ARTISTIC RESEARCH REPORT 2

Data collection and intervention cycle

The needs of my research so far, are leading me to a case study research as I need to get

into depth in the very specific research area of sound colors, regarding a very specific

composer and performer, Eugene Ysaye. He is a legend of performance in violin and on the

same time his compositions appear to contain all his musical wisdom and creativity.In this

intervention cycle I triangulate between literature, which is the most important part of this

cycle and the base of my whole research, interviews and media material ( photographs )

LITERATURE

What I have done so far in this intervention cycle was to try to get into the core of what is

called “Franco-Belgian tradition” or “Franco-Belgian school”, which is the school of musical

origin of Eugene Ysaye. This is going to be the first step of deep understanding of this

specific person and the environment in which he grew and thrived.

One approach like this, would only be reliable if it would search for the historical evolution

of the violin traditions from its beginning until the point of the division into different schools.

THE ORIGINS OF THE FRANCO-BELGIAN VIOLIN SCHOOL

The origin of the violin technique in general is Italian, with Arcangelo Corelli being

considered as the father that gathered all the confused violin idioms of his predecessors

(Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Farina) embodying them into a dignified musical expression that

inspired the next generations until our days.

Corelli > Somis > Pugnani > Viotti > Rode, de Beriot

Viotti was a landmark of the evolution of the violin technique and styling of his time. As a

world fame virtuoso, traveling around Europe and giving concerts, exported the Italian

mastery in a very broad way. As a gifted composer and progressive violinist he brought the

instrument officially into classics along with his genius contemporaries like Haydn and

Mozart by making the first ever concerto for violin and orchestra.

Tartini > Nardini > Pollani > Baillot, +(Kreutzer, Rode) = French school of Paris > de Beriot =

modern franco-belgian school

De Beriot > Vieuxtemps > Ysaye

The collaboration Baillot, Kreutzer and Rode publishing the “la Method de violon” of the

new French school of Paris, represents a solid but cold fusion of all the great violin traditions

since Corelli. However, it couldn’t satisfy the French leaning towards superficial brilliancy

and showy emotionalism and the danger the school to fall apart before the sensation that

Paganini arised was real. The overwhelming success of Beriot’s compositions saved the

French school from the dissaster, creating the new combination of modern Franco-Belgian

violin school. That school produced more first rank virtuosos than any other school in 19nth

century, like Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, Sarasate, Ysaye and Kreisler.

Ysaye was carrying in a way all this violinistic culture of the masters before him, whose

legacy altogether formed the so called Franco-belgian school. Ysaye was propably the top

incarnation of a performer coming from that school, and definitely one of the top

performers of all time, enhancing many diversities, which altogether at the end of his life

composed his greater work, the 6 sonatas for solo violin. Ysaye, as I can understand him so

far, was a performer of extreme measures, doing anything possible to capture firstly the

attention of the audience, and then seduce it and dominate musically and spiritually on it.

HOW CAN YOU DO IT???

Alberto Bachmann SHOWS the way! Who is Alberto Bachmann?

A.Bachmann was a student o Eugene Ysaye of the late 19nth century, carrying much of his

master’s wisdom and sharing it in his book. In 1925 he wrote a book regarding all the

aspects of violin-constructive, technical, artistic. Eugene Ysaye, by the time that he finishes

the writing of 6 sonatas he decides to write the preface of his former student’s book, giving

his full approval and recommendation regarding the result of the book. So Bachmann can be

interpreted as a loyal student of Ysaye, who takes the responsibility to transfer the

knowledge of his teacher to the next generations. In this retrospect, and with the general

approval of Ysaye still in life, we can consider this book as an original 1st degree source.

What were the qualities of Ysaye according to Bachmann?

Created a violinistic ideal

Awakens enthusiasm

The appeal to the heartstrings and the fervor of exultation are always present on his

playing

He dominates the violin and those who hear him

Vigorous playing, with powerful staccato

Slower pace in tempo but sustained beautiful tone with broad and powerful bow strokes

Unconventional style of playing with fiery energy and frequent use of rubato (It is well to

note the fact that the violinists themselves have been the greatest obstacles toward

progress and development in violin technique, a fact that is as strange as it is true. And

we have not changed. We are still the same at the present day, and take but little interest in

new things unless they are placed on the market with a great outcry of advertisement)

Bachmann then shows all the necessary parts that bring to that end, naming all the

important elements of a “true artist” as he was ofter saying:

Portamento & accentuation,tone development, rhythm

“On the violin, beauty of tone is secured by the use of a broad and powerful bow stroke, and

the powerful bowing may be employed quite readily for music which is to be played lightly.”

