out with more individual violin playing tradition,
based on Leopold Mozart's “Versuch”. French violinists were highly affected by
the dance music but gradually took over the Italian tradition. Mostly focusing
on sonatas developed mixed styles violin techniques. Giovanni Battista Viotti,
Italian violinist – pedagogue, introduced Stradivari's violins in France and had
an important role in the development of the bowing technique. These bases of
technical and stylistic playing derived to the big name of the nineteenth-
century French violin school, which brought such violinists as Pierre Rode,
Auguste Durand, Rodolphe Kreutzer...
In the nineteenth century, musical and educational interest was
increasing amongst the middle classes. Developed violin playing had an impact
on the popularity and need of giving more concerts. Therefore, bigger concerts
halls were needed and built, to reach broader audiences. The genre of concerto
demanded more clarity of the soloist, better balance with the orchestra,
extended techniques. Rising virtuosity emerged, that brought more genres to
the repertoire of violin: fantasies, potpourris, souvenirs, romances...
The development of the publishing sphere made music more accessible,
including not only the musical pieces but also the didactic material with
studies, etudes, exercises, merging many national styles of violin playing,
creating an international standard of violin school. Particularly the
establishment of the Conservatoire in Paris became a center of musical
education. Publishing books by Rode, Baillot, and Kreutzer, with violin playing
methods, became very popular outside of France as well. Similar institutions
were founded in most of the big musical capitals, Vienna, London, Geneva,
Florence, Leipzig, Munich, and others.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Italy seemed to slightly
neglect fascination with the violin and started focusing on the native singing
and opera genre. Despite that, famous violinists Campagnoli and Galeazzi
published their pedagogical works. Perhaps, the master-pupil approach
protected the pedagogical secrets.
German violin school seemed to concentrate on more simple technical
tasks, preparing orchestral musicians, rather than soloists. Important articles
on harmonics were written, accepting these new effects. Britain was mostly
bringing foreign violinists.
To conclude, the main countries of creating, publishing literature on
violin technique and performance were France, Italy, Germany, and Britain.
Guides for violinists were intended not only for the pupils but also for the
teachers.
Eighteenth-century performance practices, violinists were expected to
know the style of their time, co-partner with the composer, with almost no
performance instructions. Despite all that, many disagreements derived,
concerning the technique: violin holding, bow holding, posture, effects, and the
technique as well, regarding the ornamentation, expression, tone production.
Management of the bow was considered as a principal factor of an expressive
performance. More and more violin methods were promoted, by publishing
books with technical instructions. For example, the first French tutor set was
published in the period – Principes - concentrating on the Italian sonata
tradition, mixing with French dance styles, duets for violins, with many
important technical tips and compositions included.
L'art by Michel Correte, was a publication collection of Italian tradition
compositions by Alberti, Albinoni, Corelli, Abaco, Handel. It required more
advanced technicality regarding the bowings and need of the tone quality, high
positions and the use of double stops. Jean-Baptiste Cartier also published his
L'art, dedicated to the Conservatoire of Paris, it was an anthology combining
French (Leclair, Cartier, Gavinies), German (Stamitz, Mozart) and Italian
(Corelli, Tartini) traditions of the violin school in the seventeenth-eighteenth
centuries. Big variety of compositions and styles.
So the first part of L'art contains mostly the basic violin techniques,
trying to get a more international approach to the violin playing. The second
part is meant to get to know the fingerboard better, includes scales, positions,
fingerings, harmonics, double stopping and ornaments, various bowings.
Michel Woldemar's “Grande methode” is described as an eccentric style
and with special, advanced technical requirements, suitable for elementary
violinists. Tough scales and study material, extensive musical content,
examples of cadenzas are included with a variety of ornamentations.
The “Methode” by Rode gets deeper to the origins of the violin playing,
history of it, with introductory articles, practical considerations. It has
presented the basic rules of violin and bow holding, hands and fingers
positions, exercises for that. General tips for the posture and bow
management.
Pierre Baillot in his L'art includes two main sections, concentrating first
on the mechanics of violin playing, detailed technical matters. Second –
expressive part quoting the “Methode”. Many musical examples are provided, a
good combination of style and technique, aesthetics of the period.
Very influential was Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist with a
remarkable role in the development of violin playing. His teaching and
performing, way of study, popular mostly in Ireland and England.
Francesco Galeazzi published work called “Elementi”, two volumes
including ancient and modern music, harmony, melody, and composition in the
second part, general theory and principals of violin playing and performing in
the first one. He discusses almost all the technical components, has an
interesting approach to the ornaments, perceiving them as “improvisatory” and
expression as one of the main ingredients of style. An important source of
information on improvisation. The orchestral playing is discussed as well, the
role of the concertmaster, solo playing. Even approach of the pedagogy.
“Metodo” by Bartolomeo Campagnoli, another influential book of
studies. Divided into five parts. General technical matters, systematic and
detailed instructions, 250 progressive exercises, advanced technicality.
The most important German treatise for the advanced player was
Leopold Mozart's “Versuch”. It had many editions since some technical
components would be outdated, so it was always following and revising with
the contemporary methods.
The first half of the nineteenth century provided an informative account
of Paganini's performing style, by Carl Guhr “Ueber Paganini Kunst”. Creating
an advanced standard of violin playing, executive skills, and technical facilities.
Analyzing Paganini's unique style and way of playing, his bow strokes and
tuning of the instrument, other techniques.
Ludwig Spohr published “Violinschule”, contrasting to the work above,
conservative content, limited technical and stylistic details, objecting some of
the Paganini's methods, promoting a more classical way of playing and making
the sound. His treatise is divided into three parts. The first one is the
construction and maintenance of the violin, the strings, various violin models,
bow and use of the rosin. The middle part focuses on the systematic and basic
principles of violin and bow holding, movements of arms and fingers. Even
discussing tempos, note values, rests, scales, bowings, chords, arpeggios, and
ornamentations...
The last part consists of the insights of style and interpretation, giving advice
on practice and teaching.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BOW, THE VIOLIN, AND ITS FITTINGS

