Csardas: Monti Teaching Points for Suzuki Practicum II
Csardas: Monti Teaching Points
Vittorio Monti (January 6, 1868 – June 20, 1922) was an Italian composer, violinist, and conductor. Csardas is his only famous gypsy piece written around 1904.
· WATCH the rhythm in the entire beginning!
· Practice the shift up the high A on the G string in the first measure
· Working on producing a very rich G-string sound
· At m. 5, make sure the 16th notes are short, but connected in one bow-stroke; take time before beginning the theme again
· At the double bar measure, makes sure the D, and C# is an eighth note rhythm, and not a 16th note rhythm.
· Beginning at m. 10, with the triplet rhythm, really watch to make sure you come in on the second beat. Don’t slow the rhythm down, practice this measure over and over again to make sure the rhythm is right.
· At m. 11, make sure the A to the G#, then back to the A is a 16th note rhythm and NOT the eighth note rhythm like it was earlier.
· At m. 12, the same applies to this triplet rhythm.
· At m. 14, make sure the fermata on the B is held, before doing the sextuplets.
· At m. 16, make sure these grace notes with the 16th notes is faster to finally arrive at the A.
· At m. 17 (the last measure of this section), start softer then end the measure louder as to “pierce” someone at the very end; vibrate the D, don’t vibrate the C# and make it a fermata, then finally with a loud D with vibrato to end the section.
· **Don’t forget to repeat!**
Allegro Vivo (faster with vigor):
· Start faster, but don’t start too fast…it’s easier to start slower than speed up rather than start fast then slow down.
o Practice on just the A string to get the idea of how it’s done.
o Then practice it with the A and E string to get the idea of the sound.
o Make sure there is a little pressure on the 1st finger of the bow hand to get good contact.
o Make sure you’re lower in the bow, below the middle, but not too far to the frog.
o Loose arm, and fingers while doing this.
o The hair does not actually leave the string, make sure to emphasize this.
o At the PP, make sure to start PP then slowly crescendo.
o The second to last measure of the section, make sure the D to C# rhythm is correct.
o **Don’t forget to repeat!**
Molto Meno (less movement, less fast):
· **NEW KEY CHANGE (D MAJOR)**
· Starts SLOWER than the other sections
· Practice separate notes for the double stops so the fingers learn where the notes are.
· For the “grazioso” measure, to reach the E harmonic with the second finger up to the A string, make sure you slowly creep up to it. DON’T RUSH up to the harmonic as you need to go back to the E string for the 4th finger harmonic.
· Make sure you hold out all the half-note measure for their full value.
· Molto rallentando at toward the end.
Meno, Quasi Lento (quite a bit slower):
· **All artificial harmonics**
· practice the ENTIRE section with the first finger ONLY to make sure the note are in tune before adding the false 4th finger.
· While doing artificial harmonics, make sure the first finger is down FIRM, while the 4th finger on top is only lightly touching the string simultaneously.
· The bow factors into the sound of these:
o Make sure the bow is being played close to the bridge.
o Make sure the bow speed is faster to get the sound.
o Make sure you’re in the upper half of the bow.
· While doing the last measure going to the G string, make sure to keep a good contact with the bow as it is a lower swing.
· End with eighth note rhythm at the second to last measure of the section.
· **Watch the key change**
· Same sautille bowing as above.
· Start slower then build up tempo again.
· **Watch the key change back to D Major**
· Make sure the B’s are natural for the new key…different than the beginning!
· Start this much slower than the previous sections. It’s very deceiving from the beginning.
· Same sautille bowings as previous sections.
· In the “strentato” measure, makes sure you delay before moving on to the “a tempo” last section.
Molto Piu Vivo (much faster):
· This last section is where you pick up the tempo!
· Start soft, then end with a “bang!”
· The second to last measure, make sure you do the fermata on the rest before ending with the D!