As it seems, the attack of the sound, is a very basic ingredient for a “powerful bow stroke”

and in his book Bachmann gives a lot of attention to it.

MEDIA MATERIAL (photographs)

Marsick, Massart, Thompson, Ysaye ( the source reffered to the year 1887 )

The visual part is certainly very important, although music is the art for the acoustic sense.

This photo is an excellent sample of how Eugene Ysaye would look while performing in his

prime, and we can find a lot of interesting information by his body language to apply in the

intervention. Without the photograph, this wouldn’t be possible. The grip of the bow is

remarkable.

In this specific photograph we can see the teacher Massart and his students Marsick,

Thompson and Ysaye giving us an idea of theis styl. Many interesting factors can be found in

this photo. First of all, starting from the legs Ysaye is the only one that leans on his right foot

stepping forward his left. Marsick and Thompson are following the pattern of their teacher

leaning on their left foot. Going upwards to the right hand we can see that he is the only one

not to handle in angle his bow being on the tip of it. Seems like he holds the bow with his

fingertips and without the support of the little one. The wrist seems as well having a break

towards the floor. His left hand is totally vertical to the ground, holding high the instrument.

INTERVIEWS

Goran Gribajcevic: “The bow grip of the photo for me is fantastic […] Eugene Ysaye

was, monumental, a true big soloist who would play chamber music just for fun[…]

The Franco-belgian school is the best school that ever existed, coming from the

very great violin school of Viotti who was the first to give attention to sound

quality, and not to fireworks like Paganini. The Russian school came actually

afterwards, borrowing some characteristics from Franco-belgian school.”

J. ter Haar: “Looking at E. Ysaye’s bowing technique, I get an impression of very

little pressure on the strings, and more of a free playing bow without the

dominance of its player on its reactions. A style totally opposed to the Russian

school. But even for the standards of the 19nth century violinists his style tends on

the light side of playing.”

N.Morozova: “From just a photo I can’t be convinced that he was playing always

like that, and I don’t believe, however from what I see there is a violinist with

absolutely brillante playing, with very light bowing and propably very fast as well.

But it doesn’t seem to me to be of a violinist with powerful tone.

Grobajsevic: “Ysaye’s, and every violinist’s of that era, secret for the sound colors

was the “Son Filé””.

Ter Haar: Son file is a really old treatise in practicing, from 18nth century, which

aims to produce a tone without pressure and with minimum speed. If you can do

this, then a free tone in performance without nessecarrily low speed can be

achieved in performance.”

Morozova: The slow bowing, and the ability to reserve your bow in every

beginning of its running, having afterwards the possibility to run with bigger speed,

is an ability of great violinists and this ability secures a great and free tone

production.

Ivan Galamian gives a definition regarding “Son Filé” in his book “the violin

principles”, which was published in 1962 after 12 years of writing.

“Propably as old as the study of scales is the practicing of the son file, namely, the

long sustained tone, which has served generations of violinists as a medium for the

study of tone production and bow control […]”

“What breath control is for the singer- the ability to sing long phrases without

having to interrupt them for a new breath-bow control in the long, sustained stoke is

for the violinist- the ability to sustain a long tone or musical phrase without having to

change bow.”

Carl Flesch, some 35 years before Gallamian, says more or less the same thing in his

book “the art of the violin”. He gives his own definition regarding “Son Filé” as so

called a sound coming out only from one bowing, sustained and long enough to

produce a cantabile character. According to the great master, the duration may last

15 seconds, and if someone wants to try longer than 15 seconds then this is for the

sake of study and not performance. On the purpose of studying, a forte son file may

last from 6-24s and a pianissimo from 12-60s. A successful sustained tone needs as

less bow changes as possible and evenness of the bow without bumps, jerking and

tone loses. The “continuous sound” needs more than any other kind of bowing the

aid of the left hand, because the left hand has the means to animate and motivate

the sound with the proper use of vibrato. So, the Son Filé is not purely a right hand’s

duty, but it is more of a combination, at least for a performing situation.

Demetrius Constantine Dounis, one of the most prominent pedagogues of the 20th

century published eleven books of studies for the violin from 1921-1946 with intense

concern on the proper ergonomics of violin playing and on the proper bow grip.

