“Beyond question the student's progress depends very heavily upon his being properly guided and taught.”1 This simple statement from the great violin pedagogue Leopold Auer has very complex ramifications for string teachers, especially when preparing students to perform orchestral excerpts. The issues to be examined have many sides, and students look to their private teachers as their first source of information and guidance.
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References
1.
AuerLeopold, Violin Playing as I Teach It (London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1921), 14.
2.
SimandlFranz, Neueste Methode des Contrabass-Spiels, ed. DrewLucas, 4th ed. (New York: Carl Fischer, 1984).
3.
Additional helpful material includes Zimmerman'sOrchestral Excerpts, Vol. 5 (New York: International Music Co., 1966), another recording of Othello, and a biographical source such as Baker's Biographical Dictionary. Joseph Horowitz's Understanding Toscanini (New York: A. A Knopf, 1987) is outstanding.
4.
ToveyDonald Francis, Essays in Musical Analysis Vol. 1 (London: Oxford University Press, 1935), 42.
5.
ZimmermanOscar ed. The Complete Double Bass Parts of the Beethoven Nine Symphonies (Interlochen, Mich.: Oscar Zimmerman, 1970). This movement has appeared on the audition lists of the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony, among others. Zimmerman's editions include several minor changes, of which this is the most egregious.
6.
BowenJosé A., “David Epstein. Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance. New York: Schirmer Books, 1995” [review]Music Theory Spectrum20 (Fall 1998): 315–16.
7.
RatnerLeonard G., Classic Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1980).
8.
DoningtonRobert addresses this issue in Baroque Music: Style and Performance (London: Faber Music, 1982), 63–65, citing C. P. E. Bach, Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753).
9.
SeegerCharles, “Versions and Variants of Barbara Allen,” in Studies in Musicology 1935–1975 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977), 289.
