Orator or Poet? Some Thoughts About the Translation of Feelings in the Art of Violin Playing in the Nineteenth Century

The image of the virtuoso violinist as an “orator” was firmly established in the 19th-century musical culture. He possessed all the qualities of a good speaker: he mastered his instrument, could speak in public, and was eloquent and convincing. However, brilliance and eloquence were not everything. The violinist also had to move the audience. This task was facilitated by the instrument itself, which had enormous expressive possibilities. This article reflects on “translating feelings,” as explained by 19th-century French masters in violin method books, particularly Pierre Baillot (L’Art du violon, Paris, 1834) and Charles de Bériot (Méthode de violon, Paris, 1858). Both consider music to be a language because it has the ability to communicate emotions. They discuss technical means serving this purpose: articulation, bowing, phrasing, fingering, special effects (harmonics, pizzicato, scordatura), as well as ways of transferring vocal technique aspects to violin playing (punctuation, pronunciation, prosody). All these means have a significant impact on the process of translating emotions into sounds.