Violin Mastery - ADOLFO BETTI - Part 6
TEMPO
“All four individual players must be able to feel the tempo they are playing in the same way. I believe it was Mahler who once gave out a beat very distinctly—one, two, three—told his orchestra players to count the beat silently for twenty measures and then stop. As each felt the beat differently from the other, every one of them stopped at a different time. So tempo, just like intonation, must be ‘tempered’ by the four quartet players in order to secure perfect rhythmic inflection.
DYNAMICS
“Modern composers have wonderfully improved dynamic expression. Every little shade of meaning they make clear with great distinctness. The older composers, and occasionally a modern like Emanuel Moor, do not use expression marks. Moor says, ‘If the performers really have something to put into my work the signs are not needed.’ Yet this has its disadvantages. I once had an entirely unmarked Sonata by Sammartini. As most first movements in the sonatas of that composer are allegros I tried the beginning several times as an allegro, but it sounded radically wrong. Then, at last, it occurred to me to try it as a largo and, behold, it was beautiful!
Violin Mastery
Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers
by Frederick H. Martens
Published 1919
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