A Comparison of the Violin Pedagogy of Auer, Flesch, And
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A COMPARISON OF THE VIOLIN PEDAGOGY OF AUER, FLESCH, AND GALAMIAN: IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY AND USE THROUGH CHARACTERIZATION AND INDEXING By KELLEY M. ARNEY Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC IN MUSIC EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON May 2006 Copyright © by Kelley M. Arney 2006 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Scott Conklin for providing the initiative and guidance to form this study and Dr. Jeffrey Howard for seeing the project through by guiding the writing and content of this paper. I would also like to recognize the formatting and editing support from Dr. Graham Hunt and Dr. Diane Lange who also serve as members of the committee. It has been a pleasure to work with four of the most selfless, talented, and knowledgeable professors during the past year. I would like to thank the University of Texas at Arlington library system, Dr. Jeffrey Howard, and family members for provided the research materials for this project. I would like to thank Paul Kelly for his interest and support as well as the great community of musician friends around the world who have contributed in many ways. In addition, I would like to express thanks to my husband Nolan and my sister Rose specifically and my family generally for their support. I humbly appreciate the never failing love and support of my Father in Heaven and His great son Jesus Christ, and for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Dallas Stake who have been my family in Texas. This thesis is dedicated to all my wonderful students who not only pursue excellence in performance but are also caring leaders among their peers. April 13, 2006 iii ABSTRACT A COMPARISON OF THE VIOLIN PEDAGOGY OF AUER, FLESCH, AND GALAMIAN: IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY AND USE THROUGH CHARACTERIZATION AND INDEXING Publication No. ______ Kelley M. Arney, MM The University of Texas at Arlington, 2006 Supervising Professor: Dr. Jeffrey Howard The development of the index and characterization tools allows pedagogical texts to be used as resource texts. The common index allows any researcher to access applicable and significant information of a text quickly without destroying the continuity of the original text. The characterization charts aid the researcher in using the information in historical and philosophical ways. Thus, the index and characterizations of the Auer, Flesch, and Galamian texts gives string educators of advanced students (especially conservatory and university violin teachers) and iv performers access to three important pedagogical texts by an accessible, applicable, and scholarly approach. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iv Chapter 1. GENERAL OVERVIEW AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS........................ 1 1.1 Topic ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 History of Violin Treatises ...................................................................... 2 1.3 Resources................................................................................................. 6 1.4 Current Research...................................................................................... 7 1.5 Distinctive Factors ................................................................................... 9 1.6 Purpose and Problems.............................................................................. 11 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 12 2.1 Auer: Violin Playing as I Teach It ........................................................... 12 2.2 Flesch: The Art of Violin Playing, Book One ......................................... 16 2.3 Flesch: The Art of Violin Playing Book Two: Artistic Realization and Instruction................................ 20 2.4 Galamian: Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching ............................ 23 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................ 29 3.1 Index Methodology.................................................................................. 29 vi 3.1.1 Short History of Indexing ......................................................... 29 3.1.2 Types of Indexes....................................................................... 30 3.1.3 Reasons for Index Use .............................................................. 31 3.1.4 Indexing Process....................................................................... 32 3.2 Characterization Methodology................................................................. 33 3.2.1 Content of Characterization Charts .......................................... 34 3.2.2 Characterization Instructions .................................................... 35 4. RESULTS...................................................................................................... 37 4.1 Philosophy: General Approach to Teaching............................................ 37 4.2 History: Kreisler ...................................................................................... 41 4.3 Holding the Instrument: Body Posture .................................................... 42 4.4 Practice: Too Much Practice.................................................................... 43 4.5 Tone Production: Portamento or Slide .................................................... 45 4.6 Teaching: Incompetent Instruction .......................................................... 47 4.7 Bowing: Legato........................................................................................ 49 4.8 Left Hand: Intonation............................................................................... 51 4.9 Ornaments: Trills..................................................................................... 54 4.10 Nuance: Need for Nuance...................................................................... 58 4.11 Style: Individual Magnetism.................................................................. 61 4.12 Psychological: Stage Fright ................................................................... 62 4.13 Repertoire: Developing an Appropriate Repertory................................ 64 vii 4.14 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 67 5. IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................ 69 5.1 Implications ............................................................................................. 69 5.2 Applications............................................................................................. 69 5.2.1 Personal Applications (Playing and Teaching)......................... 70 5.2.2 Educational Applications (Studio or Classroom) ..................... 71 5.2.3 Professional Research............................................................... 71 5.3 Further Study ........................................................................................... 71 Appendix A. COMMON INDEX TO THE AUER, FLESCH, AND GALAMIAN TEXTS ............................................................. 74 B. AUER CHARACTERIZATION CHART ................................................. 84 C. FLESCH CHARACTERIZATION CHART ............................................. 86 D. GALAMIAN CHARACTERIZATION CHART ..................................... 88 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 90 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION......................................................................... 95 viii CHAPTER 1 GENERAL OVERVIEW AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS Private violin pedagogy has generally been an oral tradition throughout four centuries; the knowledge that is passed from teacher to student is mostly verbal in a one-on-one setting. Each teacher has developed his or her own style and approach but few teachers have written down these ideas. In general, performers and teachers of advanced violin students in the United States use the violin treatises by Auer, Flesch, and Galamian. The focus of this thesis is to create tools that would enable teachers and performers the ability to use these texts faster. A common index coordinates the contents of the texts so that the teacher or performer is able to access several approaches to the same concept. Because the texts were written in different eras, characterization charts are needed to preserve the historical and philosophical aspects of the treatises. 1.1 Topic In developing this thesis the author researched most of the currently available material dealing with violin pedagogy. Finding that most of the texts had few commonalities and that all research done in approaching an ideal pedagogy failed, the author decided to take another approach. By tracing the lines of pedagogy from student to teacher to reach the common sources of modern pedagogy, she found the writings of Leopold Auer, Carl Flesch, and Ivan Galamian to have the greatest degree of impact on modern violin pedagogy. To coordinate the information in the texts for further analysis 1 it was necessary to create a common index. Because the index itself addressed many of the problems facing this research project it will be