Dounis had studied medicine in Vienna, and he used his knowledge to provide a

technical guide ideal to the ergonomy of the human body on a scientific basis,

beyond tension and muscle mismanagement. Among others, he published as well

one exercise about sustained tone. However, Dounis was always saying the

following regarding his technical guide:

“The true technical training of the violinist is not merely a training of the arm and

fingers but, principally, a training of the brain and memory. The fingers and the arm

should obey perfectly the intention of the player in order to be able to perform any

movement with complete mastery[…] What we call technique is nothing but a series

of brain reflected movements. The secret lies in building up these movement pictures

into a rational, logical whole-namely, technique.”

However, Dounis didn’t really give a very specific instruction on the production of

the tone. Flesch, on the other hand talked about the the “right point of contact” in

order to produce a fine tone, without “vacillating from there and towards there.” In

other words, Flesch was saying that the point of contact has to be firm and certain

during a sustained tone. He said furthermore, that this kind of tones need a bow

touch barely touching the string without any weight on it but the sound should not

be breathy, but a solid sound.

Dounis Son File exercises

Gallamian gave more extended information in his book regarding the tone

production. He said that there are 3 main factors upon which the tone production

relies on: Speed, Pressure and sounding point (taking for granted of bow stroke

moving parallel to the bridge). These three factors according to Gallamian are

interdependent, so If one of them changes in relation to the other two, at least one

of the others should be adjusted as well.

Gallamian gives some examples for this interdependence

Increase of pressure with constant sounding point requires increase of the

bow speed; decrease of pressure requires decrease of bow speed

Increase of pressure with constant bow speed requires a sounding point

moving to the bridge

Decrease of pressure with constant bow speed requires a sounding post

toward the fingerboard.

Greater speed with constant pressure requires the sounding point to move

toward the fingerboard.

Slower speed with constant pressure requires a sounding point toward

bridge.

Speed and pressure are the two “energy producing” factors on the instrument, and

the sounding point is the stabilizer factor between two vertically opposed forces of

nature. So, the sounding post is the ratio of weight/speed. But beyond these factors,

very important on the decision where the sounding point is to be placed is also the

length, the thickness and the tension of the string. The sounding point should be

closer to the bridge on thinner strings rather than thicker strings. And of course, on

higher positions, because the length of the string is dimished the sounding point

should be as well moved toward the bridge. However, it is unlike that Ysaye and

violinists of his era used to change frequently during their playing sounding post. Carl

Flesch himself, that represents this era says very strongly that the sounding point

does not change ever. So we will proceed with the approach of Flesch who was

closer to Ysaye as well and can give us more safe information to approach his

secrets.

INTERVENTION & EXPERIMENTATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=65&v=vJ-wXUuWFCw

In this recording, I play a very specific phrase in four different modes. The first one is the

interpretation that I used to have before the research, in terms of tone production. In the

second one, I try to apply my findings regarding the bow grip, trying a more shallow and

sensitive to the fingertips grip, and a different approach on the drawing of the sound out of

the instrument, with respect to the “son file” technique. Son file however, is about a very slow

and sustained tone on a very specific register of the string, usually close to the bridge, trying

to generate the clearest and fullest in overtones sound possible. I am experimenting with

three different registers of the string, close to fingerboard, middle, and close to the bridge, to

see the result of the sound, and how the son file drawing of the sound will work in every

occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxudkuWrtNQ

In this recording I play the same phrase, with new approach in the tone production,

experimenting with two different bows that have completely different balance. The one used

first is 58gr, balancing in the middle towards the tip, whereas the second one is 60-61gr

balancing closer to the frog. The feeling with the new technique is very different with the two

bows, and although I am used to playing with the second one, in this approach the first bow

seems more friendly and responding with more direct sound, however the second one makes

very interesting sound effects on the tip where without pressure and less bow weight gives

back a sound cold, peculiar and unearthly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycwLygSseaw

In this recording I play the excerpt I have been experimenting with the new approach until the

end of the movement.

PLANS FOR NEXT INTEVENTION

Michel Ysaye, Ivry Gitlis interviews

Louis Persinger and students, Gingold and students

De Beriot: 3rd book, singing

recordings of Marchesi school of singing, compare with Wagner singers!

Garcia singing treatise.

Crickboom: violin method.

The Legacy of Eugene Ysaye: Transmitted, Adapted, and Reinterpreted