The Messa di Voce

July 16, 2004 at 05:11 AM · Hmm i'll try that it sounds interesting...

July 17, 2004 at 01:34 PM · Greetings,

the messa di voce is something I defected to the russians to find out about, after raduation many years ago.Viz Tretiakov had ,several years ago while still concertizing ,two dynamics ,FF and FFF.Trick was that he managed to get what colleagues of his referred to as a vocalaise effect in between every note.There is an expression " music happens between the notes".It sounds better in flemish or french ,but the secret of voicing is in the shading ,and in the ability to string together constructs of impulses ,both left and right hand as if produced from an entirely "unamimous source"may be one aspect of the question.One finger passages (scales etc) may reflect the ability to articulate from anywhere to any dynamic rhythm,with any combination of finger impulses or finger patterns.Closely connected to kinesthetics ,and just as tenuous ,and easy to miscommunicate and mispercieve.

Needless to say ,the better the technical vocalaise the more incoherent the communication of this effect APART from demonstration.

It is in an attempt to rationalise this placing of voicing on the string that is joined not just to dynamics but also the ability to play pianissamo close or even on the bridge of a good instrument ,without a ponticello effect that led me to the following :-

,forgive me, it was also posted elsewhere ,concernic clean shifts in scales ...

it was not just galamian who recommended playing scales with just one finger.An approach mimicking a singer's can even out left hand finger pressure imbalances that often accompany less than clean shifting.Firstly 8ve scales with one finger legato ,perhaps 4 notes per bow length ,using all fingers individually ,then two 8ves, then three.I often use a 4th finger "vocalaise"

to enjoin a feeling of bowing with the left hand with a real legato test in this way.Extending the legato beyong 4 per bow can be built up from six per bow to 8 per bow to 12 per bow length ,to eventually three 8ves per bow length, with one finger.Varying each completed duplet scale with triplets as base rhythm is also helpful.

The objective would be to be able ,as ricci put it to "unhook" each finger in a way that allowed maximum articulation with minimum left arm movement.Needless to say it might be easier to start in the fourth position ,four notes per lowest three strings ,as base joint mobility can be focused when the wrist is resting against the instrument.Hiener Rietz in his "the art of violin practice " has between pages 18 to 23 a remarkable treatment of string crossing in scales ,before shifting.The vocalaise element mentioned above works congenially towards developing evenness in finger pressure when used in conjunction with the suggested vocalaise basis of a sound.

I would be fascinated to see how far messa di voce would overlap such a development of vocalise extended impulse long scale use

(up to four 8ves with one finger in a fluent tempo ) because the bow stroke lengthens itself incrementally as the bridge can be approached while ascending AND descending even in ppp (of course the rostropovitch 2.5 mins bow on one note from ppp to fff is a completion of this very process ,and more...

I would be interested to hear your "more"

Mark