Investigation of the contributions of Pierre Gavinies' 24 etudes to violin technique

Etudes are basic materials that contribute to the technical development of performers and are also important for the development of musical skills. They have an important function in the instrument training of performers with the technical and musical elements they contain. In violin education, in order to ensure the synchronization of right and left hand technique, etude and piece analyses should be performed separately in the right and left hand, and a working model that identifies technical difficulties should be created, which will help the etude to be interpreted musically and technically correctly (Delikara, 2013). The 24 etudes for solo violin prepared by the 18th century violinist and composer Pierre Gavinies (1728-1800), described as the "Tartini of the French" by the famous Italian violin virtuoso Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824), contain important technical studies that will contribute to the right and left hand development of violin players. It is assumed that this work, which started the "twenty-four etude collection" movement, was written in 1794 and is known to have been published around 1800. P. Gavinies named his etudes "matinee". This word of French origin means daytime. Therefore, it is thought that P. Gavinies emphasized that these etudes should be studied in the morning (Cottin-Rack, 2007). Marie K Stolba (1919-2005) believes that these etudes are technically designed to improve left hand flexibility and bow control. (Stolba, 1979). P. Gavinies' 24 etudes are closer to the caprice form than to the etude in that they are written in a free form and improvisatory character. The caprice form is a piece of music with a very free and lively character. Etudes are usually written in lively tempos and contain flowing and melodic elements. The string skips, various string bindings, string transitions and left hand extension movements applied in most of the passages in the etudes present violin players with different technical challenges written for the right and left hand at the same time. The Gavinies etudes present not only technical challenges but also melodic structures. There is also an edition of the Gavinies 24 etudes for 2 violins in duet form. The French composer Henri Marteau (1874-1934) composed a 2nd violin accompaniment to P. Gavinies' 24 etudes. The work was published in 1909 in the Steingraber Verlag edition.