Description
Book SynopsisYehudi Menuhin shares with the reader his unique store of understanding about the violin, about how to exercise and practise, about the techniques of performance. His reflections on the nature and scope of his instrument are profoundly illuminating and his theories on interpretation particularly valuable. A section on the violinist as teacher/student contains a fascinating transcript of a lesson with Yehudi Menuhin, who also writes separately about the violinist as orchestral player, leader, chamber music player, recitalist and soloist. William Primrose writes the distinguished monograph on the viola and describes the instrument as ‘a violin with a college education’. He was an acknowledged technical master of the viola who, along with Lionel Tertis, was one of the finest exponents of this beautiful instrument of the 20th century. Denis Stevens, the British musicologist and specialist in early music, provides and interesting chapter on the history of the violin and looks in detail at the monumental challenge that is Bach’s Six Solos for Violin without Bass Accompaniment better known as the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin.
Trade Review'Yehudi Menuhin was the reason I became a violinist… He was an inveterate learner as well as an inveterate teacher – constantly searching for answers to life and music. I encountered this side of him first hand after I’d started studying with Zakhar Bron. Menuhin wanted to know all about Bron’s teaching, and we talked for several hours, during which he asked me to play for hours – he’d jump in with fascinating insights, suggestions and comparisons.' - Daniel Hope, Memories of Menuhin, The Strad
Table of ContentsPreface by Yehudi Menuhin, The Instrument by Etienne Vatelot, Part One - The Violin by Yehudi Menuhin, 1. The Violin and the Violinist, 2. The Preparation of the Violinist, 3. First Facts, 4. Technique, 5. Practising, 6. The Violinist in Action, 7. Repertoire and Interpretation, 8. The Making, Repair and Care of the Violin and Bow, 9. Teaching, 10. Lessons at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Part Two - The Viola by William Primrose, 11. The Viola, Part Three - A Short History by Denis Stevens, 12. Early History, 13. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Violin, Glossary, Some Selected Further Reading, Discography, Index
