Top Secrets for Cellists: An Organized Method of String Playing

Von Janos Starker

"Handbook and guide" …for Cellists and all other String Players
Brilliant technical and musical concepts and methods by Janos Starker, the world-famous cellist and teacher
Suitable for all levels: Students, Chamber Musicians, Orchestral Musicians as well as Soloists
A true inspiration!
(Repository: The World of Music according to Starker, Indiana University Press 2004, ISBN 0-253-34452-2, © 2004 Janos Starker)
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»Handbuch und Ratgeber« …für Cellisten und alle anderen Streicher
Hilfreiche technische und musikalische Anregungen des weltberühmten Cellisten und Pädagogen Janos Starker
Für alle Fortschrittsstufen geeignet: Schüler, Kammermusiker, Orchestermusiker und Solisten
Inspiration erster Güte!
(Quelle: The World of Music according to Starker Indiana University Press 2004, ISBN 0-253-34452-2 © 2004 Janos Starker)

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG
• Erscheinungsdatum: 20. Juni 2022
• ISBN: 9783959836418

Buchvorschau

Bibliographic information from the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; Detailed bibliographic information is available on the internet http://dnb.d-nb.de.

978-3-95983-639-5 (Paperback)

978-3-95983-640-1 (Hardcover)

978-3-95983-641-8 (E-Book)

© 2022 Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz

www.schott-buch.com

Repository Text

The world of Music according to Starker

Author: Janos Starker

Excerpt of pages 269-292

Indiana University Press 2004 ISBN 0-253-34452-2

© 2004 Janos Starker

Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press (2020)

Repository Photos:

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA

Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and

University Archives University Libraries

(Stacey Krim, Assistant Professor & Curator of Manuscripts)

© 2021 Cover Caricature, Bernhard Leitner

© 2021 Illustrations, Annabarbara Suter

Initiator of this Publication: Kurt Hess

All rights reserved Reprint in any form and reproduction by television, radio, film, image and sound carriers or use for lectures, including extracts, only with the permission of the publisher.

Table of contents

Preface by Kurt Hess

Biography Janos Starker

An Organized Method of String Playing (OMSP)

Organization

Category I: Playing Preparation

Breathing

Summary

Category II Right Arm-Hand-Fingers

Bow hold

Legato

Thumb Placement

Bow Articulation

Category III Left Arm-Hand Fingers

Finger Placement

Vibrato

Positions

Thumb Positions

Position Changes

Anticipated Slide

Delayed Slide

Finger Actions and Aspects of Tension/Relaxation

Artificial Harmonics, Extensions

Pizzicato

Category IV Musical Application

Epilogue

Preface

For some years, cello students of mine have asked me to put on paper some pedagogical ideas and methods which I use in my teaching. In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started to make notes. The further I proceeded, the more it became clear that many of the ideas and concepts stemmed from my student days at Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana, USA in the mid-1970’s when I had the privilege to study with Janos Starker.

I remembered that Janos Starker included an analytical summary of wide-ranging technical and musical aspects in his autobiography The World of Music according to Starker (Indiana University Press). After consulting this book again, I decided to put my notes aside and let the master speak. With my students in mind, I then made a German translation of the chapter «An Organized Method of String Playing».

Janos Starker’s text is divided into four categories. Within these categories, the text is ongoing and without subdivisions.Thus, I took the liberty to further structure the text by adding some headings as well as listing them in a table of contents.

Janos Starker’s musical career was extraordinary: over 5000 solo performances worldwide, 170 CD/Studio recordings, and over 75 years of devoted pedagogical activity.

My strong wish is that the ideas and concepts of Janos Starker contained in this book, which stem from an extraordinarily wide-ranging musical experience, will be of great inspiration and practical benefit for cellists of any standard - from students to orchestral players, chamber musicians to soloists.

With this publication, I also wish to honour my great teacher!

Kurt Hess, Beromünster, Switzerland

Biography Janos Starker

Born on July 5th, 1924 in Budapest; † April 28th, 2013 in Bloomington, Indiana USA.

Janos Starker was one of the greatest virtuoso cellists of the 20th Century. As a six-year-old child prodigy, he received his first cello tuition at the renowned Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

He later became principal cellist of both the Opera and Philharmonic Orchestras in Budapest. After the Second World War Starker emigrated to the USA (1948) and later occupied the principal cello chairs of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Besides his highly successful concert career with over 5000 solo performances worldwide, Janos Starker recorded a vast part of the cello repertoire, releasing around 170 CDs and studio recordings. As a distinguished Professor, he started teaching at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana USA in 1958 and continued teaching students from around the world until 2013.

From 1950-1965 Janos Starker performed and recorded on a cello by Antonio Stradivari, the «Lord Aylesford». From 1965 until his death in 2013, Janos Starker played on his treasured Matteo Goffriller cello, Venice 1705.

An Organized Method of String Playing (OMSP)

JANOS STARKER

Since 1955 I have been giving string seminars regularly on four continents under the title «An Organized Method of String Playing.» The following is an attempt to describe what takes place in these public classes.

Introduction

«An Organized Method of String Playing» (OMSP) is a way of thinking about music and instrumental playing. Its objectives answer professional needs: stability, power, health, maximum use of limited time, increase of confidence and avoidance of stagnation, deterioration, nervousness, and insecurity. Though these needs are based on varying degrees of talent and ability, physical and/or musical, they are aggravated by previous learning processes. The necessary imitative learning of a child is too often continued into adulthood. Changes from concerned to unconcerned teachers, or vice versa, result mostly in the unexplained use of various schools of learning. These schools, often marvelously demonstrated by highly gifted exponents, reflect solutions oft the exponents’ individual shortcomings or advantages. In order to explain the thinking process behind the approach to OMSP, let me give some background as to its origin.

As a child prodigy from the age of six, I was fortunate in having a great teacher, Adolf Schiffer, a student and successor of David Popper. His forte was in assisting his students to develop their natural abilities. He was a superb cellist and musician, but because of a rather late start as an instrumentalist, he