An analysis of the early French violin school

Coleman Jr., Carey T. (2025) An analysis of the early French violin school. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This research examines one of the less studied sides of eighteenth century music and performance: French violin playing. By answering the three following questions, this research seeks to provide insight concerning just one of the aspects of musical learning in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century:

• What specifically constitutes French violin posture of the early period of development as recommended by these primary sources?

• What were the general trends in ornamentation that a French violin player might have observed in this period?

• And the final area: how did French violin methods and treatises define and teach the application of the French practice of notes inégales?

This research examines one of the unexamined sides of eighteenth century music and performance studies: French violin playing. Focusing on an immersive analysis of the violin methods of early French authors of violin playing, one is able to better understand how these violin players would probably have learned to play music in the early half of the eighteenth century.Here, the key French concept of rhythmic inequality was examined from another angle from both 1711 Méthode Facile of Montéclair and the later, more modern L’école d’Orphée of Corrette which offered the most encyclopædic definition of inequality. Correspondent to inequality, the use of ornamental and technical musical practices in these methods shows how the French curated a national violin school.

Interestingly, this research was able to explain the emerging trends in the eighteenth century of both an increase in designated violin music from sonatas to concertos, and the increase of private instructors in Paris with the rise of printed violin methods and treatises. Furthermore this research provided an immersive understanding into the manner of learning to play music from the perspective of an early eighteenth century French violin player.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Subjects: M Music and Books on Music > M Music
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts
• Supervisor's Name: Butt, Professor John and McGuinness, Professor David
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-84928
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 26 Feb 2025 11:00
• Last Modified: 26 Feb 2025 11:02
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84928
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84928