CHASE

Of all the editions of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas in this collection, Singer's, which was specifically marketed as an instructive edition for use in music conservatoires, contains the most detailed instructions for performance. Not only is it extensively bowed and fingered, leaving virtually nothing to the player's discretion; it also contains many instructions for the part of the bow to be used, for portamento (marked with a slanting line), different types of articulation (marked with . and - as well as the combination of the two), the occasional Luft Pause (marked with a comma), and additional marks of expression, including such terms as tranquillo, leggiero, and espressivo. He supplied metronome marks for all movements and many additional instructions for tempo and expression. There are also instructive footnotes. Singer's use of the 'slide' sign is infrequent, because, as with Friedrich Grutzmacher's use of gliss. (see this website), he seems primarily to employ it where a portamento might not otherwise be obvious (for instance, between bowstrokes), or where a particularly prominent portamento was envisaged. Many of his fingerings under slurs are clearly intended to elicit portamento where this sign does not appear; sometimes there are severl portamenti in immediate succession, a practice that was generally condemned in pedagogic texts. Vibrato is not indicated, perhaps surprisingly in view of the level of detail in other respects. By the date of the edition, there was undoubtedly a tendency for many players to employ vibrato far more frequently than in the previous generation, but it seems likely that Singer, who like Joseph Joachim was a pupil of Joseph Boehm during the 1840s, will have grown up with the traditional approach to vibrato as an occasional ornament, and did not regard it as essential in Beethoven. This is strongly suggested by his extensive marking of harmonics and open strings, which are even more frequently indicated than in Ferdinand David's edition. Vibrato is not mentioned at all in Singer's Violinschule. 

[C. B.]