Dancla : 36 Études mélodiques et très faciles, op. 84
Melodious and Very Easy Studies - Etudes melodiques et tres faciles
First published : 19th century
Original instrumentation : Violin solo
Charles Dancla (1817-1907) composed these Studies op. 84 for the violin, and a transcription for the viola is also available.
Dancla's 36 Études mélodiques, op. 84 are often among the first ones studied by young violinists and violists, after one to two years of preparation.
They cover a broad range of technical issues such as détaché, martelé, spiccato, string crossings and shifting.
Dancla's studies op. 84 are a must for the early stages of violin playing.
Together with the etudes of Wohlfahrt and Mazas, they provide excellent preparatory material for the more difficult studies by Kayser and Kreutzer.
General technical remarks for Dancla's opus 84 :
- Dancla often precedes his studies with preliminary scales or exercises to which much attention must be given
- The 36 studies op. 84 cover a wide range of technical challenges :
- scale passages
- whole bow legato
- détaché bowing
- cantabile playing style
- smooth string crossings
- slurred arpeggios
- shifting
- staccato
- etc.
- Some studies are in fact opera arias with variations
- Studies written in détaché bowing (such as No. 1) should be practiced also with a great variety of bowing patterns in the aim of developing bowing technique
- The left hand should be kept thoroughly relaxed, with the fingers very close to the fingerboard. In particular, the fourth finger should always remain above the strings
- The first finger acts as an anchor for the entire left hand, and should thus be left on the strings as much as possible
- The use of open strings is to be encouraged for beginners, as they provide an excellent reference for intonation and have a pleasant and pure resonance
