Contemporary professional violinists face constant exposure to multicultural compositions. For best results, they should be able to understand, capture, and express the subtleties of different styles. The violin and its repertoire spread to China through European missionaries during the late seventeenth century and continued to be developed by Chinese scientists and musicians who studied abroad. During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Chinese composers wrote many violin pieces inspired by the unique sounds of Chinese instruments. Additionally, Chinese music scholars wrote numerous essays to discuss the new Chinese style. However, much of this research has been focused on the composers and the structures of the compositions rather than on the details of violin techniques necessary to play the repertoire. The techniques in Chinese violin compositions are unique and are influenced by the traditional instruments including string, wind, and percussion instruments. Furthermore, the style of such compositions is affected by the elements of Chinese culture, such as the language, the elite society and its poetic tradition, and historical legends and events. This dissertation provides examples of Chinese violin repertoire which demonstrate the principles of three main violin techniques in the Chinese style: slides, chords, and pizzicati. In order to help professional violinists better perform Chinese violin compositions, the dissertation also includes a number of exercises covering each technique above.

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I denna studie har jag undersökt vilka hinder som uppstår när jag spelar dubbelgreppsetyder på violin. Syftet med studien var att utveckla min förståelse för vilka hinder som uppstår samt att utveckla min tekniska förmåga i att spela dubbelgrepp. Studien genomfördes under höstterminen 2023 där respektive etyd övades på en timme om dagen i sju dagar. Processen dokumenterades genom videoinspelning och loggbok. Studien utgår från pragmatismen som teoretiskt perspektiv, samt litteratur och tidigare forskning om dubbelgrepp, fiolteknik, övning och musikaliskt lärande. För studiens resultat användes en praktisk epistemologisk analys. I studiens resultat framgår vilka hinder som uppstod i mötet med etyderna och hur jag handlade för att överbrygga dessa hinder. I diskussionen belyser jag dessa resultat i relation till den litteratur och tidigare forskning som presenteras i studien. / In this study I have investigated what obstacles occur when playing double-stop etudes on the violin. The purpose of this study was to increase my understanding of what obstacles occur and to develop my technical skills in playing double stops. The study was done in the fall semester of 2023, where I practiced each etude one hour a day for seven days. The process was documented with video recording and logbook. The study is based on pragmatism as a theoretical perspective, along with literature and previous research on double-stops, violin technique, practicing and musical learning. For the result of the study a practical epistemological analysis was being used. In the result of the study the obstacles that occurred are presented, along with the actions being used for overcoming those obstacles. In the discussion the results are illustrated in relation to the literature and previous research presented in the study.

Paul Schoenfeld (b. 1947) is considered one of the major American composers of the present day to have incorporated many different styles in his music. Although Schoenfeld primarily uses a combination of folk, popular music, klezmer, and jazz in most of his compositions, he has also incorporated other distinctive musical styles in his works, such as neo-Baroque, particularly in his Partita for Violin and Piano (2002). The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the eclectic combination of neo-Baroque and klezmer elements found in Schoenfeld's Partita. This research provides a detailed comparative analysis of his work with Johann Sebastian Bach's Clavier-Übung I, BWV 825–830, and 6 Sei Solo a Violino senza Basso accompagnato, BWV 1001–1006, primarily to see how Schoenfeld made use of Baroque forms, imitative passages, rhythms, and other stylistic features, then fused them with klezmer elements. Klezmer is a genre of music stemming from the Eastern European Jewish tradition; its distinctive characteristics are modal scales and Hasidic vocal ornaments. Knowing the mixture of Baroque and klezmer stylistic influences should help performers to interpret the piece.

It is the purpose of this thesis to determine the comparative differences and similarities of the accompanied violin sonatas of the two contemporary eighteenth-century composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel.

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The purpose of this study is to examine three works for the unusual combination of violin and voice. Chamber music for violin and keyboard and violin and other instruments has been extant since the Baroque period. However, three English composers found a unique chamber grouping in the first decades of the twentieth century: Gustav Holst (1874-1934), Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979), and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) each wrote works for violin and voice. Holst's Four Songs for Voice and Violin, Op. 35 (1917), Vaughan Williams' Along the Field, Eight Housman Songs for Voice and Violin (1927, revised 1954), and Clarke's Three Old English Songs (1924) each utilize the combination of violin and voice. The violin in each is not relegated to accompaniment but is instead a true partner. This study will investigate these works. A history of each composition will be chronicled. An analytical discussion of formal organization and significant style features will include consideration of the musical structure, harmonic language, and the use of text in select movements of each work. Finally, performance suggestions pertaining to technical and artistic issues offer specific recommendations as an aid in performance preparation. In order to provide historical and musical context, a brief overview of Late Romantic and early Twentieth-Century chamber music with strings and voice will be given. This overview will help to illuminate the uniqueness of the pairing of violin and voice. Discovery of the works discussed here makes possible an expanded repertoire of good music for both violinists and vocalists. It is also hoped that through the performance of these works a spark might be set with composers to create more pieces for this most intimate of duos.

Johann Paul von Westhoff's (1656-1705) solo violin works, consisting of Suite pour le violon sans basse continue published in 1683 and Six Suites for Violin Solo in 1696, feature extensive use of multiple stops, which represents a German polyphonic style of the seventeenth-century instrumental music. However, the Six Suites had escaped the public's attention for nearly three hundred years until its rediscovery by the musicologist Peter Várnai in the late twentieth century. This project will focus on polyphonic writing featured in the solo violin works by von Westhoff. In order to fully understand the stylistic traits of this less well-known collection, a brief summary of the composer, Johann Paul Westhoff, and an overview of the historical background of his time will be included in this document. I will analyze these works, including a comparison between the works of Westhoff and those of other composers during his time, to prove that Westhoff's solo works establish multiple stops as a central factor of German violin playing of the time, and, thus, to promote Westhoff's works as a complement to the extant repertoire of unaccompanied violin music written in the Baroque era before Johann Sebastian Bach's solo violin works and Georg Philipp Telemann's twelve fantasias for violin solo. Furthermore, this project will help one to better understand the use and function of multiple stops in the German violin repertoire in the seventeenth century.

English publisher John Playford (1623-1686/1687) first published his "The Division Violin: Containing a Collection of Divisions Upon Several Grounds for the Treble-Violin" in 1684. The first edition of this violin collection contains 26 written-out examples of improvisation, serving as a living snapshot of the performance practice of the time. This research is based on the second edition, which Playford had expanded into 30 pieces for the violin, published in 1685. The purpose of this study is to investigate the art of improvisation in England during the late 17th century, focusing on Playford's "The Division Violin." The dissertation first surveys the development of English violin music in the 17th century. Then, the dissertation traces eight selected 16th-century Italian diminution manuals. This will help readers understand the progression of the Italian diminution and improvisation practice in the 16th century and how it relates to the English division of the 17th century. Finally, based on a thorough research of the 17th-century improvisatory style and rhetorical approach, the author of this study provides performance suggestions on "Mr. Farinell's Ground," No. 5 from "The Division Violin."