Lucien Capet's 1915 Edition of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas

I have been spending this summer exploring the various editions of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas that are available in the IMSLP. There is much to be learned about violin playing, about tradition, about musical phrasing, and about Bach from all of them, but the most fascinating one for me is the 1915 publication edited by Lucien Capet.

Since Lucien Capet taught both Ivan Galamian and *Jascha Brodsky, he is often referred to as the "grandfather of modern violin playing." But musical generations do not fit into the 30-year format of family generations, so we have some great-grandfathering going on as well.

Here's Capet's soulful opening note, with a google-translate-aided translation (click for a larger view):

Without wishing to dwell on the complexity of the elements constituting in my opinion as an artist in general, or a musician in particular, I desire nevertheless to attract the greatest attention of the students and the aspirants to the violinist's noble task (called to translate through his soul and his technique, the sublime works of the Great Creators) on the important role played by the bow in the art of violin; it is necessary to consider the role of the right hand with respect to the left hand, like that of the soul vis-à-vis the body; the correctness and precision of the mechanism of the left hand is the physical balance in the human body. It is therefore necessary above all, to be strengthened in the detailed study of this mechanism before undertaking the superior technique of the bow, which later puts at the disposal of the soul of the artist, the multiple manifestations of feelings and human aspirations provoked by intimate interaction with the works of the great creators.

This role is, of course, one of the noblest to which a human being can claim; and the deep joys mingled with the infinite consolations that it has given me, give rise in me to the desire to communicate the means that I have used myself to put the Soul of the String player at the service of Art.

Then comes the division of the bow (he wrote a whole book on the bow, which is available only in some countries through the IMSLP, and only in German).



The fingerings and bowings are really creative, and it's great fun to try them out. It's a drastically different take on Bach, using positions and harmonics that Bach would have never dreamed of using. Many of Capet's ideas didn't make their way into Galamian's Bach edition. If you are a violinist you will certainly enjoy trying out the last line of this passage from the B minor Partita:



(I had no idea that there even was a natural harmonic B up there on the G string!) Now go and download the whole thing! Let me know what you think in the comments!

* July 25th Update: Brodsky's lecherous past is all over the internet today.