Eugène Ysaÿe - 10 Preludes for Violin Solo (1928) (Score, Analysis)

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as “The King of the Violin“, or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the “tsar“. As a self-taught composer, he produced several important works, mainly the Poèmes for various instruments (of which Poème élégiaque is the most famous, and it influenced Chausson to write his Poème), and 6 Sonatas for Solo Violin. While the title says “Preludes”, they are in reality pieces for technical practices on intervals. I have adapted the preface by the composer (and R. Rogier) from the Schott edition for the description of this video (as well as some of my opinions from playing the violin). This work, with an obvious pedagogical purpose, was found in the pile of manuscripts in Liège, and according to the title of the manuscript, it was intended as 13 preludes with 40 exercises in total. What we are left with is 10 preludes with 33 exercises in total. The other 3 would have been a free etude, a caprice, and a variations. It is not known whether the last 2 were ever penned down, but some traces of the 11th work has been discovered, with mixed intervals. (0:00) No.1 L’unisson/Unison - The unison of a violin is quite interesting. Playing the same notes on different strings have different tone, and the result is the same note with two different tone being played at once, into a “super-natural” sound effect. Due to the stretch, it is difficult to finger and get in tune. Also, double trill is (usually) impossible unless one of the notes is an open string. The first exercise focuses on the unison with double stops. (1:00) Exercise 2 - This features same notes over different strings (which, if you play violin, you’ll know that they have different tones) (1:28) Exercise 3 - This exercise sums the previous two exercises. (2:20) No.2 Les Secondes/Seconds - The interval of seconds have appeared in the late romantic pieces, and its dissonance has a unique sound effect. The fourth exercise features seconds as both double stop and separate notes. (2:50) Exercise 5 - The fifth and sixth features the treatment of second intervals in various settings. (4:02) Exercise 6 (4:40) No.3 Les Tierces/Thirds - The thirds are one of the most frequently used intervals in the violin music, but it is not a very simple interval to finger. Ysaye recommends the use of shifting instead of 1/3-2/4 fingering that is usually used. Here, he recommends applying a little “accent” on the shifted notes, to minimize the sliding sound. (5:19) Exercise 8 - Whole-tone scale (6:39) Exercise 9 (7:36) No.4 Les Quartes/Fourths - The sound of the fourth chord is quite interesting. It is not widely used in pre-1900s music. The exercises, like before, presents the fourth on different contexts. Contrary to what it seems like, the 4th is actually one of the easiest interval to play on violin, btw. (8:37) Exercise 11 (9:09) Exercise 12 (9:56) Exercise 13 - Chromatics (10:28) No.5 Les Quintes/Fifths (11:32) Exercise 15 (12:02) No.6 Les Sixtes/Sixths - Similar to the fourth. The sixth is not one of the difficult intervals, and it is taken into various contexts such as whole tone scale here. (12:40) Exercise 17 (13:07) Exercise 18 (14:17) Exercise 19 (15:02) No.7 Les Septiemes/Sevenths - Arpeggiated seventh (15:26) Exercise 21 (15:56) Exercise 22 (16:40) Exercise 23 (17:06) No.8 Les Octaves/Octaves - The octaves are used extremely frequently in virtuosic passages. So, the main aim of this prelude is focused around the fingered octaves in various scales (major/minor/chromatic/whole-tone). (18:00) Exercise 25 (18:50) Exercise 26 (19:27) Exercise 27 (19:58) No.9 Les Neuviemes/Ninths - The ninths are similar to the effect of the seconds. (20:28) Exercise 29 (21:05) Exercise 30 (21:36) Les Dixiemes/Tenths - The tenths often appear in the conclusion or climax of numerous pieces. As usual, the tenths are taken into contexts, with chromaticism, whole-tone scale, arpeggio, etc. (22:36) Exercise 32 (23:08) Exercise 33 Played by Daniel Stepner This video is for a non-commercial purpose (I do not get any profit from this video), and I do not own the score or the music. If there is an advertisement, it is not by me; it is by Youtube. If you are the rightful owner and want this video removed, please contact me, and I will promptly remove it.