JAVS Fall 2003

Example 1: Beethoven: Symphony No. 5, Andante con moto, mm. 1-10

particular. Arpeggios, neighbor notes, and fifths are thrown at us in this nine bar beauty. I always practice intonation with a small vibrato, or finger action to simu late what my hand will hopefully be doing in performance. A lot of students come to me with the practice technique of non-vibrato for intonation, their scales in particular. I think this is a mis take. To use a sports phrase, we want to practice like we play, but in the heat of an audition I hear a lot of people performing with out any finger action as though they are mimicking their intona tion exercises.

have personally been asked to do the full gamut in concert, and believe it is necessary to be pre pared for a variety of tastes. You will notice that I have written in a few open strings. As you will see, I believe in open strings in Classical period music. They need to be shaded correctly, but offer oppor tunities for good intonation and a resetting of the left hand, especially in certain tri-tone areas. Articulation is a big issue in meas ures 7 and 9. Beethoven loves to use subito dynamics, and I find going from soft to loud particular ly challenging. Not o1:1ly do you need to bring a good fUll sound at the drop of a hat, but it needs to articulate and be rhythmically accurate at a heightened level of proficiency. To accomplish this I simply cover (with my fingering) the note being played at the release point in piano and stop the bow at the same instant, before I gather my right upper arm to act on the forte note that proceeds in the next instant. If you have ever played pinball, it's kind of like catching and holding the ball in motion with the flipper before sending it up again. For the very last note, I cheat a little and re articulate the chord. It is another reason to do an open string; it will ring through the articulation, pro ducing a slur effect without having to do an actual slur.

Like a dog with a bone, I would like to talk about open strings with Example 2. Another great tool of open strings is using them for color changes. Notice bar 56. Yes, one can shift up to third position and play the subito forte with the second finger, and I hear this all the time in my coachings. It's not a bad idea; one gets to vibrate and lay into the note a bit more

Example 2: Beethoven Symphony No. 5, Andante con moto, mm. 49-59

because of it. I think it is more dramatic to opt for a color change. Not only do we experience the brightness of a new, open sound, but in the ensuing subito piano, we get to offer the newness of a soft covered G string. Getting our colleagues in the cello section to go along with this idea may be a bit trickier, although I understand that this could alleviate some wolf note issues on the cello.

We come to our last excerpt in the slow movement and are reminded about dynamic contrast as in Example 1. We should not feel too timid about the piano marking, because what everyone at the audi tion wants to know is how soft one can play bar 105 while still being articulate, rhythmically accurate and in tune. Give yourself some room, but be carefUl of using too much bow. This will get you into rhythm purgatory, because the last thing you want is to get out of whack as far as bow distribution

One can benefit greatly by practic ing intonation with this excerpt in

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETY 72