Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
How to Support the Pre-Chinrest Violin
I. Right Hand Technique
General Observations
1. Tone Production
Basic Right-Hand Technique
The Importance of Arm Weight
The Use of Arm Weight
2. Bow-Strokes
Lifted strokes
Slurred notes
Retaking
Z-bowing
Martelé and Spiccato
Sautillé
Bariolage
Ondeggiando
3. Chordal Technique
4. Bow Division
5. Swift-Bows
6. Combination Strokes
II. Left-Hand Technique
7. Position-Changing Exercises
Some Basic Concepts
The Position Of The Left Hand
The Swing
Shifting
Half-position
Vibrato
III. Interpretation
8. Expression
Affect and rhetoric
The role of analysis
The importance of the bass-line
The tyranny of the barline
The significance of metre
Shaping notes and gestures
Beware of the beam!
The trouble with notation
The reality of rubato
9. Dynamics and Nuance
Harmony
Melody
Figures of musical speech
(i) Repetition
(ii) Sequences
(iii) Tessitura
(iv) The question
(v) The exclamation
(vi) Silence
10. Tempo
Metrical symbols
Harmonic motion
Technical complexity
Affective words
Cautionary and qualifying words
Baroque dance movements
11. Ornamentation
Symbolic
Notated ornaments
Un-notated ornaments
12. Baroque Clichés
The classic cadential formula
Slurred articulations
The hemiola
Pulsations
Suspensions
Syncopations
Melodic accents
"Down-downs"
The ultimate Baroque cliché
IV. Technique and Practice Guide
13. Tuning
A word about intonation
Tuning
Difference tones
Difference tone exercise
Visualizing
Warm-up exercises
A shifting exercise
14. Exercises Starting on First Finger
Scales
Broken Thirds
Double-stopped Thirds
Sixths
Octaves
Fingered Octaves
Tenths
Arpeggios
15. Exercises Starting on G
Scales
Broken Thirds
Double-stopped Thirds
Sixths
Octaves
Fingered Octaves
Tenths
Arpeggios
16. Half Position
Notes
Index

Promotional Information

Unlocking the secrets of early violin performance

About the Author

Stanley Ritchie is an internationally recognized violinist, teacher, and recording artist. He is a professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington and the 2009 recipient of the Howard Mayer Brown Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Early Music.

Reviews

"Useful and elegantly written, Stanley Ritchie's book will be a most valuable resource to accomplished modern violinists wishing to learn to play the baroque violin." Marc Destrube, violinist "Before the Chinrest is aimed at modern violinists and viola players who are 'curious to learn about technique and style as understood and practised by their seventeenth and eighteenth-century predecessors', so it is designed as a practical guide and includes a wealth of information, musical examples and technical exercises... Ritchie divides the book into four sections: right-hand technique, left-hand technique, interpretation, and a technique and intonation practice guide. I found myself in agreement with a great number of his points about matters technical and interpretative, and many of his technical exercises would be extremely helpful to those new to period playing. However, I would have expected more information on how the baroque violin differs in its setup from the modern and how the bow developed over the years, as well as some advice as to how to go about getting hold of the instruments, bows and gut strings... Before the Chinrest is highly recommended for what is included, but disappointing as to what is omitted. My recommendation to modern-trained players would be to buy Judy Tarling's Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners as an ideal reference book for this music and then use this new book for a more detailed practical guide to playing the instrument."-Classical Music, Dec 2012