In the early seventeenth century, enthusiasm for the violin swept across Europe--this was an instrument capable of bewitching virtuosity, with the power to express emotions in a way only before achieved with the human voice. With this new guide to the Baroque violin, and its close cousin, the Baroque viola, distinguished performer and pedagogue Walter Reiter puts this power into the hands of today's players. Through fifty lessons based on the Reiter's own highly-renowned course at The Royal Conservatory of the Hague, The Baroque Violin & Viola, Volume I provides a comprehensive exploration of the period's rich and varied repertoire.
Volume I covers the basics of choosing a violin, techniques to produce an ideal sound, and sonatas by Vivaldi and Corelli. Practical exercises are integrated into each lesson, and accompanied by rich video demonstrations on the book's companion website. Brought to life by Reiter's deep insight into key repertoire based on a lifetime of playing and teaching, The Baroque Violin & Viola, Volume I: A Fifty-Lesson Course will enhance performances of professional and amateur musicians alike.
Foreword Introductory quotes Questions and Answers Part One The Basics Lesson One. Prelude Choosing a Violin - Choosing a Bow - Strings - Pitch. Lesson Two. Holding the violin How to hold the Baroque violin: a beginner's guide. Lesson Three. The Bow, Creator of Sound Holding the Bow. Lesson Four. First Sounds: Celebrating our Vocal Heritage Searching for our Vocal Roots - Exploring the Rhythm of words - Postscript. Lesson Five. Copying the Human Voice: Sweelinck's Garrulous Little Swallow Vowels - Dipthongs - Consonants - Double Consonants - Bowings - Postscript. Lesson Six. Five Exercises to Help Accustom You to 'Chinless' Playing Recalling These Exercises in a Performance Situation - Technical Factors - Emotional Factors - Nerves. Lesson Seven. More Basic Concepts and Techniques. 'A Division on a Ground' by Mr Faronell, from 'The Division Violin,' London, 1684 The Importance of the Bass Line - Tempo and Rhythm - The Hierarchies and the Bow Impulses - Engramelle - Good Notes and Bad Notes - Varying the Articulation. Lesson Eight. Learning to Feel. Developing a heightened awareness of the Emotional Power of Sound and the Intervals Emotional Information: What Sound Tells Us - How to Prepare: Manipulating Our Emotions. Lesson Nine. The Inner Life of Sound: 'Messa di voce' Lesson Ten. Applying the Messa di voce. Arcangelo Corelli: Adagio from Sonata Opus V No 3 Applying the 'Messa di voce' - Dissonances and Consonances - On Trills - In Praise of the Second Position - Hemiolas: To be Heard as Well as Seen? - A Note on Chromatic Fingering - Sound and Expression - Summary Lesson Eleven: Temperament and 'Historical' Intonation: an Outline How Do We Learn 'Pure' Intonation? - Leopold Mozart on Overtones - Peter Prelleur's Fingerboard. Lesson Twelve. Scale Exercises and Etudes for Shifting and Intonation Part One: Towards a Chinless Scale Book The Four Springs - Techniques of Displacement - Shifting and Expression. Part Two: Fifteen Exercises for the Methodical Study of Pure Intonation. Applying Pure Intonation to Geminiani's Scale Studies from 'The Art of Playing the Violin (1751) Lesson Thirteen. Bringing Fast Notes to Life: the Inequality of the Equal. Albinoni. Sonata Op V1 No 2, Allegro How to Play Equal Notes in a Flexible and Subtle Way - The Three Flexibilities - Rhythmic flexibility - Dynamic flexibility - Flexibility of articulation - Adding Slurs: a Misdemeanour? - Sequences. Lesson Fourteen. Learning to Feel Comfortable on Gut Strings. I) The Bow Lesson Fifteen. Learning to Feel Comfortable on Gut Strings. II) The Left Hand Slaves of our Inner Voice: the Fingers. Part Two Re-examining the Familiar: Sonatas by Vivaldi and Corelli Lesson Sixteen. The Starting-point of Interpretation: Learning to Observe Arcangelo Corelli: Sonata Op V no VII Interpretation: a Question of Taste? - Editions or Facsimiles? - Instrumentation in Corelli's Opus V Sonatas - Means of Expression - Choosing a Convincing Tempo - Preludio - Afterthought: What Happens Within. Lesson Seventeen. Corelli. Sonata Op V No VII. Corrente - Sarabanda - Giga Lesson Eighteen. Transforming musical decisions into sound Lesson Nineteen. In the Footsteps of Corelli. Antonio Vivaldi: Sonata Op 2 No 1 Preludio. Gesture - Shifting: How, When and Whither? - Open Strings: Use or Misuse- Notes Essential and Notes Ornamental Lesson Twenty. In the Footsteps of Corelli. Antonio Vivaldi: Sonata Op 2 No 1 Giga, Sarabanda Largo, Corrente. Emotional Information in Rhythm - Learning to Read Vivaldi's Sonata in the Original Notation Lesson Twenty-One. Nurturing Spontaneity: Ornamentation, Module One Ornamentation: Diversion or Essence? - Overcoming Our Fear of Playing the Unwritten - Ornamentation and National Styles - Composed Ornamentation - First Steps in Ornamenting: Corelli's Sarabanda - Ornamenting the Second Half of the Sarabanda - Corelli's Sarabanda Ornamented by Dubourg. Lesson Twenty-Two. Straight from the Heart: the Great Vibrato Debate Lesson Twenty-Three. Rhetoric: the Power to Persuade The Origins of Rhetoric - Rhetoric and Music - The Musician as Orator - Rhetorical Playing Versus Pure Instrumentalism - Some Rhetorical Figures: Dynamics, Parenthesis, Repetition, Direction, Punctuation and Intonation - Tonality - Dissonance - Tessitura - Tempo - Metre - Acoustic - Imagery - Presentation. Notes to Lessons Bibliography Index Acknowledgements
Walter Reiter is internationally recognized as a leading Baroque violinist, leader and conductor. He has made countless recordings with both British and European Baroque orchestras as well as several highly acclaimed solo CDs. A devoted and experienced teacher of both modern and Baroque violin, he is currently Professor of Baroque Violin and Viola in the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands.
Reviews for The Baroque Violin & Viola: A Fifty-Lesson Course Volume I
"""This book is exactly what violinists need to find practical and profoundly-researched information about anything concerning Baroque style. It is a book all musicians truly interested in delving into historical performance questions should never let out of their sight"" -- Isabelle Faust, violinist ""This is a lot more than a book about how to play the violin. It shows Reiter to be an expert guide in defining a rich cultural context for music-making - and not just violin-playing - and with the potential to shatter dull preconceptions. His practical experience, learning and articulacy combine to enrich and extend our purview of instrumental music extending over five centuries. An excellent and enlightening treasure-trove for all music-lovers."" -- Sir John Eliot Gardiner ""This is an amazing accomplishment, covering all technical, historical and musical aspects of playing as well as how to listen and how to find our inner voice... such a generous gift to Baroque violinists and violists and one that will be hugely appreciated and celebrated! The writing is delightfully methodical and vitally informative, with a constant eye on the sources, humorous and entertaining throughout. A complete joy!"" -- Rachel Podger, Visiting Professor of Baroque violin, Royal Academy of Music London, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Cardiff, Juilliard School of Music New York ""Reiter's timely and immensely usable new oeuvre will certainly be an important tool for Baroque string players and their students as well as a powerful reference for modern violinists and viola players who wish to give eloquence and understanding to the glorious string repertory of the 17th and 18th centuries."" -- William Christie"
- Winner of Winner of the Music Teacher Magazine Editor's Award 2021.
