Learning Much More Than the Notes

    Like many youngsters, Daniel Ching was not enthusiastic about practicing violin. He started at age 3, with his father as teacher, and he played dutifully. 

   But not joyfully.

   Then he heard the Juilliard String Quartet, and everything changed.

   “When I heard them, I knew this was music worth practicing for.â€�

   “Four soloists playing together,â€� Ching said during a break in Hotchkiss School’s chamber music festival last week, “there’s nothing better.â€�

  Now he plays first violin with the Miró String Quartet. He is also a canny and inspiring teacher of young string players.   

   In practice room 136, Ching greets Yujie He from Sichuan Province, China, and I-Jong Huang from Taiwan. They are among the 18 teenagers, from Tenafly to Jerusalem, who won a slot in the very competitive Portals program, now in its 7th summer. “Ni hao,â€� Ching says. Both girls giggle. It’s always funny to hear an American speak Mandarin.

   They are joined by cellist Hana Cohon from Seattle, WA, and Israeli Yesha’ayahu Grinzburg. He plays viola. “Call me Yesha,â€� he says.

   The four have been working on the allegro movement of Haydn’s “Sunriseâ€� Quartet, Op.76, in B-flat Major for two days. Now they will play it for Ching.

   The opening is unusual: The first violin plays a wandering couple of measures against subdued chords by the other three players.

   “It’s exploratory,â€� Ching says. And odd for the time.

   They continue. “More expressive,â€� he urges, and he talks about using bow speeds and vibrato

to build color and depth in the music.

   Though the opening is slow, this is an allegro, with speedy short notes. Ching tells his pupils not to bounce the bow, not to leave the string, for two reasons. Bows were shorter when Haydn was writing, and did not bounce. A bouncing bow does not sound right for the period. Also, a bow does not make any sound off the string.

  He talks about playing close to the frog, the bow’s handle, and close to the violin’s bridge to get a concentrated, focused tone. He talks about overtones, experimenting  with different bowing to see what works best, listening to each other, deciding how to shape a phrase both technically and musically. He urges I-Jong , playing first violin, to express sadness, emotion, “But don’t slide that,â€� he tells her. “Someone will say, ‘Hey, this is Haydn.’ â€�

   He is teaching them to make decisions about the music. To pay attention to style and history. To figure out what the music means and how to get that meaning across.

   In short, how to play music. Not notes.

  The Brentano String Quartet will be performing atHotchkiss School’s Elfer’s Hall, July 9 at 7:30 p.m. The Shanghai Quartet will perform July 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Elfer’s Hall. For additional festival events, see the Compass calendar.

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