Franz Wohlfahrt (1833-1884) was the son of a well-know piano
teacher, Heinrich Wohlfahrt. He is remembered, like his father, for the didactic
études and instructive literature written for his own teaching purposes.
Wohlfahrt's Opus 45 represent, today, the standard work for beginners on the
violin. They provide excellent preliminary material to the works of Kayser and
Kreutzer, and belonging to the German School they compliment the studies of
Mazas and Dancla. Download notes on the following studies :
General Remarks :
The first finger, also called the anchor
or supporting finger, is almost always kept on the string. It gives the frame of
the left hand greater accuracy and clarity, by clearly defining what position
one is playing in. Not only should it support, acting as an anchor all the other
fingers, it should also hold 5ths on two adjacent strings, whenever possible,
thereby facilitating string crossing passages. ( The placing of 5ths ). The supporting finger is often
marked as a 1 with a continuous line, encouraging the player to leave that
finger down for the duration of the passage or bars marked : 1_______ = leave
the 1 down.
In certain passage work ( bars 19 & 20 of
study n1 ) The same finger may be needed on adjacent strings, but playing an
interval other than a perfect 5th. It is important to accurately note the lower
first finger playing the B flat on the A string, and the higher ( by a 5th minus
a semitone ) E natural on the D string. Care must be taken not to place this
same finger in the same pattern for both strings, and the pupil should be well
aware of the resulting tritone interval produced, and the exact semi-tone
displacement of the position of the finger.
Open strings are not to be avoided as they
provide a good reference for intonation, and themselves vibrate quite openly and
purely. Open strings are also useful if one needs at least two notes on a
particular string ( Study n.10 bar 4) to facilitate string crossing and unify
the timbre.
Third position (fixed) is not introduced until
Study number 31, which provides an excellent introduction. Mastery of these
studies guarantees excellent results and preparation for Grade 4 exam pieces. The
studies can be continued to Grade 6, but by Grade 7 any studies still proving
difficult to master and perform serve as a warning. I recommend learning each
study by heart. One should aim to cover around 20 of the 60 studies, perhaps
keeping half a dozen in repertoire by heart.
