THE SINGING TONE AND THE VIBRATO

Maximilian Pilzer is deservedly prominent among younger American concert
violinists. A pupil of Joachim, Shradieck, Gustav Hollander, he is, as
it has already been picturesquely put, "a graduate of the rock and thorn
university," an artist who owes his success mainly to his own natural
gifts plus an infinite capacity for taking pains. Though primarily an
interpreter his interlocutor yet had the good fortune to happen on Mr.
Pilzer when he was giving a lesson. Essentially a solo violinist, Mr.
Pilzer nevertheless has the born teacher's wish to impart, to share,
where talent justifies it, his own knowledge. He himself did not have to
tell the listener this--the lesson he was giving betrayed the fact.

It was Kreisler's _Tambourin Chinois_ that the student played. And as
Mr. Pilzer illustrated the delicate shades of _nuance_, of phrasing, of
bowing, with instant rebuke for an occasional lack of "warmth" in tone,
the improvement was instantaneous and unmistakable. The lesson over, he
said:

THE SINGING TONE

"The singing tone is the ideal one, it is the natural violin tone. Too
many violin students have the technical bee in their bonnet and neglect
it. And too many believe that speed is brilliancy. When they see the
black notes they take for granted that they must 'run to beat the band.'
Yet often it is the teacher's fault if a good singing tone is not
developed. Where the teacher's playing is cold, that of the pupil is apt
to be the same. Warmth, rounded fullness, the truly beautiful violin
tone is more difficult to call forth than is generally supposed. And, in
a manner of speaking, the soul of this tone quality is the _vibrato_,
though the individual instrument also has much to do with the tone.

THE VIBRATO

"But not," Mr. Pilzer continued, "not as it is too often mistakenly
employed. Of course, any trained player will draw his bow across the
strings in a smooth, even way, but that is not enough. There must be an
inner, emotional instinct, an electric spark within the player himself
that sets the _vibrato_ current in motion. It is an inner, psychic
vibration which should be reflected by the intense, rapid vibration in
the fingers of the left hand on the strings in order to give fluent
expression to emotion. The _vibrato_ can not be used, naturally, on the
open strings, but otherwise it represents the t