Attempt a thorough violin school

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Portrait of Mozart in the 1st edition

An attempt at a thorough violin school is the title of a theoretical work by Leopold Mozart , the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . From the second edition in 1770 it was called the Thorough Violin School . The school work, written in 1756 and very successful in its time, was one of the first instructions for violin lessons; Mozart tried to systematically process the didactics of violin playing . Today it serves as a source for historical performance practice .

Emergence

Francesco Geminiani's The Art of Playing on the Violin was published in London in 1751 , while L ' Abbé Le Fils published his Principes du Violon in Paris in 1761 . As a recognized musician and teacher, Mozart was aware of the need for a German violin school, especially since with C. P. E. Bach's attempt on the true way to play the piano and J. J. Quantz's attempt at an instruction to play the flute traversiere, German-language teaching works for other instruments were already available.

In addition to the works mentioned above, the most important basis for the book was certainly the pedagogical work of Giuseppe Tartini , who had not written a printed textbook, but whose didactic concepts were circulated throughout Europe in the form of notes from his students.

The following issues were published:

  • The first edition appeared in Augsburg in 1756 and is due to Prince-Bishop Sigismund III. Dedicated to Christoph von Schrattenbach . Like the second edition, it bears a quote from the second book by de musica des Aristeides Quintilianus : "Esse igitur adolescentes nobis Musica erudiendos, ipsiusque tota Vita, quantum fieri possit, rationem habendam, neminem ahlocuturum puto." (I believe Nobody will deny that the youngsters have to be taught by us in music and that one has to worry for life how much it can happen.)
    • Dutch translation: Haarlem 1766.
    • French translation: Paris 1770 etc.
  • The second edition from 1769/70. At the expense of the author. Compared to the 1st edition, only little things have been left out, "but some very useful rules have been indented, and many things have been multiplied with clear examples and explanations." Some of the music examples have been expanded by one or two bars, but some have also been completely replaced.
  • 1787, in the year of the author's death (the preamble is now missing) and printed for the third time, is textually completely identical to the second (some vignettes and headers have been renewed), but under the title: Thorough Violin School and (incorrectly) as: “Third increased Edition ”(Augsburg, printed and to be found by Johann Jakob Lotter and Son, printer and music publisher. 1787.). The preliminary report for the 2nd edition and the dedication to Schrattenbach, who has since died, were omitted. Existing printing plates were reused. Strangely enough, the preface to the first edition (including the date 1756) is printed verbatim. Perhaps the edition was made by the publisher without Mozart's knowledge. It was reprinted several times in a facsimile manner, u. a. from VEB Deutscher Verlag Leipzig 1968 etc. (with the misprint: "Facsimile reprint of the 3rd edition, Augsburg 1789" - is correct, as the facsimile shows: 1787).
  • The 4th edition of 1800 had already changed significantly in view of the rapid development of violin technology at that time.

While Leopold Mozart was still alive, in 1766 Johannes Enschede published a Dutch translation in Haarlem. Several others followed, including a. 1804 into Russian. To date, the violin school has had over 1800 editions.

echo

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg , the most important music theorist of the Enlightenment , expressed himself as follows in his historical-critical contributions :

“A work of this kind has long been desired, but hardly dared to expect: the thorough and skilful virtuoso, the sensible and methodical teacher, learned musician; these properties [...] develop here together. "

The following quote from a letter from Carl Friedrich Zelter to Goethe from 1829 shows how long the "attempt" remained relevant :

“The father [WA Mozart's] was an able musician; his violin school is a work that can be used as long as the violin remains a violin; it is even well written. "

content

The headings of the chapters of the first edition give an overview of the varied demands of the school:

    1. From the old and new musical letters and notes, as well as from the now common lines and musical keys
    2. From the bar, or musical measure of time
    3. On the duration or validity of the grades, pauses and points; including an explanation of all musical symbols and artificial words
  1. How the violinist should hold the violin and wield the bow
  2. What the student must observe before starting to play; in the same what one should present him to play at the beginning
  3. On the order of the upstroke and downstroke [ line ]
  4. How one should seek the good tone on a violin and bring it out right through a skilful moderation of the bow
  5. From the so-called triplets
  6. Of the many changes in the bow stroke
    1. About the change in bow stroke on the same notes
    2. About the change in bow stroke in figures made up of different and unequal notes
  7. From the applications [ change of position ]
    1. From the so-called whole application [change to 3rd, 5th, 7th position]
    2. From half the application [change to 2nd, 4th, 6th position]
    3. From the composite or mixed application [totality of the layers]
  8. Of the proposals and some of the decorations that go with them
  9. About the trill
  10. From the tremulo , mordents and some other arbitrary embellishments
  11. About the correct reading of notes and good presentation in general

expenditure

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