Some recent reads on violin technique; Music in St. John's this weekend

November 21, 2010 at 4:29 AM

Today I read a book by Herbert Whone called The Integrated Violinist. It was a great read for me; he seemed to have a chapter on everything that I've been working on lately! Besides it being a rather sexist book, it was awesome. My favourite chapters were about the importance of using the upper arm for all bow movements, the need to separate bow movement from left hand movement, portatmento playing, and finding a healthy way to move while playing. These are all things I'm struggling with in my lessons right now and I found it very helpful!

I was looking up other books to read and I found this website's list:

http://www.abrsm.org/resources/Reading%20List%2010May2000.pdf

and I'm wondering if anybody has read The Physiology of Violin Playing by Otte Szende?

A FANTASTIC read is What Every Vioilnist Needs to Know About the Body by Body Mappng/AT teacher Jennifer Johnson for anobody who wants to learn a healthier approach to playing and teaching violin. She and her book have saved my career by helping me get over RSI injuries and heaps of back problems from years of terrible technique while I was teaching myself fiddle. This book was reviewed in the October 2010 edition of Strad if anybody would like to learn more!

Last night the Newfoundland Symphony played Tchaikovsky no. 5 with a violin section comprised of 6 first violins and 7 second violins, with an otherwise full-size orchestra: the violinists were all grimacing by the end on account of how loud they all had to play to be heard! I couldn't do this concerto because of wrist injury and I'm glad I didn't. Last month we played Beethoven no. 2 and my arms almost fell off! We really need to get a bigger violin section, that's for sure. Sometimes I wish St. John's were a bigger city! Our violinists are all fantastic but so few in number. Also played last night was Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini by David Jalbert. It was pretty cool.

Tomorrow night I get to see a recital of Gliere's and Martinu's violin and cello duets at the MUN school of music: http://www.nso-music.com/default.asp?com=Events&m=&id=84

it should be great. I would love to play the Gliere duets, has anybody had a good chamber music experience with them? Also being played is Shostakovich trio in E minor and Beethoven C minor Eroica trio, with Nancy Case-Oates, Nathan Cook, and David Jalbert. Can't wait!

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Some recent reads on violin technique; Music in St. John's this weekend

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