Violin Mastery Part 4

Then, too, Mr. Hartmann is a genial and original thinker, a _litterateur_ of no mean ability, a bibliophile, the intimate of the late Claude Debussy, and of many of the great men of musical Europe. Yet from the reader's standpoint the interest he inspires is, no doubt, mainly due to the fact that not only is he a great interpreting artist--but a great artist doubled by a great teacher, an unusual combination.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by E.F. Foley, N.Y._ ARTHUR HARTMANN, with hand-written note]

Characteristic of Mr. Hartmann's hospitality (the writer had pa.s.sed a pleasant hour with him some years before, but had not seen him since), was the fact that he insisted in brewing Turkish coffee, and making his caller feel quite at home before even allowing him to broach the subject of his visit. And when he learned that its purpose was to draw on his knowledge and experience for information which would be of value to the serious student and lover of his art, he did not refuse to respond.

WHAT VIOLIN PLAYING REALLY IS

"Violin playing is really no abstract mystery. It's as clear as geography in a way: one might say the whole art is bounded on the South by the G string, on the North by the E string, on the West by the string hand--and that's about as far as the comparison may be carried out. The point is, there are definite boundaries, whose technical and esthetic limits may be extended, and territorial annexations made through brain power, mental control. To me 'Violin Mastery' means taking this little fiddle-box in hand [and Mr. Hartmann suited action to word by raising the lid of his violin-case and drawing forth his beautiful 1711 Strad], and doing just what I want with it. And that means having the right finger on the right place at the right time--but don't forget that to be able to do this you must have forgotten to think of your fingers as fingers. They should be simply unconscious slaves of the artist's psychic expression, absolutely subservient to his ideal. Too many people reverse the process and become slaves to their fingers.

THE PROBLEM OF TECHNIC

"Technic, for instance, in its mechanical sense, is a much exaggerated microbe of _Materia musica_. All technic must conform to its instrument.[A] The violin was made to suit the hand, not the hand to suit the violin, hence its technic must be based on a natural logic of hand movement. The whole problem of technical control is encountered in the first change of position on the violin. If we violinists could play in but one position there would be no technical problem. The solution of this problem means, speaking broadly, the ability to play the violin--for there is only one way of playing it--with a real, full, singing 'violin' tone. It's not a question of a method, but just a process based on pure reason, the working out of rational principles.

[Footnote A: This is the idea which underlies my system for ear-training and absolute pitch, "Arthur Hartmann's System," as I call it, which I have published. A.H.]

"What is the secret of this singing tone? Well, you may call it a secret, for many of my pupils have no inkling of it when they first come here, though it seems very much of an 'open secret' to me. The finished beauty of the violin 'voice' is a round, sustained, absolutely smooth _cantabile_ tone. Now [Mr. Hartmann took up his Strad], I'll play you the scale of G as the average violin student plays it. You see--each slide from one tone to the next, a break--a rosary of lurches! How can there be a round, harmonious tone when the fingers progress by jerks?

s.h.i.+fting position must not be a continuous movement of effort, but a continuous movement in which effort and relaxation--that of dead weight--alternate. As an ill.u.s.tration, when we walk we do not consciously set down one foot, and then swing forward the other foot and leg with a jerk. The forward movement is smooth, unconscious, coordinated: in putting the foot forward it carries the weight of the entire body, the movement becomes a matter of instinct. And the same applies to the progression of the fingers in s.h.i.+fting the position of the hand. Now, playing the scale as I now do--only two fingers should be used--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Musical Notation]

I prepare every s.h.i.+ft. Absolute accuracy of intonation and a singing legato is the result. These guiding notes indicated are merely a test to prove the scientific s.p.a.cing of the violin; they are not sounded once control of the hand has been obtained. _They serve only to accustom the fingers to keep moving in the direction in which they are going_.

