Violin Mastery by Frederick H. Martens
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Frederick H. Martens >> Violin Mastery
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A NEW CLASSIFICATION OF VIOLIN LITERATURE
"What I am inclined to consider, however, as even more important, in a
sense, than my editorial labors is a new educational classification of
violin literature, one which practically covers the entire field of
violin music, and upon which I have been engaged for several years.
Insomuch as an editor's work helps in the acquisition of 'Violin
Mastery,' I am tempted to think this catalogue will be a contribution of
real value.
"As far as I know there does not at present exist any guide or hand-book
of violin literature in which the fundamental question of grading has
been presented _au fond_. This is not strange, since the task of
compiling a really valid and logically graded guide-book of violin
literature is one that offers great difficulties from almost every
point of view.
"Yet I have found the work engrossing, because the need of a book of the
kind which makes it easy for the teacher to bring his pupils ahead more
rapidly and intelligently by giving him an oversight of the entire
teaching-material of the violin and under clear, practical heads in
detail order of progression is making itself more urgently felt every
day. In classification (there are seven grades and a preparatory grade),
I have not chosen an easier and conventional plan of _general_
consideration of difficulties; but have followed a more systematic
scheme, one more closely related to the study of the instrument itself.
Thus, my 'Preparatory Grade' contains only material which could be
advantageously used with children and beginners, those still struggling
with the simplest elementary problems--correct drawing of the bow across
the open strings, in a certain rhythmic order, and the first use of the
fingers. And throughout the grades are special sub-sections for special
difficulties, special technical and other problems. In short, I cannot
help but feel that I have compiled a real guide, one with a definite
educational value, and not a catalogue, masquerading as a violinistic
Baedeker.
VIOLIN EDITIONS "MADE IN AMERICA"
"One of the most significant features of the violin guide I have
mentioned is, perhaps, the fact that its contents largely cover the
whole range of violin literature in American editions. There was a time,
years ago, when 'made in Germany' was accepted as a certificate of
editorial excellence and mechanical perfection. Those days have long
since passed, and the American edition has come into its own. It has
reached a point of development where it is of far more practical and
musically stimulating value than any European edition. For American
editions of violin music do not take so much for granted! They reflect
in the highest degree the needs of students and players in smaller
places throughout the country, and where teachers are rare or
non-existent they do much to supply instruction by meticulous regard for
all detail of fingering, bowing, phrasing, expression, by insisting in
explanatory annotation on the correct presentation of authoritative
teaching ideas and principles. In a broader sense 'Violin Mastery' knows
no nationality; but yet we associate the famous artists of the day with
individual and distinctively national trends of development and
'schools.' In this connection I am convinced that one result of this
great war of world liberation we have waged, one by-product of the
triumph of the democratic truth, will be a notably 'American' ideal of
'Violin Mastery,' in the musical as well as the technical sense. And in
the development of this ideal I do not think it is too much to claim
that American editions of violin music, and those who are responsible
for them, will have done their part."
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