The lost art of  Il Suonare Parlante as mentioned in Paganini’s letters

"IL SUONAR PARLANTE":  

A Paganini anecdote or the foundation of  bow technique?

Outline

-The lost technique of “Il Suonar Parlante”(“Speaking with Sound”), mentioned in Paganini’s letters, represents the foundation of sound production for string instruments.  Vittorio Ghielmi, in his dual role as performer and reseacher/professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, proposes an itinerary to rediscover this technique, which has survived in marginal and non-european areas.  He brings to light their artistic, cultural and didactic strength.

ABSTRACT

"IL SUONAR PARLANTE:  

A Paganini anecdote or the foundation of bow technique?

In the letters to his friend Luigi Guglielmo Germi Paganini quotes his secret technique of the “Suonar Parlante” ( “speaking with the sound”). This term has been not considered  attentively enough in  historical studies on the Genovese virtuoso, who, in modern times, unfortunately attracts  more attention for his left hand virtuosity than for his research into expression. Paganini was, as many other great virtuosos (Vandini, Benda, Abel etc.) extremely appreciated for the way he “spoke” with his bow in the adagios, and singers went to listen him in order to learn how to sing an adagio.  The technique mentioned by Paganini was not a personal and isolated manifestation of his genius, but the basis of string playing until the XIX century (at least). The imitation of the voice and the ability to speak with instruments has been  the aim of music for centuries. The Voice to be imitated was not only the material voice of a single person. 

By analizing the ancient textes and repertoire (from Marin Mersenne to the wind and string treatises of the baroque) and looking back to few old surviving musical traditions it is possible to rediscover the details of this technique; a technique which takes us back to a more deeply human approach to music and musical teaching.