Christian Laremont ~ Classical Guitarist: THE INFLUENCE OF THE VIOLIN ON THE GUITAR

This is the third post dedicated to the Art of Performance/Interpretation, but this time from the point of view of the violin, which has influenced the classic guitar in many different ways. Performance, left hand (LH) technique, and music notation are the points of interest that will be briefly covered.

Johann Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) born in Augsberg, Germany first published this didactic work in 1756, just after the birth of his son W. A. Mozart (1756-1789). The Treatise on the Fundamental Principals of Violin Playing appeared a few years after the Treatise on Playing Traverse Flute by J. J. Quantz (1752), and Ph. Em. Bach's The True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (1753). What caught my attention the most in Leopold's Violinschule, was that it was written more for the teacher than the student, and most importantly it can be used as a guide for "good artistic performance in general.'

Leopold gives practical advice on performance which he considers to be a true art form. For example, before playing a piece of music, three factors must be considered: the key, time signature, and the kind of mvt. (this refers to the Affect or emotion of the piece). He mentions the importance of evenness of tone especially when transitioning between p and f, and viceversa on all strings (G, D, A, E); play as if you were singing, "which is the aim of every instrumentalist" (this is a clear indication of the influence of G. Tartini 1692-1770); practice playing passages many different ways and not only the way it is written; one must be able to accompany right well before one can play solo; and according to the South German Master, "a tasteful performance of a piece can only be learnt from sound judgement and long experience."

As far as LH is concerned, we can notice a more direct effect of the treble fiddle on the guitar. In chapter II of the Treatise (How the Violinist must hold the Violin and direct the Bow), Leopold mentions, "the thumb must not project too far over the fingerboard...", and "the thumb will rest opposite the second finger"; later in the book he justifies the use of positions: necessity, convenience and elegance (based on the singing style of delivery); attention is given to overlapping/exchanging of the fingers (i.e., finger 4 is used instead of 3); and finally, all the fingers must be made equally strong and dexterous always bearing in mind that the 4th finger is the weakest and the shortest.

In 1758 was when we finally have an example of the use of today's standard staff notation which was found in a guitar method published in France by an anonymous author. Until that point of time, and after the disuse of tablature, music for guitar was heavily influenced by the violin (use of the treble clef and similar range). The problem was that all the note stems pointed in the same direction (all up or all down) and there was no distinction between the duration of the voices. There are many examples of correct polyphonic writing with staff notation for the guitar in the music of F. Sor (1778-1839) who is considered to be by some the 'Beethoven' of the six stringed instrument.