ht hand I advocate holding them
close together--not cramped, but just lightly touching. Some players
recommend the parting of the first finger from the others as giving
greater leverage over the bow. It certainly has that effect, but I
advise it to be used very sparingly and in fortissimo passages only.
It is a license one may admit in an artist, but to my pupils who are
in the earlier stages I entirely forbid it. I should only permit it
in the case of a thumb so short as not to reach far enough into the
centre of the hand to give the right amount of control. If a pupil is
taught from the first to use this extreme leverage he is likely to
develop a rough tone. When he has attained the mastery of the bow he
can use his own judgment as to the occasional employment of this
reserve force. These remarks I apply also to violoncello bowing.
Unless the pupil's hand be weak the first finger should be held back
until the whole art of bowing is mastered. All these observations are
addressed to soloists: in orchestral work such retention of force is
unnecessary. I notice that where players use up all the available
leverage of the hand from the outset, they are compelled to employ
the weight of the arm to reinforce it for special effects. Another
reason--and an important one--for keeping the fingers together, is
that of appearance. Nothing is more unsightly than to see the fingers
of the right hand spread out claw fashion, and I quite concur with
Sympson that no posture or movement should offend the eye.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SLOW BOW--THE RAPID WHOLE BOW--STACCATO--BOWING
STUDIES AND SOLOS--CONCLUSION.

Returning for a moment to the anxiety of the average fiddler to
acquire a good _Sautille_, it seems to me absurd that such importance
should be attached to it when, in reality, the test of a violinist's
ability lies in his command of "slow bows." Too much attention cannot
be paid to the study of sustained bowing which can be practised in a
variety of ways. Firstly, long drawn semibreves--at one of the
Continental Conservatoires they make the violin students play scales
of two octaves, taking one bow to each note, the same to last _two
minutes_, thus the whole scale, ascending and descending, occupies
one hour! The command obtained by this sort of work is enormous. To
vary the monotony of semibreves the student can then play scales in
semiquavers, making one bow last out ten, twelve, or more scales in
two