THE TECHNIC OF BOWING

“Genius does many things by instinct.  And it sometimes happens that very great performers, trying to explain some technical function, do not know how to make their meaning clear.  With regard to bowing, I remember that Joachim (a master colorist with the bow) used to tell his students to play largely with the wrist.  What he really meant was with an elbow-joint movement, that is, moving the bow, which should always be connected with a movement of the forearm by means of the elbow-joint.  The ideal bow stroke results from keeping the joints of the right arm loose, and at the same time firm enough to control each motion made.  A difficult thing for the student is to learn to draw the bow across the strings at a right angle, the only way to produce a good tone.  I find it helps my pupils to tell them not to think of the position of the bow-arm while drawing the bow across the strings, but merely to follow with the tips of the fingers of the right hand an imaginary line running at a right angle across the strings.  The whole bow then moves as it should, and the arm motions unconsciously adjust themselves.

RHYTHM AND COLOR

“Rhythm is the foundation of all music—­not rhythm in its metronomic sense, but in the broader sense of proportion.  I lay the greatest stress on the development of rhythmic sensibility in the student.  Rhythm gives life to every musical phrase.”  Mr. Letz had a Brahms’ quartet open on his music stand.  Playing the following passage, he said: 

[Illustration:  Musical Notation]

“In order to give this phrase its proper rhythmic value, to express it clearly, plastically, there must be a very slight separation between the sixteenths and the eighth-note following them.  This—­the bow picked up a trifle from the strings—­throws the sixteenths into relief.  As I have already said, tone color is for the main part controlled by the bow.  If I draw the bow above the fingerboard instead of keeping it near the bridge, I have a decided contrast in color.  This color contrast may always be established:  playing near the bridge results in a clear and sharp tone, playing near the fingerboard in a veiled and velvety one.

SUGGESTIONS IN TEACHING

“I find that, aside from the personal illustration absolutely necessary when teaching, that an appeal to the pupil’s imagination usually bears fruit.  In developing tone-quality, let us say, I tell the pupil his phrases should have a golden, mellow color, the tonal equivalent of the hues of the sunrise.  I vary my pictures according to the circumstances and the pupil, in most cases, reacts to them.  In fast bowings, for instance, I make three color distinctions or rather sound distinctions.  There is the ‘color of rain,’ when a fast bow is pushed gently over the strings, while not allowed to jump; the ‘color of snowflakes’ produced when the hairs of the bow always touch the strings, and the wood dances; and ‘the color of hail’ (which seldom occurs in the classics), when in the real characteristic spiccato the whole bow leaves the string.”