About two weeks ago (November 8, to be exact), I had a lot of fun presenting a lecture-recital that featured three suites by 20th-century American women composers. It was fun for a lot of reasons: one, the music was goofy and unlike anything I'd ever performed before; two, I got to work with our fabulous collaborative pianist, Amanda Arrington; and three, it was a big step forward for my playing after eight years of recovering from various injuries and illnesses. Looking on the bright side, if not for the enforced time away from playing, I never would have created this anthology!

I had found Audrey Call's Canterbury Tales Suite during anthology research, and even though it's in a jazzy style unnatural to me, I wanted to play it. Then I received an email last year asking me if I knew about Susan Dyer's An Outlandish Suite. The fine folks at interlibrary loan found it for me, and I loved how unusual and quirky it was. All I needed was one more piece of Americana to round out the program, so I went back to my roots and brought out a work from volume one, the Kansas Memories Suite by Hannah Bartel (now Hannah Groening). It made for a very light-hearted little recital!

Hannah Bartel Groening (b. 1985) was born in Cimarron, Kansas, growing up in the country with many siblings in a musical family. She was a composition student at Kansas State and graduated with a B.M. in 2008. Violin is her primary instrument, and she was a delight to work with. Hannah is married now and lives in Dodge City, Kansas, with her husband and young son. She teaches violin and piano, composes, and is an avid gardener. Last year was apparently a bumper crop for tomatoes!

I commissioned this suite from her for the first volume of the anthology. She writes wonderfully for strings, and has a natural gift for melody. Each movement captures a moment from her childhood, and focuses on a different technical aspect of violin playing: string crossings, pizzicato, legato, and perpetual motion. The pieces are not only useful for teaching, but are really fun to play! Below are links to sound files for the first and third movements:

"Rainy Daze" 
https://app.box.com/s/jt7bqa8ydihjxpq43obe

" 'Lil Blue"
https://app.box.com/s/tn0crpr1yf2xhzutpnl6

The next composer on the program was Audrey Call (1905-2001), who grew up in Marion, Indiana (also the birthplace of James Dean). Call began violin studies at age three and appeared as a prodigy from age eight into her teens. Graduating from high school in 1923, she began studying at the Sherwood Music School in Chicago. Call won two violin competitions in 1926, and mdd her debut with the Chicago Symphony in 1927. From there, it was off to Paris for "finishing" at the Paris Conservatoire, where she earned the "Premier Accessit de Violon" in 1928.

On her return to America, Call got involved in radio broadcast work. She was the violin soloist for the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio show for several years, and married the show's orchestra conductor, Ulderico Marcelli, in 1937. Call also played on the radio shows of other luminaries of the day, including Dennis Day, Imogene Coca, and Ronald Coleman. She was also a staff violinist for both NBC and CBS. The 1930's also saw her turn her hand to composition. Call wrote a number of "novelty solos" for violin and piano in a jazzy/blusey/big band sort of style popular at the time (The Witch of Harlem is one, which you can find in volume four of the anthology). Her style has been compared to that of Joe Venuti, though I'm not sure how apt that comparison may be.

Call had one son with Marcelli, and the marriage was a long and presumably happy one. She continued to compose and play, and was a dedicated violin teacher in Sunland, California. After her death, a music scholarship was established in her name at Santa Rosa Junior College. Call played a Gagliano violin, which is now owned by the concertmaster of the Cologne Philharmonic, Geoffrey Wharton.

The Canterbury Tales Suite is in three movements, each of which seems to present a character from the stories. Full disclosure-- I've never read the book so I am guessing at the correspondences based on an internet synopsis. Sorry! Please correct me if you know better. The first movement, "To a Lady from Baltimore," I'm guessing to be related to the Wife of Bath, a fun-loving, risqué, scarlet-dress-wearing woman of five marriages. The music is seductive, interrupted in the second part by a march and a sinister take on "Here Comes the Bride." Call makes use of whole-tone scales (perhaps a French influence?), upbow staccato, glissandi, and harmonics.

"To a Lady from Baltimore"
https://app.box.com/s/sledq46b1ap5q4xzgyhp

The other two movements, in my humble and uninformed opinion, depict the Friar and the Knight, respectively. The second movement starts with rather furtive music, and later launches into a jazzy, somewhat disguised version of the snake-charmer tune. The Friar was a slime-ball; he dressed like a beggar to get money, pretends he has a lisp for sympathy, calls the poor scum, and carries little presents for pretty girls. I'm stretching terribly for the third movement. The Knight went on many crusades, and the opening sounds like a meandering horse's gait. The piece then launches into stereotypical "Asian" music-- lots of double stop 4ths and 5ths-- indicative of travels in the east. And then somehow it all becomes train music, with "all aboard" glissandi and chugging. Lots of fun!

Lastly, a composer who was totally new to me! Susan Hart Dyer (1880-1922) was a dedicated violin teacher and composer with a very colorful upbringing, especially for her time. Born in Annapolis, Maryland, Dyer's father was a Navy Commodore who took his family with him on his travels. They spent considerable time in Guam, where her father was governor, and also in the Philippines. Dyer entered Peabody Conservatory in 1897, and received her teacher's certificate in 1902. She later studied composition at Yale with Horatio Parker, and received her degree as well as the Steinert Prize for composition in 1914. While in New Haven, Dyer taught music at the Neighborhood House Settlement School, where she was devoted to the welfare of the poverty-stricken students. Hand-written notes in the school records show the interest she took in each individual. For one student, she wrote, "Came over and over again to inquire about violin lessons. At that time said his mother wouldn't buy him a fiddle and we had none to lend. Now there are two idle and would advise looking him up, as it would be a very good thing for him to come to the school; he needs it."

Dyer moved with her parents to Winter Park, Florida, and taught at Rollins College from 1914-1922 (serving as director of the conservatory from 1916). She resigned from Rollins to become the Director of the Greenwich House Music School Settlement, but sadly died within a few months of taking the post.