Technique and expression are named as the main components and

influences of the development of a musical instrument. The relationship
between musical style and construction of the instrument is really clear in the
history of the violin and the bow (which had many experimentations during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).
The bow is described as the soul of the instrument, since it has a huge
role in the expression of phrasing, singing the melody, making the nuances of
sound. The size, weight, balance, and shape of the bow were gradually
changed and modified, mostly in the eighteenth century. That derived from the
evolving of musical style. For example, French dance music required short and
straight bows, for the Italian sonatas and concertos – straight and longbows
were used, German bows were the intermediate length, to manage the
polyphonic style, bow with a slight curve, suitable for Baroque music.
Since the international musical styles were merging during the
eighteenth century, the model of the bow also started to determinate more
fixed shape. To get a wider range of dynamics and produce more equal sound,
longer and straighter bows were preferred. Measuring the distance between
the hair and the stick, many developments of the head (tip) of the bow. The
lenght of the bow was still varying during the eighteenth century. By ~1750
the approximate bow length was measured. The bows of the older times were
much lighter than the modern ones, with a different point of the balance. The
main woods were Pernambuco, brazilwood and plum wood.
The important matter was also the tension of the hair, moderating the
movable nut, to regulate it. The naming of the bows was rather exceptional at
the time. Although some models of the bows were named in honor of
musicians, performers such as Corelli, Viotti, Tartini... Bow making took time
to become an organized craft of its own right.
The Italian sonata bow is associated with Corelli, Tartini bow had
greater manual control. Cramer's bow was popular in Mannheim, by most
performers and amateurs, longer than most of the bows. Viotti's bow had
slight different head and had more hair in it, straighter, similar to the modern
bow. Exceptional were the Tourte bows, family bow makers, made a big
development of the bow, synthesizing the work of his predecessors,
standardized the dimensions, materials, construction and the final design of
the bow. Tourte made detailed experiments regarding the needs of the modern
violinist, trying various materials, woods, to provide the best quality for the
new strokes and effects of the sound. He claimed that pernambuco wood is the
best for this matter and Tourte found a way to heat the stick to perceive the
slight curve needed for the elasticity of the bow. Tourte made the bow's head
hight, to avoid the stick touching the hair. The length and weight of the bow
were also standardized, he determined the ideal measurements.
Also, the bow hair was improved. The amount of hair during the
eighteenth century was increasing, making the tone better. Tourte found a way
to make the hair flatter, to achieve better contact with the strings, securing the
hair with a silver later next to the frog and the screw mechanism. He was
mostly using the French horse hair for his bows because it was stronger.
Tourte was mastering the bows in his way and it took time for the other bow
makers to adopt his style.
Tourte bows helped the performers to achieve greater control of the
bow and have more expression, it was producing a stronger tone, suitable for
the cantabile style. The bow changes were minimized and more smooth,
getting the phrases more equal, with the help of the index finger pressure.
Thanks to the improved bow, new bowing techniques were invented –
sforzando effect, martele, accented detashe, staccato improved as well. Tourte
bows became universally acknowledged.

