A description of intonation for violin

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "A description of intonation for violin"

Theodora Atkins
5 years ago
Views:

1 A description of intonation for violin ANNETTE BOUCNEAU Helsinki University

2 Over the past decades, the age of beginners learning to play the violin has dropped. As a result, violin pedagogues searched for alternatives to approach the pre literate four to six year old child and investigated if the used standard music notation (SMN) gives meaning to and awakens the musical and creative potential of the pupil. This paper has selected four violin methods and compares the notation these methods use and to which purpose. Baring in mind that music literacy is the measurable skill of reading and writing music, here based on Western theoretical terms, the processes of musical thought when learning to play an instrument are foremost linked to the practice of playing. The way an instrumental teaching practice then interprets and manipulates standard music notation and integrates musical as well as instrumental knowledge, contributes strongly to constructing the instrumental musical concept and thought. This brief comparison specifically looks at the different strategies for teaching to play the violin in tune within the Western tradition. Suzuki has popularized the learning of music aurally 'as a language'. In addition to SMN, Suzuki provides the repertoire on record or tape. Suzuki aims at creating a pre-existing musical knowledge: the child learns a piece by rote from a recording before s/he is confronted with notation. Only after thoroughly mastering the whole piece is the pupil confronted with the written violin part. The first focus on learning to read music starts from numbering the fingerings. In their comment on the reading process in Suzuki education, E. Mills and H. Mills confirmed that, the road to literacy makes extensive use of finger response to numbers first and stress is placed on identifying the notes absolutely with letter names thereafter. (E. Mills and H. Mills, 185) (overheads) Nelson, adds similar finger and letter charts. The child learns to bow the open strings as an accompaniment to the leading part played on the piano. Nelson prepares the left hand framework, by singing 'doh, ray, me, fah' to the finger pattern in the chart. Note names are used relatively when introducing new finger patterns. However, about the next stage, Nelson writes that "When the job of developing finger response to numbers has been achieved, it is time to consider letter naming.' (Nelson 1973, 179) In this respect, her goal to teach music literacy based on fingerings and letter names shows similarity with Suzuki. (overheads) Sa_mannshaus expects the four year old child to be literate before playing. The first chosen tunes within the range of the fifth are played on all four strings and notated absolutely. In addition, Sa_mannshaus suggests that the fingerboard is marked at the major third with a strip. Sa_mannshaus verifies the use of a strip stressing that the child must learn, not only to listen, but also to look for the exact spot where to place the finger. More, he claims this practice to be as old as the history of string instruments. (Sa_mannshaus 1979, 4) (overheads) Szilvay, in his 'Colourstrings' method for violin does not use finger charts, numbers or strips. The initial focus is on the very basic elements of timbre and pulse, which develop control of the bow. Based on playing harmonic notes, intonation skills develop in the transition process between

3 timbre and pitch hearing. A simplified one-stave notation, in colour (which selects the string) is all what is needed to play and combine almost all intervals of the major scale. As notes are not identified by a letter but at this stage only by the relative 'doh, ray, me, fah', the mind becomes tuned to the basic intervals of the tone, fifth and octave. (overheads) Having noticed that Nelson and Sa_mannshaus value music literacy based on SMN and the absolute letter naming, they also search for a more structural approach by applying the principle of transposition. Naming the notes by letter, or knowing which finger corresponds with a certain note, does not guarantee any note in tune. Additional finger or letter charts are no more than suggestions that create frets in the mind, which try to map out a geography of the fingerboard. The fingerboard does indeed require a detailed and very precise kinaesthetic exploration and targeting. However, are these left hand and finger motions based on a visual targeting of the imagined spot? Do charts, the mapping of fingers and sticking strips on the fingerboard contribute efficiently to playing in tune? In order to develop a sense of playing in tune, Nelson and Suzuki are aware of the importance of developing a repertoire upon which the first months of playing are based. Nelson develops familiarity with melodies played by the piano, Suzuki by listening to and practising with tapes. Notation becomes then meaningful when the code includes known and familiar elements i.e. after previously hearing and/or playing it. Harrison and Pound however commented on Suzuki and found that although Suzuki draws parallels between language learning and music learning "it places insufficient emphasis on creative music-making" (Harrison and Pound 1996, 236). Compared with the other methods, the first piece Suzuki teaches contains quite complicated patterns. The approach of 'language learning' may not become limited to reproducing but includes what Nelson calls "the second stage in musical performance, that of imagining the music in terms of violin sound, is the least conscious of the processes, the least easy to teach, and the most frequently bypassed." (Nelson 1973, 220). Szilvay's code appears differently. The exploration of the fingerboard is principally developed for playing the violin in tune. The left hand technique and bow control develop in conjunction with relative hearing. Szilvay reduces the basics of violin play to two 'simples' (Bamberger) of music: the pulse and the harmonic notes. Both are a very refined skill of right (bowing) and left hand co-ordination. Introduced to the relation between an open string and a harmonic note, targeting and intonation are one. Szilvay s code has integrated these elementary simples with the technical possibilities of the violin. The code is not only a mnemonic to reconstruct the internalised action paths, coined by Bamberger as 'felt paths' (1991, 10), it is a footnote to correct play, master the violin and focus on listening. At a later stage in Szilvay's development SMN develops out of this creative, simplified and coherent prototype of code. What Szilvay achieves, Musumeci pleads in his paper on cognitive pedagogy of aural training for. "A "cognitive teaching" would be attentive to the way in which learners make sense of the musical phenomenon, and their success would heavily depend on how that implicit knowledge is didactically developed - transformed from figural into formal - by the teacher." (Musumeci 2000). Adjusting and reducing

