#47: Hiding shifts

Section 6: Antonin Dvořák – String Quartet Op.96, ii: Lento

Determining the fingering patterns used by the Czech players was sometimes very intuitive and straightforward, and sometimes almost impossible. More than the fingerings themselves, we were interested in the reason we often found them hard to discern: their remarkably sophisticated ability to ‘cover’ shifts between positions.

Because sliding between notes is more prevalent in early recordings than in contemporary playing, it is tempting to pay disproportionate attention to how early recorded musicians ‘used’ portamento, and especially the extent to which they sustained the bow during these glissandi. But this ‘observer bias’ easily draws attention away from their ability to take out shifts and slides when covering distances that are melodically de-emphasised. This gets to the heart of a musician’s judgement: it lies at the crux of embodiment and imagination. Working with specifics guards against believing that because slides were comparatively common in the style, copying or ‘re-learning’ will necessarily involve liberally sprinkling them over a performance. That increased frequency is part of the skill set, certainly — but it is only a small part. As we attained greater familiarity with their playing, we found that we needed to build an ‘equal and opposite’ horizon for where the Czech players virtuosically avoided sliding when covering awkward distances on the instrument.

Counterintuitively to a non-string player, this is usually accomplished through subtleties of bowing, rather than left hand agility. There is an important dimension of softness in the latter, but the key to such ‘covering’ is in releasing the bow contact only for the split second in which the left hand covers the distance; and only to a relatively shallow extent. The tone — and the motion of the bow — seems not to stop, but is gently ‘carried’ between the two pitches. (See also #23)