Dyer was known for her keen sense of humor, which is readily apparent in An Outlandish Suite. I didn't know what to expect from such a title, but I think it relates to the idea of "outliers"-- people from the fringes of society at that time. The original program notes for the posthumous premiere stated, "Under this title Susan Dyer grouped together some of the musical impressions and reactions of years of travel. Through all her voyages and varied sojourns as a naval officer's daughter, she kept her sharp ears open to whatever music was wafted her way; and this suite is her vivid response to the musical color and emotional temper of races black and red and white and yellow." The first movement, "Ain't it a Sin to Steal on a Sunday," is subtitled "Negro Song." There were many versions of this tune, from "Ain't it Grand to Live a Christian" to "Ain't it a Sin to Beat Your Wife on a Sunday." This version was used as an encore in the 1922 musical Shuffle Along, the first all-black cast Broadway show. Movement two, "Florida Nightsong," bases the piano part on the birdcall of the chuck-will's widow (which you can hear here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chuck-wills-widow/sounds). This movement was performed and recorded by Heifetz. The unusual third movement is a Seminole ceremonial dance, the chicken dance (no, not the one you do at weddings). The piano part gets more and more insane as it goes along, with Amanda describing it as a "robot chicken on fire," and me to say, "this chick has issues." The "Panhandle Tune" is a cowboy song adapted by Dyer with beautiful simplicity. Lastly, the fifth movement is "Hula-hula," to be played "Not too fast, but with savage rhythm" yet "insinuatingly." The violin has many quick slides meant to suggest steel guitar. This quirky suite is very violinistic in writing and full of surprises!

"Florida Nightsong"
https://app.box.com/s/8rendp3yy1ylkkldcabm

"Chicken Dance"
https://app.box.com/s/miua9l0q34edf361j2cr

Getting to talk with composer and pianist Marga Richter has been one of the most delightful experiences to come out of creating the anthology. This feisty, 80-something-year-old is an active woman of strong opinions and great humor. Our phone conversations since 2008 have covered moving to a new house (after being on the roof fixing the old one), many forceful and entertaining political discussions, worry for a bassoonist friend’s recovery from Bell’s palsy and talk about her latest compositions. She is an inspiration who has come to be known as “Aunt Marga” to said bassoonist and I.

Professionally, Ms. Richter has had a career marked by honors and successes both in America and abroad. Her work in the 1950’s and 1960’s, notable in itself, also helped pave the way for later women composers such as Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Joan Tower. She has received grants, awards and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Meet-the-Composer and ASCAP.  Her 1964 ballet, Abyss, was commissioned by the Harkness Ballet and performed in most of the major cities of Europe and North and South America during the next few years. It has since been added to the repertoires of the Joffrey and Boston Ballet Companies. Ms. Richter’s compositions have been played by over 45 orchestras throughout the world, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Milwaukee and Atlanta Symphonies, and the London Philharmonic. She has written of her work, “Visual experiences and nature are the primary inspirations for Marga Richter's music. Sources as varied as the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, a New England winter scene and the exotic landscape of Tibet have all served to trigger the composer's creative responses.” Her music has a unique sound, frequently dissonant and always intriguing. You can find much more information, including a works list, at www.margarichter.com.

Richter studied piano with Roslyn Turek, and composition with Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma at Juilliard, receiving a Master’s Degree in 1951. In a lovely note she sent me dated September 26, 2008, Richter wrote, “I arrived in Manhattan, NEW YORK, 65 years ago today, after a Greyhound bus trip from Robbinsdale, MN. It was a glorious sunny day and like stepping into a whole new world, with mother, brother, dog and Steinway upright in tow!” The whole family relocated so that Marga could pursue her dreams halfway across the country. Her life is now the subject of a full-scale biography by Sharon Mirchandani, published by the University of Illinois Press. 

In our first conversation about the Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, she first blurted out, “Where on earth did you find that thing?” Richter had written the work during the Kennedy administration, after hearing that Kennedy’s press secretary (Pierre Salinger) had a young son who played violin. She thought he might like to play something different, so wrote it and sent it off. Other than receiving a letter of thanks on White House stationary, nothing more happened with it for forty or so years. I found it listed in the New England Conservatory library, the manuscript presumably donated by the Salinger family. In that same 2008 note, Richter wrote, “[I] am very happy that my Three Pieces will see the light of day.” Happy to oblige!

I really wanted to include a piece that would be a great introduction to more contemporary harmonies and mixed meters before the last volume of the anthology. The Three Pieces are largely playable in first and third position, but feature asymmetrical and mixed meters (the first movement mostly alternating 7/8 and 4/4 measures) and dissonance. The violin part is quite fun to play, especially the driving first movement with a somewhat primal eighth-note brush stroke motif. One word of warning—the piano part is very difficult! In particular, the third movement necessitates a slower tempo than the violin part seems to indicate. The pianist is generally twice the speed of the violinist, with a great deal of chromaticism and tricky rhythms.

As a challenge to that brainy kid, and an ear-opening first exposure to “mid-century modern” music, check Marga Richter’s Three Pieces for Violin and Piano. You’ll be glad you did!

I have to admit to a certain fascination with the early 20th century. The clothes! The changing times! All things Downton Abbey! And of course, the professional female violinists breaking new ground in their era. Irma Seydel (1896-?) was one of those young women, achieving virtuoso status and making her way as a concert soloist at least into the 1920's.

Seydel was helped along by having a father in the Boston Symphony, who started her on the violin at the age of three. She studied with the renowned violinist, composer, and teacher Charles Martin Loeffler from the age of ten, and later on made the obligatory "finishing" trip to study in Europe (though I have not discovered with whom she studied). Seydel clearly progressed rapidly, and in 1909, at the age of 13, she was soloist with the Gurzenich Orchestra in Cologne. During her career, she was to perform with the Berlin, Leipzig, and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In America she appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Baltimore Symphonies, and multiple times with the Boston Symphony.

Seydel often performed the Saint-Saens B minor Concerto, including its premiere performance with the San Francisco Symphony in 1913. The reviewer for that concert wrote, "The youthful virtuoso has spirit, vigor and sympathy. She plays with faultless Intonation and exhibits a rare capacity for expression. She was recalled for two encores, playing Schumann's immortal 'Traumerei' exquisitely."

World War I disrupted Seydel's plans for another European tour, but she stayed active on the home front. The Musical Courier of 1918 (from which this picture was snagged) reported that she "has proved herself as great a patriot as she is an artist," spending two months that summer playing for soldiers and the wounded at various forts and a naval hospital. "Although there were no printed programs," the article continues, "Miss Seydel always played until long after 'lights out in the barracks' on some of the islands. The well-liked violinist and her accompanist, Edna Stoessel, both charming girls, were entertained and chaperoned by Y.M.C.A. men, and created much enthusiasm wherever they appeared."

Seydel also made appearances drumming up business for the Edison Musical Instrument Company. An ad in the May 12, 1918 Reading (PA) Eagle, the Metropolitan Phonograph Company announced a concert at the Rajah Theater in which Seydel, Marie Morrisey (contralto with the Metropolitan opera), and cellist Jack Glockner would "sing and play with and without the Edison, for the purpose of comparison-- see if you discern one from the other." Seydel recorded Kreisler's Liebeslied on an Edison wax cylinder, and later two 78 records (Beethoven Minuet in G and D'Ambrosia Canzonetta). Syracuse University has made an mp3 of the Kreisler recording available here. I love technology! You can hear that, like Kreisler, she uses an almost continuous vibrato. Her approach to rubato and slides are quite conservative for the time. The recording is dated as from 1924.

Seydel married in 1921, an event which seems to have been undertaken in haste. A notice in the March 26 Musical America is headlined, "Waives Five Days Clause When Musician Marries in Boston." The spouse was one William Dunbar, "a member of the theatrical profession." I don't know how long the union lasted, or whether or not it provided wedded bliss, but maybe it's not a good sign that Seydel registered a piece entitled "Dirge" for copyright a few months later. She never took his name professionally, at any rate.

In the late 1920's, Seydel served as concertmaster with the Boston Women's Symphony. She taught violin and solfeggi, possibly at the New England Conservatory, from 1920 to 1937, and is listed in a document of new Department of Music hires for Boston schools in 1946. It seems her concertizing reached at end sometime in the 1930's. 

Besides the Bijou Minuet in Volume Two and the Minuet in Volume One, I looked at two other compositions by Seydel. Valley of Dreams and A Sunset Picture were both copyright in 1927, and are significant departures from the earlier minuets. Somewhat impressionistic in character, both were more dissonant and dreamy. I remember not liking either one very much, but now I wish I could to review them again and see I what I think.

Bijou Minuet suited the need for a straightforward, entertaining piece in 1st and 3rd position. Of technical note is the bowing in the A section, which could be treated as either elementary upbow staccato/hooked bowing, or as "standing spiccato"-- upbow circle lifts that don't travel. The scalar motion in the outer sections lends itself very nicely to learning note/finger placement in 3rd position, in everyone'a favorite key of D major. The trio spices things up a bit with chromatic 16ths on many downbeats. I used the "modern" chromatic fingering rather than sliding fingers. In several spots, a shift is required from open A or E to the 3rd finger in 3rd position. Students can test their growing feel for the location of 3rd position with these "leaps of faith!" Alternations between forte and piano dynamics about every two measures provides great fodder for work on sound and bow control. For it's 48 measures, Seydel's Bijou Minuet supplies plenty of meaty technique to keep a student satisfied!

Well, February and March slipped away from me, I'm afraid, but I am back at it with a new series. One of the most enjoyable aspects of preparing the anthology was the discovery of a number of composers new to me, and the fascinating people I encountered in the process. I'd like to highlight some of these women in a few posts, share a little about the journey from discovery to publication, and tell you why I thought the piece belonged in the collection.

Minuetta Kessler (1914-2002) is one of my favorite finds. A child prodigy on the piano, Mrs. Kessler devoted herself to writing creative and whimsical pedagogical material as well as more serious compositions. Most of the works were for piano (many of them still available today), but she also wrote for violin, voice, flute, clarinet, cello, and chamber ensembles. Several chamber pieces were recorded in 1978 with prominent Boston musicians, including "Sonata Concertante" for violin and piano, featuring violinist Marylou Speaker and the composer on piano. Her most famous composition, a piano concerto from 1947 nicknamed the "Alberta" Concerto in honor of her adopted country, can be heard here. Worldcat lists over 200 scores by Mrs. Kessler. Most were published by Musical Resources, which appears to have been her private publishing company. After her death, Musical Resources disappeared.

When I saw The Peanut Butter and Jelly Waltz, I knew I had to have it in the anthology. Unfortunately, the only lead I had was the publisher, Musical Resources, of which there was no trace. What to do? A friend suggested that I look for Kessler's obituary and see if any leads might turn up for heirs. Sure enough, her two children were listed. An internet search for her son turned up some very interesting information! Ronald Kessler is a best-selling author with a number of books on Washington institutions such as the FBI and the Secret Service. Kessler was instrumental in breaking the story about the Secret Service's involvement with prostitutes in Cartegena. The first information Google presented me with were clips of interviews with John Stewart on The Daily Show-- intriguing, to say the least. Contacting him through his website, he was most cooperative and happy to have some of his mother's music made available to the public.

What I really liked about this piece was the humor and sense of the unexpected.  While it was clearly written for a young student in mind, Mrs. Kessler used intriguing harmonies for an astringent sound-- a contrast sorely needed with the more sugary accompaniments of many works for children! There is great opportunity for creating a dialogue with the piano, not always where you'd think it would be. Dynamic changes are sometimes sudden, and dots, accents and tenuto marks ask young players to pay attention to what they're doing. I love the two grand pauses at the end-- yes, students, you have to count! Using the metronome might even be in order.

It is still difficult to gain access to Mrs. Kessler's violin music, even with interlibrary loan. The other two student violin pieces I have seen are The March of the Woo-Woos and Hora with Variations. The march is a duet with optional piano part, and is #2 in her opus 114 (PBJ Waltz being #1). Like the waltz, the harmonic language is on the dissonant side, featuring tritones, seconds, and sevenths. The second violin does the trudging in quarter notes, while the first gets the melody. I'm not sure what a "woo-woo" is, but judging from the hand-drawn picture on the cover, they are from outer space (or a nightmare). The hora, from 1983, plays with open intervals fifths and octaves in the theme's piano bass line, and throughout the variations. The violin part is mainly playable in first and third position (with one leap to sixth position and one to seventh), but spices things up with double stops and chromatic lines. Tempo markings indicate a variety of characters: the theme is "Robust," followed by a Lullaby in variation 1. Variation 2 is to be played "playfully," and variation 3  is "mystical." The last variation is a vivace with chromatic sixteenth notes at quarter note=126. I'm going to have to explore this one further! 

If you are a pianist, I would encourage you to explore Minuetta Kessler's pedagogical pieces. You can find some of them here, and a great many more here.

Yesterday, while cruising along the lanes of the internet, I stumbled on a website with digitized covers and selected articles from The Etude magazine (etudemagazine.com). For those of you who might not have encountered it, this was an informational and promotional magazine published by Theodore Presser Company. It is a great documentary source for prevailing attitudes towards music, teaching music, and musicians, and was published from 1887 to 1957. After searching “violin” in the articles, I was rewarded with a few early articles pertaining to women and orchestra playing. Chuckling my way through the silly, antiquated opinions on the unsuitability of women’s constitutions for the grueling work of orchestral playing, I thought about how wonderful that these ideas are behind us. Here are a few samples:

Woman’s Position in the Violin World, September. 1901

“Many stern, unyielding critics of to-day refuse to believe that a woman is capable of achieving greatness as a player of the violin. These critics, both professional and amateur, concede woman’s fitness to accomplish agreeable things as players of the king of instruments, but they are unwilling to believe that she possesses either the mental qualifications or the physical strength and endurance to enable her successfully to compete with man in the mastery of violin-technics. Time alone will decide whether these critics are right.

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that, where the higher art of violin-playing is concerned, the average gifted woman labors under certain great disadvantages which too often prove fatal, insurmountable barriers to success. How many are blessed with the physical strength which is necessary to carry them through the long hard years of musical servitude? The limit of their physical endurance is not often commensurate with the demands of their art; and just when the greatest effort is required of them—when their highest musical and instrumental possibilities are dependent upon a continuance, if not an increase, of energy and vitality—they fail to put forth the requisite strength, and stop far short of their aspirations." 

Women As Orchestral Players: An American Point Of View. - October, 1901

“It is freely admitted that women are capable and conscientious workers, and that a certain refining influence would necessarily result from their presence in an orchestral organization. But imagine women undertaking the work entailed by a New York operatic season! Imagine a refined, delicately-constituted young woman enduring the actual hardships which fall to the lot of every individual orchestral member of the Metropolitan Opera! Let any woman who imagines herself capable of performing such work as these men perform acquaint herself with what is required of the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House. She will be quickly disillusioned.

In a word, the orchestra is decidedly not woman’s sphere. Nor can she hope to accomplish anything by attempting to make it hers. And, wholly aside from all musical and physical considerations, which of us cares to see a charming young lady frantically struggling with a bass tuba or trombone?—George Lehmann.”

Tee hee. Chortle chortle. People were so foolish then!

After this, I continued wasting time by checking in with Facebook. First thing I saw? A post by my friend Laura Kobayashi* from BBC News entitled, Orchestras ‘still hostile to women’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25881668). Huh. It seems that many of the same arguments used against women playing violin (and other instruments) in orchestras more than a century ago are now being lobbed at female conductors—even established ones like Marin Alsop. To quote: “…several prominent men queried her [Alsop’s] appointment as the first female conductor of the Last Night of the Proms last year. Bruno Mantavani, head of the Paris Conservatoire, said most women would find conducting too ‘physically demanding’. ‘Sometimes women are disheartened by the physical aspect,’ he told France Musique. ‘Conducting, flying, conducting again is quite demanding.’”

Perhaps he neglects to use a plane?

The article continues, “Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko also claimed orchestral musicians could be distracted by a female lead, saying that ‘a cute girl on a podium means that musicians think about other things’.”

And that’s the woman’s fault?

It seems astonishing to me that anyone today would think these things about women conductors, let alone say them out loud to the press. The more things change, the more they stay the same?


*Laura is a wonderful violinist. You should check out her cd of music by women composers, Feminissimo!

I hope everyone's had a great holiday! This post features a few more books by Mary Cohen that I happen to have around. There are many more I haven't gotten yet, and urge us all to explore-- collections of pieces, duets and quartets, and even theatrical works suitable for children's concerts. She is prolific, creative, and a brilliant violin pedagogue! 

The first somewhat random book on today's list is Space It!, or "A tuneful introduction to violin second finger spacing." How often students struggle with the mysteries of high 2 vs. low 2! This is a whole book devoted to unravelling the mystique. 

In the publisher's words, Space It! is "a collection of easy well-known pieces for violin. Each tune is presented on a double-page spread in two versions: first in finger pattern one, then, at a different octave, in finger pattern two. Useful hints and fingering charts ease the pupil through each piece and brilliant alien characters are guaranteed to liven up violin lessons." Here on the cover, you can see the ever-helpful aliens, the one with the black cape representing finger pattern 1 (high 2), and the one with the jet pack for finger pattern 2 (low 2). Most of the tunes are presented in either G major or D major, where the lower octave uses finger pattern 1, and the upper octave uses finger pattern 2. In addition, each page features a graphical fingering chart (like the one you will see below in Scaley Monsters) and a performance-enhancing suggestion from the "Sound Effects Files"-- tongue clicks, tremolos, foot stamps, harmonics, col legno-- all designed to further technique and add a little spice to the study. Later in the book, Cohen contrasts major and minor versions of the same tune (along with the necessary finger spacing changes), provides previously learned pieces in new keys to finish by ear (with quiz questions on whether the version was major or minor, and FP 1 or FP 2), and lists seven challenges set by the aliens to get those brain cells in even more motion. As in so many of her books, I love the way Cohen takes simple material (high or low 2?) and adds perfectly achievable layers of complexity and creativity to keep tedium at bay.

Space It! serves as preparatory material to Cohen's scale book, Scaley Monsters. How can you not love something subtitled "Scales without tears for young violinists"? As you can clearly see, this book features a dinosaur motif. Major keys included are A, D, G, C, F, and Bb. G and A major are presented in both one and two-octave versions, while Bb is given only in two octaves. For minor keys, Cohen has separate pages of harmonic minor and melodic minor versions for A, D, and G. On the page following each scale sheet, a familiar tune is provided using that key, along with some blank staff lines for the student to compose his or her own short tune in the key. Pieces are all in first position, and require attention to dynamics and articulation. Some can be rhythmically challenging, such as "Havah Nagilah" in D harmonic minor. The last page of the book is a "List of Little-Known Dinosaurs" (somehow related to student characteristics) and their causes for extinction. The "Altogether-too-Difficultosaurus" died because "it never got around to finding food because it gave up before starting out."

This sample page shows the layout for each scale sheet. The "dinosaur footprint map" shows the finger pattern for the relevant strings (Space It! includes the same charts, but with stars denoting fingers instead of footprints). Each scale is written both ascending and descending, with an accompanying arpeggio. There is also a "Dinosaur rhythm game" for each scale (a little hard to read here) with a rhythm corresponding to the dinosaur's name (sneakily incubating rhythm practice for the future). Either they've discovered a lot more dinosaurs since my day, or Cohen has made some up to fit her rhythms better. Here, the dinosaur is "Albertosaurus," and is linked to a long-short-short-long-long rhythm. Each dinosaur picture is, of course, different, and could be colored if one so desired.

Again, Cohen makes a dry bit of violin study an opportunity for humor, creativity, and better yet, musical expression and understanding. Applying the keys immediately to pieces gives them so much more meaning!

The contents of Nifty Shifts are a little harder to describe. The subtitle here is "Tunes and tips to kick-start position changing," and I think we should just take Cohen's word for it. It is by no means a comprehensive shifting method, and at 16 pages is a bit shorter than most of her other books. What it really comprises are mental concepts concerning position change, rather than pages of drills, and the concepts have pretty far-reaching implications for advancing as a violinist. The preface lists a number of transferable skills that students should already have, and be able to use in the book: glissandi up and down the fingerboard, finding the harmonics halfway along each string, playing in tune in lots of different keys in 1st position, using the 4th finger to replace an open string, and being able to play in tune on a violin that is several sizes too small for you. If a student has played the Superstudies books, they will certainly have all these, other than perhaps the last one. Seven symbols pop up as guides in crucial spots, including a pencil as a reminder to mark in half-steps, an engaged doggie telling you to listen to your playing, a zooming skateboard telling you to shift, and a lightbulb pointing out a bright idea.

The first concept, though she doesn't put it this way, is that if you can play a tune with a certain fingering in one position and key, you can play the same tune with the same fingering but in a different key in another position. The intervals stay the same, though the finger spacing will change as you play in higher positions (and she talks about this as "the incredible shrinking violin"). On this first page, Cohen sets up playing "Frere Jacques" in third position by establishing the fingering in first position in E major and Bb major. On the next page, she writes out the first measure in Ab major on the G string, asking the student to finish it by ear. Only then does she give instructions on how to find D on the A string in 3rd position, and again asks the student to play it by ear. At the bottom of the page, the tune is written out in G major starting in 3rd position on the D string. "Can Can" gets a similar treatment on the next two pages, followed by three pages of tunes presented in 1st and 3rd position (but not always with corresponding fingering). The next few pages offer tunes that shift between positions. The book ends with some exercises. "Fingerobics" is a page of one-octave major scales, starting on Bb on the A string and rising chromatically on the same string to G major in 6th position (with the last 5 using an 8va sign instead of ledger lines). "Glisserobics" focus on shifting from the first three fingers up to the half-string harmonic on A, using harmonic pressure during the shifts. Finally, "Shifty bits and pieces" introduces the idea of a guide finger in the shift, using one-octave D major and D minor scales and arpeggios. It's a novel approach, and one that I think needs more reinforcement than the book provides, but it's a very welcome alternative to learning third position as it's own separate kingdom, geographically isolated from any other.

The last book I'll discuss is Cohen's Jazz Technique Takes Off! Being a middle-aged, white, classically-trained violinist, I haven't spent a lot of time with this one and admit I feel a little intimidated by it. But in the privacy of my own home, with no one but the dog listening, I've experimented with these etudes and have found, as always, that they are beautifully written in a variety of styles and techniques. Most are solos, some are duets. Rhythms are challenging, with syncopation, mixed meters, and composite meters (3+3+2/8). Fingerings have to accommodate more chromatic writing, and so often use "creepy crawly" changes of position and half position. All but one study stick to 1st-3rd position, and that one rebellious etude goes all the way up to seventh! Styles include blues, ragtime, tango, charleston, jazz waltz and rumba. Where we classical violinists sound least stylistic is in bowing, so these etudes offer an opportunity to try to loosen up and get used to new coordination patterns (oh, there I go again)...er, I mean grooves. I'd place these between the Technique Takes Off! books and Technique Flies High!, as they definitely require dexterity and a new way to look at playing.

I hope these blog posts have encouraged you to open your wallets and buy a few of Mary Cohen's books. Check out her website, http://marysmusiccupboard.epartnershub.com, for ideas and free stuff. You and your students will love this music!

I did promise there would be more on Mary Cohen this month, but before I get to her etude books, I'd like to brag a little on the great review the anthology received in this month's American String Teacher journal! A few of my favorite quotes:

Ok, enough bragging. I'm a proud mama.

The core, to me, of Cohen's pedagogical material consists of Superstudies, Books 1 and 2, Technique Takes Off!, More Technique Takes Off!, and Technique Flies High! These are terrific, fun books that introduce more advanced issues of counting, bow technique, minor keys, left hand pizzicato and shifting at earlier levels than we generally consider. It's done in such a gentle manner, though, that students can be successful before they realize it's "hard."

In Superstudies Book 1, "Really easy original studies for the young player," Cohen gets right down to business introducing half- and quarter-string harmonics to pre-shifting students. Titles are descriptive and sometimes reflect the rhythm ("Blast Off!" and "Operation Space Station"). The first three have a lot of good old sixteenth-note bow scrubbing, with some slower eighth-note slurs in number 2. Number 4 switches gear to slurs in 3/4, with a dotted half-note bow speed and a lot of 3rd and 4th finger action. Number 5 sticks to pizzicato for contrast. Slurs and an aquatic theme dominate in numbers 6-8. Number 6 ("Rocking Rowboats") keeps the bow at a constant half-note speed with gentle string crossings. "Floating in the Swimming Pool" (number 7), slurs two measures of 3/4 time together throughout. Finally, number 8 ("Wave Machine") picks up the pace with slurred string crossings at a faster tempo.

There is a YouTube performance of number 9, "Gliding Along at the Octopus Ball," which is in 6/8 and features numerous half-string harmonics on the D string.

Number 10, "Hear That Whistle!," also in 6/8, uses hooked bowing in eighth-notes and ups the ante for the half-string harmonic by shifting up to it on a 3rd-finger D on the A string grace note! There is also a two-measure glissando up the G-string (without a fixed landing note). Number 11 mixes up two-beat slurs, quarter notes, and sixteenth notes for bow speed work. Cohen returns to the association of words and rhythms in numbers 12-19, usually with the title supplying the rhythmic guide, but sometimes with words. Technical features in this batch include blocked fifths, chromatic lines, hooked bowing, syncopation, and an introduction to spiccato. All in this book of "really easy" studies!

In Superstudies Book 2, the etudes get longer and a bit more complex. These ten pieces are just "easy original studies"! Etudes feature key changes, quick changes between high and low 1st and 2nd fingers, more complicated string crossing passages, syncopation, some third position (number 5, "Heidi Hi!), 5/8 time (number 8, "Fivepenny Waltz"), and harmonic minor (number 7, "The Snake Charmer's Lament" and number 11, "Magic Carpet Ride"). I love "Magic Carpet Ride"! Here it is, played by a real kid: 

Technique Takes Off! and More Technique Takes Off! are the intermediate offerings in Cohen's etude series. They were published fourteen years apart and show a difference in approach. The first of the two contains 14 etudes in a traditional style. Third position is used freely, and there are some etudes with fourth position. The opening etude, appropriately titled "Prelude," features some easy chords and alternation between duple and triplet eighths. Here again is an honest-to-goodness student playing:

One of the things I like about these books is that each study has a header which points out the challenges of the etude, and often gives helpful tips. For "Prelude," students are told to "Use open strings where possible, Play 3-note chords as 2+2 notes, Lighten the 2nd note in duplets, and Keep fingers down on strings where possible." Titles are evocative-- "Gossips in a London Street," "Village Bagpipes," etc.-- and the etudes portray the characters musically. There is much more emphasis on double stops in this book, from the chords in number 1 to the bagpipe drones of number 6, and 2nds, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths in number 7, "Dragon Dance." Number 10, "Catch Me if You Can," features the same tune played in first position, and an octave higher with the same fingering in fourth position. Number 12, "The Bee's Knees," is fast and full of slippery chromatic finger work. The last two etudes are a repeated note perpetual motion ("Will o' the Wisp"), and a "Romance" reminiscent of the Mazas etudes. The end of this one, and the middle of number 11, "Skater's Waltz," both go up to fifth position. Here's "Skater's Waltz" played by a teacher:

In More Technique Takes Off!, Cohen explores more styles than traditional "classical" playing, and writes nine of the fifteen etudes in duet format. Of these nine, three are then rewritten as solo etudes with double stops-- genius! I have since learned of the publications by Martha Yasuda which use this same technique-- what a great way for students to know what the piece sounds like before tackling the double stops. The first of these, "Intrada," is similar in technical demands to the "Prelude" of the first volume. The second, "Quite a Character!," is more of a foot-stomper, and the third, "Far distant..." is impressionistic and features mixed meters and lots of rubato. In between are duets that focus on slurpy shifts ("Asleep in the Hammock"), spiccato ("On the Spot"), a passacaglia, a sarabande and double, and a rag. Two solo etudes round out the collection. "Clouds of blossom are mirrored in the lake" is pentatonic and invites the player to supply his or her own dynamics in the last three lines. "Howdy! hoedown" is exactly what you would expect from the title.

The final book in the series, Technique Flies High!, has "14 advanced studies for solo violin." Nine of the etudes focus on techniques or material a player would encounter in 20th and 21st century compositions-- string crossing patterns in 5/4 (number 2), an etude entirely in harmonics (number 3), mixed meters (numbers 8-10), sul tasto, finger exchanges on the same pitch, quick and continual changes between arco and pizzicato, sevenths and tritones (number 11) and other dissonances (number 12), and improvisation (number 14). "Threnody" (number 13) is a great chance to use consonance and dissonance expressively. The more consonant etudes include an arpeggiation study (number 4), another atmospheric pentatonic piece (number 5), a ground with divisions, a sort of czardasy-tangoey thing (number 7), and the first, "Take to the Hills," which is more of a celtic romp. Quite and eclectic collection, and not for the faint-hearted!  Cohen does a great service in expanding playing technique here, along the lines of Lilian Fuch's Characteristic Studies for viola.

Let's close with some music! Here is "Take to the Hills" from Technique Flies High!

There will be more on Mary Cohen’s books next month, but I’ve been thinking about this issue for some recent lectures and couldn’t wait to write about it any longer. Did you know that there’s a difference between male elbows and female elbows? Was that a gasp I heard? This was first brought to my attention by the wonderful Jonathan Reynolds, a Minneapolis physical therapist who has a great arts medicine practice. He just happened to mention this casually in conversation with another violinist and I one day. We both said, “huh?” and gaped at him. He kindly replied, “Yeah, women’s arms angle outward from the elbow, and men’s are straight. Our stunned reply to that was “WHAT???” along with jumping up and down a couple of times. This just seemed immensely important in terms of holding the violin, and I couldn’t believe I'd never seen anything about it in pedagogical literature. What follows below are my conclusions, based on a lot of thought, harassing my students to let me examine and photograph their elbows, and no rigorous scientific testing whatsoever.

The angle in question is called the “carrying angle” and is seen when the arm is extended straight by the side (it’s easier to see if your palm is facing forward). The website,  http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/elbow , provides the following information. “The resting angle of the elbow prevents the arms from hitting the sides of your body as you walk. This is known as the “carrying angle.” Women typically have smaller shoulders and wider hips than men, and this can cause variations between carrying angles in men and women.” The greater carrying angle in women develops during puberty. There have been quite a few studies done (you can google it), and the difference in carrying angle is now seen by many as a secondary sex characteristic (which could be used as a means to differentiate male and female skeletons).  Here are two examples from my studio, male on the left and female on the right:

So what does this mean for violin and viola players? For holding the instrument, the implications are quite dramatic. When a person (let’s say a male) folds up his forearm to bring the hand towards the body, the elbow angle naturally allows the forearm to be directly in line with the upper arm:

However, when a person with a greater carrying angle (let’s say a female) does this, the natural motion of the arm is to bring the hand towards the chest.    

The only way for females with carrying angles such as these to attain the same position as the males shown above is to rotate the arm/elbow to the right (as you would to play higher on the G string). It seems therefore that many females would be better served to hold their instruments more in front, rather than out to the side, so as not to argue with the natural angle of their arms when bent into playing position. The more an arm is pulled under the violin or viola, the more susceptible it becomes to injury, whether by straining tendons or by putting undue stress on the ulnar nerve where it runs in the bony ridge of the medial epicondyle. Most shoulder rests have been designed with a man’s body in mind, with the possible exceptions of the Wolf Forte Secondo, or the old Menuhin pads. The newer Everest, a wonderful shoulder pad, was designed by making a computer model of the shoulder. It definitely angles the violin out towards the side when its curves and the shoulders’ curves are lined up. I often find it to be a great choice for my tall college guys, but rarely for the young ladies. How much would you like to bet it was a male shoulder that was the model for the Everest? I wonder if one modeled on female shoulders would be different? Sure seems like an area ripe for exploration.

So that is my brief and unscientific exploration of the topic to date. I’m still pondering the effects carrying angle might have on the bow arm. Seems like it might make for more natural pronation in females, but I need to get out the construction paper and experiment (the only way I figured out this much). In the both holding the violin and in bowing, elbow carrying angle might be a factor contributing to the fact that more females suffer playing-related injuries than men. Any thoughts?

This post isn’t about a violinist. It’s about an extraordinary ordinary woman, and how she allowed me to become a violinist. Her name was Janet Cooper, and today would have been her 95th birthday. She died last year on Sept. 25th.

Mom was many things—a bookseller, a trainer of pilots in the Navy in WWII, a volunteer, a baker, a pillar of her Baptist church—but above all, she was a woman who gave us kids unconditional love and support. When I came home in 4th grade and said I wanted to play violin in the school program (so I could get out of math class with my best friend), of course I could. When it was determined that I needed a violin of my own, she located one for me through her network of friends. When I wanted to quit the next year, she gently asked me to give it another year. I never wanted to quit again, and sometimes I wonder if she regretted not letting me do so when I asked!

A couple of years later, I started private lessons. She never bugged me about practicing—music was my thing, and it was my responsibility. But she sewed up long black skirts for me, and was at every school concert, no matter how dreadful the last one had been.  When I needed a better violin, we went up to Montreal and found a nice little Heberlein for $200, not an inconsiderable sum at the time for a “hobby.”

After my father died, and I was college-bound, she let me go ahead as a music major, a move he had opposed. Again, she was at every concert, and our home became a rest stop for my college friends, who often came home with me for Sunday or holiday dinners. The “Janet Broadcasting System” got most of her church to my senior recital for a full house, as well as a bona-fide church-lady cookies and punch reception.

Her interested support never flagged. She had played the piano as a girl, but never acted like she knew about music. I remember coming down from a practice session one time in particular. She looked up from snapping beans or cutting up apples and asked, “That was pretty. What do you call it?” I could only reply, “I call it a G major scale, Mom.” I think the only time she was at a loss for a compliment was the summer I spent learning fingered octaves and upbow staccato. After one particularly hideous practice, she just looked at me, trying to find something positive to say. We both just started laughing.

Mom came out to visit the first summer I went to Aspen. She was delighted to see Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman in the flesh, after having heard about them for so many years. She visited me at Eastman, and came to studio class. When Peter Salaff asked if she had any comments for the players, she just laughed and assured everyone that they sounded wonderful. She was so tickled that he had asked her, and over the years giggled incredulously whenever it came up in conversation.

Of course she was very happy when I got a college teaching job right out of graduate school, and though I’m sure she was less than happy when I quit a few years later, she never said so. After a year working on my doctorate left me disgusted enough to pack my violin up, send it home, and not touch it for six months, again, not a word of remonstrance. She welcomed me back home for a year, and I was not the most gracious guest. When I decided I wanted to do this violin thing after all, she listened patiently to me knocking the rust off my fingers as I geared up for more graduate school auditions. The program and teachers at FSU agreed with me much more, and again there was rejoicing when I landed the job at Kansas State. There was also confusion when she told a college friend that I had moved to Manhattan—it was clear in her mind that she meant Manhattan, Kansas.

She thought the anthology was great and was so proud of my “books.” Her friends knew everything about me and remembered what I’d been up to better than I did. Mom had lots of friends. She always said that when she felt bad, her remedy was to do something nice for someone else. In her 90’s, she was still taking care of others in the “Elder Building” of the apartment complex in which she lived. She sent birthday and get well soon cards, baked custard for a woman having chemo who couldn’t eat anything else, and shared many laughs and probably a few tears with her neighbors.

My sister-in-law wrote a note on the back of the autopsy request form, telling the doctors a little about the woman whose body they were going to be working on. One phrase stuck out in particular: “She never said or did an unkind thing in her life.” I don’t know too many people of whom that could be said. Desmond Tutu? Nelson Mandela? Mother Teresa? Certainly not me. But it was 100% true of Janet Cooper.

A few months after she died, a beautiful violin pretty much showed up at my door. I had vowed to be mature and responsible with my inheritance, and certainly not to look at instruments. But here this one was, and I was in love from the first note. I thought about it, had great internal debates, and finally decided that the purchase would be her parting gift of support. I feel a drop of her love in every note I play.

I have long been a fan of Mary Cohen’s pedagogical works. Like the music books of Caroline Lumsden, they make me want to grab some children to teach! If you haven’t yet seen them, let me echo the words an older colleague once said to me about another Brit: “Oh, to be young and have all of Dorothy L. Sayers ahead of you!” I promise that the prolific Ms. Cohen will provide you with marvelous discoveries for some time to come.

Mary Cohen is a British violinist who studied at Royal College of Music (piano and composition in addition to violin) and was a member of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She also plays viola and cello, and is a passionate advocate of chamber music for students from the earliest possible moment. Ms. Cohen has been deeply involved with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, especially with their Music Medals program. Her books are full of humor—let me repeat that, FULL of humor-- and opportunities for creativity. She incorporates a wide variety of styles, including jazz, ragtime, 20th century compositional techniques, and many dance forms. Half-string harmonics are introduced early on, as are more “sophisticated” rhythms and bowings. Faber Music publishes her books, and her website, Mary’s Music Cupboard (http://marysmusiccupboard.epartnershub.com/Default.aspx#), offers some free materials in addition to purchased music downloads. 

You can get a good idea of the flavor of Mary’s works in this progression chart of her books:    

Cohen dispenses crucial information to students in ways they won’t forget, such as this list from the first edition of Superstart, Vol. 1:

Seven Useful Tips
(to make you one of the worst pupils in the world)

1.     Always arrive at your lesson with filthy, sticky hands and long fingernails which need cutting.

2.     Forget to put your bow/violin in your case after practicing, so you have a good chance of leaving one of them at home.

3.     Leave all the pieces you are working at on your music-stand after practicing so even if you remember your violin/bow, you will probably forget to bring your music.

4.     Lose your practice notebook the second you arrive home—so you don’t have to read it and you can aim for the world record of the pupil who has the most notebooks with only one page of writing.

5.     Never look in your practice book (if you’re being kind to trees and haven’t lost it yet) to remind you what it is that you are supposed to be working at this week.

6.     Always play pieces with as many of the mistakes you made first time round as possible, and definitely don’t try to remember what it was you worked on in your lesson which solved this week’s problems.

7.     Don’t practice until the day before your next lesson and if possible make sure you’ve left either your violin, bow or music with your teacher.

Have you any other great tips to pass on?


Like those in the "Words and Music" blog posts (January and February 2013), Ms. Cohen is another great advocate for using words to teach rhythms, particularly in the earliest levels of development. Bags of Fun, a book for the “absolute beginner,” is a collection of one-line “pieces” where the rhythm reflects the title. Students also get to play col legno, behind the bridge, and accents; do retakes; and even go up for the half-string harmonic. All four strings are used, fingers are limited to 1 and high 2, time signatures are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4, and combinations of eighth and quarter notes contribute to the fun. Here are a few examples (apologies for the lag time after hitting record):

Energetic elephants down at the gym.

Sometimes words are used to reinforce concepts instead of rhythms, such as in “The good sound guide” on page 13 of Superstart (“If you grip you’ll make a scritchy scratchy sound,” sung to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic). When low second fingers are introduced (page 40 of Superstart), the tune “All mixed up!” has these words:

Oh.. sometimes I feel happy

And.. sometimes I feel sad.

Oh.. sometime I behave so well

And.. sometimes I’m just bad.

I’m.. all mixed up (I’m a mixed up pup) but I want to be quite or-di-na-ry

So today I’ll just feel happy

And.. then we’ll all be glad (Hooray!)

Here is the D string version of the tune, which the book presents in A string and G string versions as well. The accompaniment is from the cd that comes with the book.

Egbert’s Circus Games manages to be an etude book incorporated into a story! The short studies are similar to the targeted technical work in Sally O’Reilly’s Fiddle Magic. There are several pages of excellent Teacher’s Notes at the end to clarify and elaborate on the exercises. The story is a follow-up to The Adventures of Egbert, telling what happened when (spoiler alert) he joined Mr. Bim Bam’s circus. 

Whew! That’s just some of her beginning repertoire. More to come!