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The Joy of Feuillard – A Sequential Approach to Teaching Bow Technique (Part 21 – Feuillard No. 34 – Variations #13-19)

Robert Jesselson

 

This week’s variations are all continuing to work with the detaché stroke (lower arm) and the string crossings (upper arm). We will also see the wave motion, which we prepared for several weeks ago by doing the “box” exercises and the finger exercises.

Variations #13-16:

In this video I asked Tristan again what our definition of detaché is: “detached, but connected” which, as one of my students once said, seems like an oxymoron. But compared to a staccato stroke, which is “detached, but separated”, it makes sense.

 

 

Variations #17 and #18:

Variation #17 is tricky because it needs to be played completely at the tip. That means finding the right kind of core sound, with a relatively small amount of bow and a low contact point. It means finding the right height of the elbow, but not raising the shoulder. It also means making sure that the bow angle is really correct (parallel to the bridge), which requires making an oval and bowing out to the A-string. Notice that I keep asking Tristan which parts of the arm he is using, so that he is always aware of what he is doing.

 

 

The next variation will deal with the wave motion involving the upper arm, wrist and fingers. I sometimes have to wait a few weeks after presenting the information about the box exercises and the finger exercises (see Blog  #20). The students must first absorb all this information and feel comfortable doing the waves before approaching #19 and #25. And then there will be a bit more time until the students are able to do the very fast wave motions of #39 and #40 with just the wrist and fingers.

But before doing Variation #19 I ask my students to do waves with the whole bow, using the fingers at the frog, the wrist in the middle, and the upper arm at the tip. I call this exercise the “2,2,2 Exercise” – meaning two string crossing waves with each part of the arm.

 

 

Next we have to address the wobbling of the bow when using the wrist. If we just use the wrist, and don’t involve the fingers, then the stick will wobble back and forth. The way to eliminate this wobble is to use the following rule:

“When the wrist goes up, the fingers go up; when the wrist goes down, the fingers go down”

 

 

Variations #19:

 

Now we are ready to approach the waves in Variation #19 (and then #25, and eventually #39 and #40 in another lesson or two). Variation #19 will use the fingers for the first quarter-note beat, the wrist and fingers for the second and third beats, and then the upper arm for the last beat. This variation should not be done too fast – otherwise our choice would be to just use wrist, or wrist and fingers. We will save that for the last two variations on this page, which will need to be played faster.

 

 

Way back in 1990 I had thought about doing a series of posts on the Feuillard bowing exercises. I started videotaping a few of my students then – but I can’t imagine how I would have actually done the editing on the VHS tapes, let alone to do a web post before there was the blog technology (which started on line in 1997)! But I do have these old tapes of some of the lessons at the time. It is fun for me to look back and see my old students from almost 30 years ago. In this one you can see Claire Bryant working on the Feuillard No. 34 string crossing variations. Claire is now a fabulously successful cellist and artist in NYC. She studied with me for about 7 years, and when she left Columbia she went to San Francisco Conservatory and Juilliard to study with Bonnie Hampton, and was one of the founders of Decoda in residence at Carnegie Hall.

 

Claire will be the cello professor at the University of South Carolina starting in the Fall of 2019!

Next week’s variations will continue the work with detaché bowings and string crossings, and we will again encounter wave motions, though faster and in triplets. I will also discuss how to approach vibrato while doing the string crossings.

*If you have questions or comments about The Joy of Feuillard, Dr. Robert Jesselson can be reached directly at rjesselson@mozart.sc.edu.

 

Subjects: Repertoire, Technique

Tags: Coordination, Detaché, Feuillard, lower arm, Teaching, The Joy of Feuillard, upper arm

AUTHOR

Robert Jesselson

Robert Jesselson is a Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches cello and plays in the American Arts Trio and the Jesselson/Fugo Duo. In 2013 he was named as the Governor’s Professor of the Year by Governor Haley and the SC Commission on Higher Education.

Dr. Jesselson has performed in recital and with orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, and has participated in the Music Festivals at Nice (France), Granada (Spain), Santiago (Spain), Aspen (CO), Spoleto (SC), the Grand Tetons (WY), and the Festival Inverno (Brazil). His performance degrees are from the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik in Freiburg, West Germany, from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Paul Katz, and the DMA from Rutgers where he studied with cellist Bernard Greenhouse. He has been principal cello of the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta-Sinfonica de Las Palmas, Spain. In 1983 Dr. Jesselson was in China for a six-month residency, one of the first Western cellists to visit that country. During that time he performed as soloist, gave master classes, and taught at several conservatories (including Beijing, Shanghai, and Canton). In December, 2001 he led a delegation of string players and teachers to Cuba to begin professional contact with Cuban musicians. He has also taught at Sookmyung University in Korea, Sun Yat Sen University in Taiwan, University of Auckland in New Zealand, at the Royal College of Music in London and recently in St. Lucia in the Caribbean. His recent CD of new music for cello and piano is called “Carolina Cellobration” and is available on CD Baby and Cellos2Go.

Dr. Jesselson was the national President of ASTA, the American String Teachers Association, from 2000-2002. During his tenure as president he initiated the National Studio Teachers Forums (2000 and 2002), started the National String Project Consortium (with sites now at 44 universities and grants of $3.1 million), and began the planning for the first stand-alone ASTA national convention in 2003. He was the founding Executive Director of the National String Project Consortium, and is currently on the NSPC Board.

Dr. Jesselson is former conductor of the USC University Orchestra and the Columbia Youth Orchestra, and he was the cello teacher at the S.C. Governor’s School for the Arts for 17 years. For 15 years he was the director of the USC String Project, building the program into one of the largest and most prominent string education programs in the country. His pioneering work on this program was recognized in an article in the New York Times in December, 2003. ASTA awarded him the “Marvin Rabin Community Service” Award in 2009 for his work with the NSPC and teacher training. He is the recipient of the 2015 USC Trustees Professorship and the 2010 Mungo Distinguished Professor of the Year, the highest teaching awards given by USC. He has also been awarded the 2002 Cantey Award for Outstanding Faculty, the 1992 Verner Award, the 1989 S.C. Arts Commission Artist Fellowship, the 1995 Mungo Teaching Award, and the first SC ASTA Studio Teacher Award in 2005. Next summer Dr. Jesselson will be teaching cello at the Green Mountain Music Festival in Vermont and at the Cellospeak Festival. He plays a 1716 Jacques Boquay cello.

Robert Jesselson contact information: RJesselson@Mozart.sc.edu

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