4 the convention of SMN to one stave and using a colour for a string, proves to liberate new meanings. (Bamberger 1991, 94) Bamberger also argues that 'structural simples', as they are embodied by and most directly experienced in the simples of our culture, form the general scaffolding for making meaning and for instant perceptual problem solving as we construct coherence in the common music around us. The same structural simples also form the generative basis for understanding large complex compositions as well as they have formed an underlying base for the creative work of composers. (Ibid. 11) As Szilvay demonstrates in his coloured code for preliterate children, elements of SMN have been selected and reduced an amount of unnecessary musical complexities in order to focus upon the two most elementary principles of making music on a violin: the pulse and the timbre of the four strings. This example shows that SMN can be made more sufficient for some instruments provided the principle, upon which music literacy is based takes the technical possibilities of instrument, its own sound, as point of departure. On the codification of language, Vygotsky comments that " children should be taught written language, not just the writing of letters." as, "one of the essential aspects of development is the increasing ability of children to control and direct their own behaviour, a mastery made possible by the development of new psychological forms and functions and by the use of the signs and tools in this process." (Vygotsky 1978, 119) Szilvay's approach is an example of developing violin mastery based on the first requirement: controlling the violin sound in tune. Also Suzuki aims at developing a musical sense before reading notes. However one of the differences between Suzuki and Szilvay is that Szilvay values the theory from the instrument rather than labelling pitches according to music theoretical conventions which do not make sense on the violin. Playing in tune on the fingerboard of the violin remains a long journey when its literacy is based on naming absolute pitches as found on a keyboard. Nelson questioned if "Many children are still taught to read music by learning the lines and spaces on the stave by letter names: is this necessary, or would musical phrases be quicker, like the word-recognition method of learning to read?" (Nelson 1973, 211) The fingerboard has no keys or frets and its geography is based on interrelated aural and kinaesthetic skills. However, "when the perception does match the description" (Bamberger 1991, 8), the code reinforces the instrumental cognitive and creative development and structures the music instrumental thought from the basic instrumental 'simples'. There are a collection of strategies hidden in SMN convention which upon selection and re-structuring represent these instrumental aural structures - based on the Pythagorean division of a string - which do link ear and hands in tune and become the tool towards a creativity in tune. The inadequacy but possibilities of SMN taken into consideration, an interpretation of theory based on the instrument and the conscious experience of violin sound within the convention of Western tuning, can lead to develop a code for playing in tune based on SMN. Only then, in case of the violin, has the visual codification succeeded in representing aural patterns and stimulating creativity.

5 Address for correspondence: Annette BOUCNEAU MA student of Musicology at Helsinki University 47 Dalebrook Road Sale M33 3LB CHESHIRE UK

6 Rzferences Bamberger, J. S. (1991) The Mind Behind the Musical Ear: How Children Develop Musical Intelligence. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Mills, E. and H. (1973) Practical Suggestions for Teachers on Reading. In E. Mills and Sr. T.C. Murphy (Ed.) The Suzuki Concept: an introduction to a successful method for early music education. Berkeley & San Francisco: Diablo Press. pp Musumeci, O. (2000) The Cognitive Pedagogy of Aural Training. In: Proceedings, Sixth International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition Keele, UK. file:///d/poster1/musumeci.htm Nelson, S. M. (1972) The Violin and Viola. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc. Nelson, S. M. (1981) Stringsongs. England: Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. Sa_mannshaus, E. (1979) Früher Anfang auf der Geige. Band 1 Eine Violinschule für Kinder ab 4 Jahren. Kassel: Bärenreiter Szilvay, G. (1994) Violin ABC. Book A. (revised edition) Espoo, Finland: Fazer Music Inc. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society. The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Ed. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner and E. Souberman. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Power Standards and Benchmarks Orchestra 4-12

Power Standards and Benchmarks Orchestra 4-12 Power Benchmark 1: Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. Begins ear training Continues ear training Continues ear training Rhythm syllables Outline triads Interval Interval names: