"Plein de feu, plein d'audace, plein de change" : examining the role of the Méthode de violon in the establishment of the French Violin School
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Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Music
Abstract
In 1782, Italian violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti performed in the Concerts
spirituels of Paris, causing a sensation with his new style of playing, deemed “plein de
feu, plein d’audace,” “full of fire, full of audacity.” This paper discusses Viotti’s style in
the context of his use of the Tourte bow and “modernized” model of Stradivarius violin.
Viotti’s chief disciples were French violin virtuosi Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode and
Pierre Baillot. As inaugural professors of the Paris Conservatoire, they championed
Viotti's musical aesthetic and created pedagogical materials enabling others to emulate it.
In 1803, Kreutzer, Rode and Baillot collaborated to produce Méthode de Violon, a
technique manual expounding Viotti’s style and establishing a French Violin School of
performance practice. This thesis identifies idiomatic signature elements of this style in
the Méthode and comments upon the significance of the Conservatoire’s standardization
of instruction, both of which prove foundational to the legacy of the French Violin
School.
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Keywords
Méthode de violon, Giovanni Battista Viotti, French Violin School, technique, violin instruction, Violin -- Instruction and study -- 19th century, Violin -- Bowing -- 19th century, Violin -- Methods -- 19th century, Violin music -- 19th century -- History and criticism, Viotti, Giovanni Battista, 1755-1824, Kreutzer, Rodolphe, 1766-1831, Rode, P. (Pierre), 1774-1830, Baillot, Pierre Marie François de Sales, 1771-1842, Violin -- Performance -- France -- History, Conservatories of music -- France -- Paris -- 19th century, Dissertations, Academic