Two Gleear [loz Fed0vees PLESCH 4. QOS § Hy Vyavre Lao ww a“Two GREAT VIOLIN TEACHERS ‘Flesch and Dounis Sybil Eaton x When I told Dounis a year ago that an article on these lines had been suggested he immediately said that it was not quite fair, for Flesch was no longer here to speak for himself. Now, alas, itis fair enough, for Dounis has also gone. Fortunately, besides their published technical works there exist two very comprehensive books: The Art of Violin Playing, in two volumes, by Carl Flesch (published by Fischer), and The Dounis Principles of Violin Playing, by Valborg Leland (published by The Strad). 1 can only hope that my attempts to put down, side by side, a few of the basic principles of these two great teachers will provoke violinists to study these works for themselves. Both men had an astonishingly wide and detailed knowledge of the history of violin playing, past and present, and no one was more aware than Flesch of its continuous development, to which he contributed so much. Both men were pioneers, but Dounis through being born twenty-five years after Flesch, inherited his teaching. He could begin where Flesch left off. Both men had, and sought to teach, the scientific, reasoning approach, not only the How but the Why. Flesch constantly tested the intelligence of his pupils with questions, forcing them to think for themselves, with the aim that each should eventually become his own teacher. Dounis once said to me that a pupil’s chief task at a lesson was just to iry fo understand. 1 T'shall never forget my first lessons with Flesch and the’ excitement of the discovery that violin playing could be an exact science. He knew one way anyhow that "worked. He was a model of clarity in his own mind’and in his teaching, and an example to all teachers in that he tackled one thing at a time. A pupil went away with one basic technical problem to conquet. Having been given a clear and exact diagnosis, the appropriate medicine was prescribed, even to the amount and the frequency of the dose. All was written down by Flesch. There could be no boggling at the next lesson! . The medicine often consisted in temporary exaggeration: , for a late finger on a new string, cure by anticipation; for a high elbow, play with it too low for a week; for drawing the bow behind you, draw it too far in the other direction, etc. His2 ° THE SCORE AND I.M.A, MAGAZINE two most valuable rules for practising were: 1. When a technical weakness appears in playing a piece, never practise it on the piece itself, but practise it ‘neat? as it were, on scales or a Kreutzer study, so that the freshitess of the music will not be lost. 2. When a passage contains left and right hand difficultics, separate them. Practise the bowin, on something that gives no trouble to the left hand. Practise the left hand with the easicst possible bowing. Do not put them together.until eachi is secure: One thing at a time! How different with Dounis, who covered most of the ground in a single lesson, which, however, lasted three and eyen four hours! He always said he could not understand how it was possible to give a lesson in one hour. But his lessons were by no means the endurance test one might expect. There was an exhilaration about them which no pupil of his could ever forget. Not only had he demonstrably new and workable solutions to one’s problems, but over and over again he said something that one instantly recognized as a golden fundamental truth. ‘Think of your harid, not of the bow’. ‘Don't isolate any part of your arm; always feel it to be a unity’, ‘Always feel on top of the string’. He invariably demonstrated in front of a mirror, so that one could the more easily compare every movement and every angle. He waited at frequent intervals while the pupil fook notes, helping to clarify them with the right word. How valuable are those notes now! I came away from each lesson feeling he had given me the master key. Flesch insisted that practising and playing were two completely different things. For the former you must be cool, analytical arid self-disciplined, so that when the time comes to play you are fresh and blazing. He contended that most of us fall between two stools with a half-thinking practice and a half-hearted performance. Dounis on the other hand said, pethaps not to students but certainly to players, “Always play with a warm, musical tone’. He hated the nondescript, ‘practising’ tone, and encouraged one to practise ‘all out’, maintaining that it is comparatively easy to achieve 100 per cent correctness when calm, and that the test comes when great excitement upsets the balance. Tenths and fingered octaves had to be practised forte rubato and vibrato. Without attempting to go fully into the subject of vibrato, it is worth noting that Flesch held Kreisler responsible for setting the fashion of a continuous vibrato (he used vibrato even in runs). He told me that he once asked Kreisler to what single factor he chiefly attributed his success and Kreisler answered without hesitation, ‘To my vibrato’. Flesch admitted that nearly all the violinists of his generation “used a continuous vibrato, but said dryly ‘A popularization of this seductive habit is not to be recommended’. Dounis believed in teaching vibrato from the early stages to ensure the correct position of the hand and to free the arm of any tension. He pointed out that very strong finger pressure stifles the tone in ff which is freed by an intense vibrato—a fact which anyone can prove for himself. In movements such as Bach Courantes and Gigues Dounis reserved vibrato for notés that required to be stressed. The left hand inflexion gives the necessary ringing quality far better than Bre a Soe