ABSTRACT
The first secular institution dedicated to music training, the Paris Conservatoire, was founded in 1795. Its publishing company encouraged the dissemination of course methods compiled by the instrumental faculty. This chapter surveys treatises published by Conservatoire’s violin professors Rode, Kreutzer, and Baillot, and their disciples Jacques Féréol Mazas and François-Antoine Habeneck. Nineteenth-century violin methods delved into posture far more than their eighteenth-century counterparts. Both Baillot and Habeneck suggested the G major scale as the easiest scale for beginners “because it requires few changes in the relative position of fingers.” Around the turn of the century, the terminology for positions was standardized, with the most authors citing positions, rather than orders. Although by the beginning of the nineteenth century double- and triple-stops were common in violin repertoire, the methods covered in the chapter provided limited insight into how to teach and practice this technique.
