spicatto

  Today's Blog will deal with the last variations on this page of Feuillard's theme No. 35. Although Feuillard indicates these to be played in the middle of the bow, I prefer to use Variations #52 - #57 to work on a heavy spiccato stroke at the frog. This involves using an active upper arm and a "passive" wrist to create a brushy off-the-string stroke with a very ringy sound. A light version of this stroke might be used in Mozart symphonies or quartets, while the heavier version might be in Wagner or many contemporary works.   Variation #53: The model for these variations is #53 with its two arm levels, and I like to have the students play this before going sequentially through the other variations (see below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Ax1NoMr0Y&w=560&h=315 [...]