"You see," he continued, "the secret of really beautiful violin playing
lies in the bow. A Blondin crossing Niagara finds his wire hard and firm
where he first steps on it. But as he progresses it vibrates with
increasing intensity. And as the tight-rope walker knows how to control
the vibrations of his wire, so the violinist must master the vibrations
of his strings. Each section of the string vibrates with a different
quality of tone. Most pupils think that a big tone is developed by
pressure with the bow--yet much depends on what part of the string this
pressure is applied. Fingering is an art, of course, but the great art
is the art of the bow, the 'art of bowing,' as Tartini calls it. When a
pupil understands it he has gone far.
"Every pupil may be developed to a certain degree without ever
suspecting how important a factor the manipulation of the bow will be in
his further progress. He thinks that if the fingers of his left hand are
agile he has gained the main end in view. But then he comes to a
stop--his left hand can no longer aid him, and he finds that if he wants
to play with real beauty of expression the bow supplies the only true
key. Out of a hundred who reach this stage," Mr. Kneisel went on, rather
sadly, "only some five or six, or even less, become great artists. They
are those who are able to control the bow as well as the left hand. All
real art begins with phrasing, and this, too, lies altogether in the
mastery of bow--the very soul of the violin!"
I asked Mr. Kneisel how he came to write his own "Advanced Exercises"
for the instrument. "I had an idea that a set of studies, in which each
single study presented a variety of technical figures might be a relief
from the exercises in so many excellent methods, where pages of scales
are followed by pages of arpeggios, pages of double-notes and so forth.
It is very monotonous to practice pages and pages of a single technical
figure," he added. "Most pupils simply will not do it!" He brought out a
copy of his "Exercises" and showed me their plan. "Here, for instance, I
have scales, trills, arpeggios--all in the same study, and the study is
conceived as a musical composition instead of a technical formula. This
is a study in finger position, with all possible bowings. My aim has
been to concentrate the technical material of a whole violin school in
a set of _études_ with musical interest."
And he showed me the second book of the studies, in ms., containing
exercises in every variety of scale, and trill, bowing, _nuance_, etc.,
combined in a single musical movement. This volume also contains his own
cadenza to the Beethoven violin concerto. In conclusion Mr. Kneisel laid
stress on the importance of the student's hearing the best music at
concert and recital as often as possible, and on the value and incentive
supplied by a musical atmosphere in the home and, on leaving him, I
could not help but feel that what he had said in our interview, his
reflections and observations based on an artistry beyond cavil, and an
authoritative experience, would be well worth pondering by every serious
student of the instrument. For Franz Kneisel speaks of what he knows.