Drawing on the principles of Francesco Geminiani and four decades of experience as a baroque and classical violinist, Stanley Ritchie offers a valuable resource for anyone wishing to learn about 17th-18th-and early 19th-century violin technique and style. While much of the work focuses on the technical aspects of playing the pre-chinrest violin, these approaches are also applicable to the viola, and in many ways to the modern violin. Before the Chinrest includes illustrated sections on right- and left-hand technique, aspects of interpretation during the Baroque, Classical, and early-Romantic eras, and a section on developing proper intonation.

Preface and AcknowledgementsHow to Support the Pre-Chinrest ViolinI. Right Hand Technique General Observations 1. Tone Production Basic Right-Hand Technique The Importance of Arm Weight The Use of Arm Weight 2. Bow-Strokes Lifted strokes Slurred notes Retaking Z-bowing Martelé and Spiccato Sautillé Bariolage Ondeggiando 3. Chordal Technique 4. Bow Division 5. Swift-Bows 6. Combination StrokesII. Left-Hand Technique 7. Position-Changing Exercises Some Basic Concepts The Position Of The Left Hand The Swing Shifting Half-position VibratoIII. Interpretation 8. Expression Affect and rhetoric The role of analysis The importance of the bass-line The tyranny of the barline The significance of metre Shaping notes and gestures Beware of the beam! The trouble with notation The reality of rubato 9. Dynamics and Nuance Harmony Melody Figures of musical speech (i) Repetition (ii) Sequences (iii) Tessitura (iv) The question (v) The exclamation (vi) Silence 10. Tempo Metrical symbols Harmonic motion Technical complexity Affective words Cautionary and qualifying words Baroque dance movements 11. Ornamentation Symbolic Notated ornaments Un-notated ornaments 12. Baroque Clichés The classic cadential formula Slurred articulations The hemiola Pulsations Suspensions Syncopations Melodic accents "Down-downs" The ultimate Baroque clichéIV. Technique and Practice Guide 13. Tuning A word about intonation Tuning Difference tones Difference tone exercise Visualizing Warm-up exercises A shifting exercise 14. Exercises Starting on First Finger Scales Broken Thirds Double-stopped Thirds Sixths Octaves Fingered Octaves Tenths Arpeggios 15. Exercises Starting on G Scales Broken Thirds Double-stopped Thirds Sixths Octaves Fingered Octaves Tenths Arpeggios 16. Half PositionNotesIndex