Philosophy

Violin etudes have always constituted an important and necessary part of the development of the violinist's technique and artistry. Many of the great violinists of the past up to the 20th Century wrote etudes, caprices, divertimenti, and duets for both pedagogical purposes and their own performance necessities. It is possible to say that there is an etude for every aspect of violin playing, including musical ones. There are an overwhelming number of known and less well known violin etudes, my count is close to two thousand, which makes the decision of which ones to work on or which ones are available rather difficult. Each author wrote and classified their work in different ways depending on their style, interest, personal circumstances, and general approach to violin playing.

There are a number of violin etudes compilations and anthologies by great masters and pedagogues. This modest work does not try to compete, correct, or discard any of them in any way, since they are works from which I got my inspiration. I deeply admire them and I believe that they should not be forgotten. This work just attempts to keep up with the changing world of violin teaching and revive the useful tradition of compiling and classifying the vast amount of etudes for easier access and better results. I believe this anthology can compliment any teacher's methodology, no matter which one, and save great amounts of time and efforts in looking for the right technical or musical feature.

My work tries to sort and classify the etudes for easier use of students and teachers. There are five volumes in the anthology, starting at the beginning level to the advanced/professional. Each volume contains up to thirty etudes of progressive difficulty to some extent, containing varied techniques and approaches. The thematic index facilitates the browsing to find the desired assignment to the student. I have added a short biography of the composers in each volume, since I feel that we need to know something else about them aside from their work. The given variations at the end of most etudes are a good way to start, improve, and gain the most learning from each one. They only represent some possibilities and approaches, and I am sure they can be elaborated. The introductions to the etudes explain the main purpose and basic movements to be developed or improved. They are designed to leave room for more detailed explanation and development from each specific teacher to their students, since no book can substitute for that kind of learning. Each etude has a "similar etudes" section containing a list of some etudes with similar difficulty and characteristics.

The public access videos, available at this website's Anthology Videos section, compliment the explanations and instructions of the texts in a great new manner. The web site also features and a full performance of each etude. All the videos are classified by composer/title under volume number and are easy to find and access.

I have tried to the best of my knowledge to cite everything that is not my own or just common practice. If I have failed to do so, you have my deepest apologies. I hope this work will help to motivate and inspire students as much as teachers. That is what it has done to me.

Fabián López