"The tone is produced by the left hand, by the weight of the fingers plus an undercurrent of sustained effort. Now, you see, _if in the moment of sliding you prepare the bow for the next string, the slide itself is lost in the crossing of the bow_. To carry out consistently this idea of effort and relaxation in the downward progression of the scale, you will find that when you are in the third position, the position of the hand is practically the same as in the first position.

Hence, in order to go down from third to first position with the hand in what might be called a 'block' position, another movement is called for to bridge over this s.p.a.ce (between third and first position), and this movement is the function of the thumb. The thumb, preceding the hand, relaxes the wrist and helps draw the hand back to first position. But great care must be taken that the thumb is not moved until the first finger will have been played; otherwise there will be a tendency to flatten. In the ill.u.s.tration the indication for the thumb is placed after the note played by the first finger.

"The inviolable law of beautiful playing is that there must be no angles. As I have shown you, right and left hand coordinate. The fiddle hand is preparing the change of position, while the change of strings is prepared by the right hand. And always the slides in the left hand are prepared by the last played finger--_the last played finger is the true guide to smooth progression_--just as the bow hand prepares the slides in the last played bowing. There should be no such thing as jumping and trusting in Providence to land right, and a curse ought to be laid on those who let their fingers leave the fingerboard. None who develop this fundamental aspect of all good playing lose the perfect control of position.

"Of course there are a hundred _nuances_ of technic (into which the quality of good taste enters largely) that one could talk of at length: phrasing, and the subtle things happening in the bow arm that influence it; _spiccato_, whose whole secret is finding the right point of balance in the bow and, with light finger control, never allowing it to leave the string. I've never been able to see the virtue of octaves or the logic of double-stops. Like tenths, one plays or does not play them. But do they add one iota of beauty to violin music? I doubt it! And, after all, it is the poetry of playing that counts. All violin playing in its essence is the quest for color; its perfection, that subtle art which hides art, and which is so rarely understood."

"Could you give me a few guiding rules, a few Beat.i.tudes, as it were, for the serious student to follow?" I asked Mr. Hartmann. Though the artist smiled at the idea of Beat.i.tudes for the violinist, yet he was finally amiable enough to give me the following, telling me I would have to take them for what they were worth:

NINE BEAt.i.tUDES FOR VIOLINISTS

"Blessed are they who early in life approach Bach, for their love and veneration for music will multiply with the years.

"Blessed are they who remember their own early struggles, for their merciful criticism will help others to a greater achievement and furtherance of the Divine Art.

"Blessed are they who know their own limitations, for they shall have joy in the accomplishment of others.

"Blessed are they who revere the teachers--their own or those of others--and who remember them with credit.

"Blessed are they who, revering the old masters, seek out the newer ones and do not begrudge them a hearing or two.

"Blessed are they who work in obscurity, nor sound the trumpet, for Art has ever been for the few, and shuns the vulgar blare of ignorance.

"Blessed are they whom men revile as futurists and modernists, for Art can evolve only through the medium of iconoclastic spirits.

"Blessed are they who unflinchingly serve their Art, for thus only is their happiness to be gained.

"Blessed are they who have many enemies, for square pegs will never fit into round holes."

ARRANGING VERSUS TRANSCRIBING

Arthur Hartmann, like Kreisler, Elman, Maud Powell and others of his colleagues, has enriched the literature of the violin with some notably fine transcriptions. And it is a subject on which he has well-defined opinions and regarding which he makes certain distinctions: "An 'arrangement,'" he said, "as a rule, is a purely commercial affair, into which neither art nor aesthetics enter. It usually consists in writing off the melody of a song--in other words, playing the 'tune' on an instrument instead of hearing it sung with words--or in the case of a piano composition, in writing off the upper voice, leaving the rest intact, regardless of sonority, tone-color or even effectiveness, and, furthermore, without consideration of the idiomatic principles of the instrument to which the adaptation was meant to fit.

