REPERTOIRE GUIDE
Méditation,
from Thaïs
Jules Massenet
Contributor: Ellen Kogut
Violin Syllabus, 2021 Edition: Repertoire 8, List C
Historical Context
Méditation is an orchestral intermezzo, or entr’acte, that appeared in the popular opera Thaïs, written by French composer Jules Massenet (1842–1912).
The opera tells the story of an Egyptian courtesan who decides to embrace religious life. The intermezzo features a prominent solo violin part, played by the orchestra’s concertmaster, with an accompaniment featuring harp and strings. Today, an arrangement of Méditation for violin and piano is often performed as a solo piece.
General Teaching Tips
Massenet's tempo marking for this piece, Andante religioso, suggests a slightly slower-than-usual andante tempo with a contemplative feel.
Encourage your students to use continuous vibrato throughout the piece to keep the sound spinning.
Although Méditation has a fantasy-like, improvisatory character, rhythmic precision is needed to ensure that the violin part fits properly with the accompaniment. Practicing in subdivisions is an excellent way to ensure that longer note values, particularly ties, are played correctly. Passages like mm. 29–32, for example, can be played in eighth notes:
Similarly, passages like mm. 13, 37, and 58, can be played in sixteenth notes:
Subdivisions are also helpful for feeling the many tempo changes in this piece. For example, mm. 38–40 can be played in eighth notes:
Méditation is a highly expressive and dramatic piece. Students should react to each change in the melody and/or harmony with a corresponding change in tone colour. Tone colour should vary from light and translucent to heavy and opaque. As the melodic line ascends, bow weight and vibrato should be increased, for example in mm. 13–15 and analogous measures:
Creative Expression/Artistry
Similarly, reduce weight and move the contact point closer to the fingerboard for p or pp passages like the one in mm. 39–40:
Although Méditation is an instrumental piece, it is vocal in character. Ask your students to set the violin aside and sing each passage. Where does the music flow forward, and where does it seem to breathe momentarily? Students’ intuitions about phrasing while singing should be reflected clearly in their playing.
Suggest that your students emphasize the distance between larger interval leaps by taking a little extra time to shift, for example in mm. 31–32 and 59–60. This mimics the way the human voice would sing these intervals:
Make sure your students develop held notes by changing bow speed or the speed of their vibrato. Long notes should never just sit. Rather, they should lead into new material. The half notes in the opening phrase, for example, should each crescendo slightly into the notes that follow:
The quintuplet flourishes, like the one in m. 5, are essentially written-out ornaments. Encourage your students to play these with a sense of spontaneity and an improvisatory character, as if they were making up the notes on the spot. The quintuplets can be practiced with separate bows at first, to solidify rhythm. Then add slurs and play as printed:
Practice Suggestions
Take care that the ornaments fit into and enhance the phrase as a whole. They should not disrupt the pulse or flow of the melody.
There are a number of subito dynamics in this piece. As in the music of Beethoven, it can help to practice these dynamics with rests. This allows students time to think and make technical adjustments necessary to create the new dynamic. First have your students practice passages like mm. 10–11, below, with two beats of rest before the change. Then reduce to one beat of rest, and finally play the passage as printed:
For optimal resonance in sul G passages, such as mm. 17–21, make sure students play on the outside of the string. Students should feel a sense of openness in the right armpit when the bow is balanced at this level:
Technique
All of the harmonics in this piece are natural, as opposed to artificial, meaning that they:
- Have a pure ringing sound that corresponds to an open string
- Require light finger pressure
- Are located on points where the string is divided evenly in half, thirds, or quarters
Remind your students that the bow needs to make solid contact with the string in order for these harmonics to sound. For the very high harmonics, students can think of expanding the left hand from the base joints in order to get more reach.
Massenet in
Violin Syllabus, 2021 Edition
Level 6
Invocation (Mélodie), from Les Erinnyes
Level 8
Méditation, from Thaïs
(transcr. Martin Pierre Marsick)