Reinhold Dolin

Reinhold Dolin (born January 27, 1938 in Kirchseeon , Germany; † November 20, 2006 in Munich ) was a German-Austrian violinist . During his life he perfected the game with the round arch . Dolin is also the inventor of the chin and shoulder rests Dolin for violin and viola .

Life

Reinhold Dolin was born in Kirchseeon in 1938 as the fourth child of Ludwig Dolin and Frida Dolin, née Longin. Dolin received his first violin lessons from Margarete Keller at the age of nine and later switched to Herma Studeney, a student of Otakar Ševčík . With Mozart's Little Night Music and the Double Concerto for Two Violins by Johann Sebastian Bach , he made his first public appearance at the age of eleven. In addition to high school, he attended the Munich Municipal Conservatory as a guest student. After graduating from high school, Dolin began studying several languages ​​as well as education at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and graduated in Berlin . Even as a student, Dolin was concert master and soloist at the “Ottobeurer Summer Festival”; he held this position for six years.

After completing his studies, Reinhold Dolin was engaged in various orchestras. His path led him to the Innsbruck Municipal Orchestra , the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Antwerp , the Mannheim National Theater and the Deutsche Oper Berlin . He also trained as a soloist. Dolin was a student of the solo violist Ludwig Ackermann , of Friedrich Mestler in Prague (1965), with the concertmaster van de Velde in Antwerp (1966), of Justius Ringelberg in Mannheim (1967–1972) and Michael Goldstein in Moscow (1968–1979). In 1970 Reinhold Dolin was the only representative of the Federal Republic of Germany at the International Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki .

In 1981 Reinhold Dolin was appointed first concertmaster of the Bodensee-Symphonie-Orchester Konstanz, but after just one season in 1982 he moved to the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Concert tours and solo appearances in the USA, the Soviet Union , China and Japan followed. From 1988 onwards, Reinhold Dolin concentrated increasingly on his solo playing, his scientific work and taught private students. He continued to work for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at regular intervals .

Charitable activity

In 1993, at the invitation of the Artistic Director of the Lviv Philharmonic, Dolin came to Ukraine to give a lecture series . He gave lectures on playing with the arch to students and professors at the music college . This trip changed Dolin's life forever, because in Ukraine he came into contact with victims of the Chernobyl disaster . From this point on, until his death, Dolin worked intensively on aid convoys to Ukraine, supported families with musical children and taught them a.o. a. in playing the violin. Dolin also helped Ukrainian victims of National Socialism to receive compensation from Germany.

Scientific work

During his life, Dolin was also engaged in scientific work related to violin playing.

Round arch

Since the reproduction of the sonatas and partitas for violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Georg Pisendel and Georg Philipp Telemann with the straight bow remained unsatisfactory for him, he dealt with questions of performance practice and included the so-called round arch in his playing .

He put forward the following theses: He resolutely opposed the claim that the round arch was an invention of the 20th century. The round arch was already in general use for around 1000 years, until 1790, precisely because of the disruptive polyphony ( drone playing ), the modern bow was developed by François Tourte . "However, round arches are still used in folk music to this day," said Dolin in an exposé he wrote to the University of Music in Munich . In India, Poland and the Balkans, this round arch is used in many regions. In Scandinavia, for example, the key harp is played with the round arch. Dolin continues: “It should be noted that with the round arch there were temporal overlaps and transitional and mixed forms ( frog species, curvature of the pole). Even after Tourte, Leopold Mozart and Nicolò Paganini , for example , used a round arch, if one can trust the traditional illustrations. But this one probably already had a serrated or screw frog . So the hair could not be moved with the thumb, but still allowed continuous, three-part playing as in Paganini's Caprice No. 20; this point cannot be made with the modern, straight arch. "

In order to be able to play this passage perfectly, Reinhold Dolin had the Paganini arch , a round arch with a screw frog and moderate curvature, recreated. This allowed him to play a three-part, but no longer four-part game. Line types such as ricochet (Caprice No. 1) and spiccatto were possible, but not yet very fast sautillé and détaché . Dolin took a musical conclusion, for example for the violin works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the fact: "Since the jumping and Détaché-line styles with the quasi-circular arch were run inconvenient, was much more legato played" .

After his studies, Dolin saw musical advantages for Johann Sebastian Bach's solo sonatas:

• clear, unbroken chords, particularly appealing with dissonances
• correct voice leading, for example in Bach's fugue in C major, bars 56–59
• different timbres possible

Dolin gave lectures on his findings about the arch at various universities and conservatories, for example in Graz , Colmar , Zurich or Mannheim, and in 1988 supported his theories with music examples on ORF .

Violin technique and instruction

Reinhold Dolin has dealt extensively with violin technique, didactics and pedagogy since the 1970s and compared the various violin schools in Bohemia , Hungary, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Italy and France with each other. He came to the conclusion that violin training was unscientific, narrow-minded, one-sided. Often people only teach as the teacher's teacher had already taught, so Dolin summarized in an essay. Reinhold Dolin therefore developed a new way of teaching the violin in his lessons. In the mid-1970s he took a few more semesters of medicine at the University of Graz in order to incorporate the knowledge of sports medicine - movement coordination, types of training, nutrition - into his violin school. Coupled with his knowledge of pedagogy, psychology, music history and instrument making, he gives his students a holistic approach to learning how to play the violin.

Chin and shoulder rests

Like many violinists, Reinhold Dolin repeatedly had difficulties holding the instrument. In his opinion, the cramped posture could affect the whole playing technique. After years of studies and trials, Dolin developed a chin rest in the mid-1980s , which was launched in 1986. This chinrest enabled a more comfortable and relaxed way of playing. In 1995, Dolin applied for a patent for his shoulder holder.

swell

• Annual program Bodensee-Symphonie-Orchester Konstanz 1981/1982
• Reinhold Dolin, essays, remarks, studies 1960–2005, estate of the violinist
• Annual program of the Teatro Massimo Palermo 1982/1983
• Süddeutsche Zeitung from May 15, 2000
• Lviv Regional State Administration Department of Culture
• University of Graz [1]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ From the beginning to the 21st century. In: Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck. Retrieved May 18, 2011 .  
2. ↑ Results. In: Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. Retrieved May 18, 2011 .  
3. ↑ Bach arch. In: BACH.bogen. Retrieved May 8, 2011 .