Bowed
Arts – Reflections of Bernard Greenhouse On His Life and Music
By
Laurinel Owen
Published
in 2001 by Kronberg Academy Verlag. 195 pages. 27 pages of black
& white photographs. Written in German and English in one volume.
Excerpts from "Bowed Arts":
On
Emmanuel Feuermann
'Feuermann was a natural talent and had been a child prodigy, but
he had carefully analyzed every facet of his playing. Mostly during
my lessons we discussed technique, especially the use of the left
hand. He had such a remarkable facility, with both hands really.
But there was less talk about the bow and lots of talk about the
left hand. This is the technique that I still teach today.
'Completely
new to me was his lack of use of extensions in the left hand. His
hand was very agile and he never, never stretched between the first
and fourth finger. There was always a wonderful dexterity in his
arm to accommodate the finger rather than the spreading of the fingers
to whole-steps and major thirds. He taught me to use a supple motion
of the arm rather than opening the hand. His fingers were always
close together. For example, if he was playing from a B-natural
to a C-sharp on the A string he would not stretch the second finger;
he would shift the whole arm so the hand and arm were fluid and
constantly in motion.'
On
Pablo Casals
'We also worked on phrasing. Pick up the Bach Suites and with only
a cursory glance you will notice that the movements have no rests
in them - you have to make your own and find time to breathe. Where
you take your breath and how much time you take is important. I
learned this through my work with Casals. His music had architecture
– it was never a straight line. Phrasing has steps, what he
called "rainbows." In a phrase, there is always a forward
or a receding motion. Every note, every bar, every phrase has to
have motion. For example, the opening of the C minor Suite, as the
line ascends, the motion is a forward one; as it falls away, the
motion should also. That is the rainbow.
'During
each of my lessons he would play for me and I was tremendously impressed.
I was very intent to discover the source of his magnificent ability
to reach out to the listener. I wanted to know the secret of his
music making. At the instrument he sat quite still, but there was
an enormous energy going into the performance. The sound was also
something very special. I never quite understood how he made that
sound. But my time with Casals gave me a whole new concept to pattern
my music making.'
On
The Beaux Arts Trio
'The Trio played so many concerts over the years, that I sometimes
wonder what makes inspiration, but it is impossible to explain.
I know that when I am successful with a phrase, I feel the same
emotional reaction that the audience feels, but that feeling must
be very strong to be successful. We used to do one movement of Dvorak’s
"Dumky" Trio as an encore and each time we played it,
there was not one single time when I did not try to do something
with it. I never wanted to play it the same way twice. We may have
performed that piece one or two thousand times, but it was always
a challenge for me to find a great moment in it. Sometimes I was
successful, other times I had to repeat what I had done in other
performances; however I always attempted to say something new. This
was much more interesting than repeating what I knew had been successful
before. It was the same with the Ravel Trio and the Triple Concerto.
We gave thousands of performances of each of those works and we
always wanted to play each differently.'
On
Teachingg
'A natural instinct for vibrato can be developed by understanding
the intensity of the phrase, whether the musical expression requires
a fast or slow, wide or narrow vibrato. If one has a beautiful sound,
but only one sound, after a while the quality, though beautiful,
becomes monotonous. It is essential to have the ability to modulate
the vibrato, just as one changes speed and effort in the bow. You
must have the means of producing sound color in the bow and there
must be a range of movements in the left hand.
'I
have been complimented all my life for having a beautiful sound
on the cello, but I do not believe that it is only one sound that
is beautiful. It is adjusting the sound and the vibrato to the emotional
content of the music itself that is so important. One must have
the ability to change the vibrato to match what happens with the
bow. The beautiful tone can be beautiful for only a certain period
of time if it has no relationship with the interpretation of the
music you are playing. That is something that I understood right
from the start.'
To Purchase
"Bowed Arts"
"Bowed Arts- Reflections of Bernard Greenhouse On His Life and
Music" is available for only $20.00, which includes postage and handling.
To purchase a copy, mail a check payable to Laurinel Owen to the
following address:
Laurinel Owen
78 Bellhaven Road
Bellport, NY 11713
©
copyright 2006, Laurinel Owen
All rights
reserved. No portion may be reproduced
in any way
without written
permission from Laurinel Owen |