Regarding the development of the violin in the eighteenth century,

cantabile style and sound was considered as a standard and priority. The violin
needed to be improved together with the bow, in order to achieve tonal clarity
and power. Larger concert halls and bigger symphony orchestra created a
slight competition with the violin. However, looking from the outside, the
shape of the violin was barely touched, comparing with the baroque violin.
First of all, the bridge was made higher and thinner, to create greater tension,
playing in a higher pitch. The playing length of the strings was also extended.
The raised bridge required the fingerboard to get higher as well, so the strings
would have a comfortable distance and would not create fingering problems.
The improving violin technique resulted in a need for a thinner neck, it was
easier to manage the position changes and to keep a correct violin hold,
playing on the lower strings. The tension of the strings was increased, the
soundpost became substantially thicker. The fingerboard also was made
thinner towards the head of the violin, due to the extended neck and broader
towards the bridge. The narrow, extended neck style came from French
luthiers, however, the lengths were varying in different cities. Gagliano violins
had many different lengths of the necks, combining the styles of old and
modern violins. Viotti demonstrated the violin of Stradivari, it was presented as
a brilliant concert instrument.
The main shape and body of the violin remained untouched during all
the detailed improvements. However, there were many unsuccessful tries to
improve it – adding unexpected materials to the construction, creating
different shapes and designs.
The use of metal strings had quite a long way towards acceptance.
Many of the performers still had a preference for the gut strings. First, only the
G string was changed to the metal, followed later with the D string. Gut strings
had many clear drawbacks – sensitivity to the temperature, unraveling,
textural imperfections... The strings were covered in silver, because of its clear
sound. At the end of the eighteenth century, silk covered strings appeared, but
they were difficult to tune, had less resonance. Until the beginning of the
twentieth century, A and E strings remained gut. Later acceptance of
aluminum covered strings provided more reliable tuning, more stable
intonation reaching the brilliance of the sound.
The thickness of the strings was also changing relatively. Highly
depending on the size of the instrument and the used pitch – thick strings for
the larger models, thin strings for the smaller ones. Spohr seemed to
determine the estimated optimum string thickness, also he was the first to
mention the gauge of each string wedged point.
The chin rest, another accomplishment of Spohr. He introduced as a
highly needed device. It was intended for the comfort of the player, too feel
more secure during the position changes, reaching high positions, keeping the
bowing undisturbed and free. The chin rest was made of ebony, placed in the
middle of the tailpiece. It also took its time to be accepted by the performers.
The addition of the mute (wooden or metal) was also quite an essential
improvement.

To conclude, during the eighteenth century, crucial improvements were

made in the structure of the violin and the bow. It finally created the powerful
tone, deep sonority, undeniable brilliance of the sound, leaving aside some
features of the baroque violin. Until the Tourte, bows had a big number of
changes, the opposite was the shape of the violin, which remained stable. With
all these adjustments, the violin became more powerful and more individual, a
stronger solo instrument with a never-ending development of the technique.