The Character of the etude: Lyrical / Legato
This is a short, but the only truly lyrical etude in Kayser 36 Studies for the violin. Legato all the way through. We do not have to over express, but pay attention to all the crescendos and diminuendos. There are a couple of accents, however, should not be played roughly, but rather gentle emphasis without stopping the flow of the music in order to match up the character of this etude.
What does “Andante quasi Adagio” mean?
Andante = Walking tempo
quasi = nearly
Adagio = slowly, leisurely
“The origin of adagio is the Italian phrase ad agio, in which ad means “at” or “to,” and agio means “leisure.” According to https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/adagio
Lyrical but Rhythm needs to be accurate
Some young students have difficulty in accurately playing the rhythm of dotted quater notes followed by an eighth notes. I recommend to subdivide the dotted quater note as 3 eighth notes.
Also, some students play the eighth notes too short. Regardless of the length of note, we, as violinists, have to move the bow horizontally in order to vibrate the strings and produce the sound. For these eighth notes also, we need to move the bow during the given time for that note.
At m.27, we see quater notes with staccatos. These staccatos are on quater notes, not eighth notes, so I recommend to not play them too short. That way, they can match the character of the etude as well.
Other things to think about
* Morendo = ritardando (gradually slow down) + diminuendo (gradually get softer).
In Italian morendo means dying, so we interpret decrease in volume or tempo (or often both).
* We need to use the vibrato to be expressive.
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