The Art of Musical Pedagogy (A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing by Leopold Mozart and the Origins of Violin Teaching Methodology in Bulgaria)

Abstract

Learning and improvement are impossible without teaching. Pedagogy exists to impart knowledge and skills as directly and rigorously as possible, but it is rather an art than a science, since art creates rules, while science obeys them. The only rule of art is that there are no rules, no absolute truth. Pedagogy works with personalities and individuals, which science cannot do although scientific rules are vital to the teaching process: know the rules, when to obey them, and when to break them. Thus, all teaching is connected across all cultures and traditions. Violin pedagogy is no exception. The earliest documentation of violin teaching in Bulgaria is found in the curricula of general educational institutions. This study traces the complex interconnections of common teaching principles between national and European violin pedagogy, specifically Leopold Mozart’s A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing (Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, 1756), and late 19th- to early 20th-century Bulgarian teaching in the methods of Karel Machán, Dimitar Hadzhigeorgiev and Kamen Popdimitrov.