"Paganini's Secret at Last" 與 "A New Theory of Fingering: Paganini and His Secrets"

訂了兩個月的書昨天才到, X'mas 真的把美國的郵政系統都癱瘓掉了. 這兩本是 "Paganini's Secret at Last"(PSL) by S. L. Salzedo and "A New Theory of Fingering: Paganini and His secret"(NTF) by A. Jarosy.

兩本都是小小的, 大約50頁左右.

NTF 基本上認為Paganini 技巧是由特別的指法系統而來, 他稱之為自然的手指的 patterns. 基本上是認為左手第二與第三指的距離不要太大, 手指盡量不要有 extension 的動作, 但是 contractions 是可以的. 完全沒有提到雙音與半音音階的指法.

Yampolsky 是對的: NTF 是胡說八道. 根據很多不同的記載, Paganini 的手非常的 flexible, 而且由他的作品可以看出來他用了很多 extensions. Paganini 的作品有很多雙音與半音音階一類的, 沒有提到是非常大的敗筆. 最大的問題當然是, 怎麼可能只改變指法就會拉的好?

PSL 比較不一樣一點. 這本書花了很多時間說故事. 比方說, Sivori 覺得 Paganini 是世界上最差勁的老師,

His (Paganini) genreal mode of teaching was to walk up and down the room while Sivori was trying to play the last new exercise, with a mocking smile on his face, and uttering a depreciatory remark now and then when his pupil had finished he would come close up to him, still with the same mocking look on his face and remain silent, looking at him from head to foot... and seizing the violin like a lion seizing a sheep he would play the study agin without even looking at it, moving abou the playing it in a way that shot despair into his pupil's heart.

(說真的, 這有點像是 Heifetz 的課... 不過他是撲克臉)

PSL 說到後來, 只談到左手的基本姿勢, 大拇指的位置, 以及mute practice. 他的論點與Kross很像, 不過PSL認為 Ole Bull 的技術細節是半成品. 說真的, 沒有什麼是我們不知道的事情. 不過, 這本書的價值是有很多有趣的小故事.