"A 'transcription,' on the other hand, can be raised to the dignity of an art-work. Indeed, at times it may even surpa.s.s the original, in the quality of thought brought into the work, the delicate and sympathetic treatment and by the many subtleties* which an artist can introduce to make it thoroughly a _re-creation_ of his chosen instrument.

*Transcriber's note: Original text read "subleties".

"It is the transcriber's privilege--providing he be sufficiently the artist to approach the personality of another artist with reverence--to donate his own gifts of ingenuity, and to exercise his judgment in either adding, omitting, harmonically or otherwise embellis.h.i.+ng the work (_while preserving the original idea and characteristics_), so as to thoroughly _re-create_ it, so completely destroying the very sensing of the original _timbre_ that one involuntarily exclaims, 'Truly, this never was anything but a violin piece!' It is this, the blending and fusion of two personalities in the achievement of an art-ideal, that is the result of a true adaptation.

"Among the transcriptions I have most enjoyed making were those of Debussy's _Il pleure dans mon cur_, and _La Fille aux cheveaux de lin_. Debussy was my cherished friend, and they represent a labor of love. Though Debussy was not, generally speaking, an advocate of transcriptions, he liked these, and I remember when I first played _La Fille aux cheveaux de lin_ for him, and came to a bit of counterpoint I had introduced in the violin melody, whistling the harmonics, he nodded approvingly with a '_pas bete ca!_' (Not stupid, that!)

DEBUSSY'S POeME FOR VIOLIN

"Debussy came near writing a violin piece for me once!" continued Mr.

Hartmann, and brought out a folio containing letters the great impressionist had written him. They were a delightful revelation of the human side of Debussy's character, and Mr. Hartmann kindly consented to the quotation of one bearing on the _Poeme_ for violin which Debussy had promised to write for him, and which, alas, owing to his illness and other reasons, never actually came to be written:

"Dear Friend:

"Of course I am working a great deal now, because I feel the need of writing music, and would find it difficult to build an aeroplane; yet at times Music is ill-natured, even toward those who love her most! Then I take my little daughter and my hat and go walking in the Bois de Boulogne, where one meets people who have come from afar to bore themselves in Paris.

"I think of you, I might even say I am in need of you (a.s.sume an air of exaltation and bow, if you please!) As to the _Poeme_ for violin, you may rest a.s.sured that I will write it. Only at the present moment I am so preoccupied with the 'Fall of the House of Usher!' They talk too much to me about it. I'll have to put an end to all that or I will go mad. Once more I want to write it, and above all _on your account_. And I believe you will be the only one to play the _Poeme_. Others will attempt it, and then quickly return to the Mendelssohn Concerto!

"Believe me always your sincere friend,

"CLAUDE DEBUSSY."

"He never did write it," said Mr. Hartmann, "but it was not for want of good will. As to other transcriptions, I have never done any that I did not feel instinctively would make good fiddle pieces, such as MacDowell's _To a Wild Rose_ and others of his compositions. And recently I have transcribed some fine Russian things--Gretchaninoff's _Chant d'Automne_, Karagitscheff's _Exaltation_, Tschaikovsky's _Humoresque_, Balakirew's _Chant du Pecheur_, and Poldini's little _Poupee valsante_, which Maud Powell plays so delightfully on all her programs."

VII

JASCHA HEIFETZ

THE DANGER OF PRACTICING TOO MUCH.

TECHNICAL MASTERY AND TEMPERAMENT

Mature in virtuosity--the modern virtuosity which goes so far beyond the mere technical mastery that once made the term a reproach--though young in years, Jascha Heifetz, when one makes his acquaintance "off-stage,"

seems singularly modest about the great gifts which have brought him international fame. He is amiable, una.s.suming and--the best proof, perhaps, that his talent is a thing genuine and inborn, not the result of a forcing process--he has that broad interest in art and in life going far beyond his own particular medium, the violin, without which no artist may become truly great. For Jascha Heifetz, with his wonderful record of accomplishment achieved, and with triumphs still to come before him, does not believe in "all work and no play."