New scale system

The Czech Zdeněk Gola, who was concertmaster, teacher and director of internationally acclaimed, year-round violin courses in Sweden for many years and has been teaching in Ostrava again since the fall of communism, created logically structured practice sequences for advanced students to master secure intonation - a further development of Schradiek.

Gola distinguishes between "horizontal and vertical movements of the hand"; these terms are unusual. According to the preface, horizontal movements are changes of position of the fingers (change of fingering) without moving the hand to a different position: 1. stretching forward and bending back on a string, 2. transverse movement of the fingers from one string to another, at right angles or diagonally. Vertical movements are changes of position along the strings by means of arm transport.

Thanks to the logical presentation, problems can be tackled in a targeted manner. The German of the short trilingual explanations is sometimes not precise, but a comparison with the English version often clarifies things. The "horizontal" exercises are demanded one after the other in all positions and on all strings. The chromatic shifts in the double stops, which activate the rolling movements in the finger joints, are particularly valuable. The decimals are prepared with skillful preliminary exercises; unfortunately, it is not recommended to start in 4th position. "Vertical" exercises begin at the end of book 1 on one string and fill book 2 with interesting undulating combinations of position changes diagonally across all strings. One- and two-part scale exercises over two octaves on one or two strings with different fingerings conclude this positively strenuous work.

Zdeněk Gola: Violin technique, 2 volumes; Book 1, BA 9550, € 15.95; Book 2, BA 9551, € 14.95; Bärenreiter, Prague 2013