New Revised International Editions of the Suzuki Violin School
A Message from the SAA Violin Committee
The new revised editions of the Suzuki Violin School Books 1 and 2 are now available for purchase. Book 3 should be in stores very shortly, and Book 4 is already at the publishers for formatting and proofing.
The SAA Violin Committee would like to give all members of the SAA community a report on this process. The following report consists of three sections:
- A history of the book revision process,
- A description of the procedure for the compilation, editing and publication of the revised editions for Books 1-4, and,
- A look forward at the upper volumes in the Suzuki Violin School.
Let’s begin with a brief history of the book revision process. Dr. Suzuki began compiling his materials, which came to be the Suzuki Violin School, from his earliest teaching days. He is often quoted as saying that Book 1 itself took 10 years. And every piece in the repertoire was “child-tested” before its final inclusion. If you are fortunate enough to have access to copies of the earliest Zen-On editions from the 1950’s, you will see how the books evolved into what most teachers in the West have been using since the publication of the first international edition in the mid-1960’s. There have been repertoire additions, deletions and editing through the years. Dr. Suzuki undertook a major revision to the volumes in 1964, but after meeting with quite a bit of resistance from the Japanese teachers, he postponed any changes at that time.
The first American edition of the Suzuki materials was the “Listen and Play” series edited by John Kendall and first published in 1961 by Summy-Birchard. The accompanying LP’s were recorded by violinist Angel Reyes (including an exquisite but mistaken legato rendition of “Song of the Wind“!). Eventually an agreement was reached between Zen-On in Japan and Summy-Birchard in the United States, leading the way to the first international editions of the Suzuki Violin School printed in Japanese and English. The accompanying recordings were the Zen-On originals performed by Dr. Suzuki for Book 1-3, and Koji Toyoda for Books 4-8. Several years later, the international edition was revised to include translations in French, German and Spanish, necessitating smaller print and unfortunately, the exclusion of some text and exercises. New recordings appeared of Books 1-4 by David Cerone from Ability Development, and later by David Nadien from Summy-Birchard. Intermittently, new printings corrected some, but not all, obvious misprints in fingerings and bowings, especially in the upper volumes. Teachers were encouraged to select fingerings and bowings that reflected their particular teaching situations and the needs of a particular student. Even Dr. Suzuki played and taught various fingerings and bowings depending on his “new idea!” for that year.
In 1996, at the behest of Dr. Suzuki, Koji Toyoda presented a paper to the teachers in Japan on the necessity of revisions to the books. Prof. Toyoda’s main points addressed the issues of instrumental technique, musical knowledge and respect for the original score. Subsequently, under Dr. Suzuki’s directive, a committee of Japanese violin teachers, with Prof. Toyoda as its head, was formed by TERI (Talent Education Research Institute in Matsumoto) to consider these issues. The revised Book 1 was published by Zen-On in Japan in 1998, shortly after Dr. Suzuki’s death. Books 2 and 3 were published soon thereafter, prompting discussion about revisions to the international edition.
To be clear about this, Zen-On has the publishing rights to the Suzuki materials in Japan, and Summy-Birchard (now a division of Alfred Publishing) has the worldwide publishing rights outside Japan.
ISA by-laws, approved by Dr. Suzuki, state that there is to be only one international edition, and that revisions or new editions can be authorized only by the particular ISA instrument committee subject to ISA guidelines. There were now two editions of the Suzuki Violin School, which created the need to re-establish one international edition. As a result, the ISA Violin Committee was charged with reconciling the two editions and publishing a revised international edition.
The ISA Violin Committee is composed of five members, one representing each regional Suzuki association: SAA, European Suzuki Association (ESA), Asian Suzuki Association (ASA), Pan-Pacific Suzuki Association (PPSA) and TERI. Each regional association has one vote. All matters for discussion are decided by majority vote.
With the advent of the revision process, the SAA Violin Committee was reactivated with Louise Behrend as Chair, and members Ronda Cole, Lorraine Fink, Karen Kimmett and Sandy Reuning. As the Chair, Louise became the SAA Representative to the ISA Violin Committee.
The members of the ISA Violin Committee became Christophe Bossuat (ESA) as Chair, Kyung-Ik Hwang (ASA), Yasuki Nakamura (PPSA), Fumiyo Kuramochi (TERI) and Louise Behrend. Gilda Barston, then ISA Chair, was appointed the ISA Board liaison to the committee, and Paul Landefeld, ISA Executive Secretary, became an advisor to the committee. Both the liaison and the advisor are non-voting positions.
Discussions began in earnest on Book 1 in 2003. There were no changes to the repertoire in the revised Zen-On edition. Mainly the discussions were about the added/revised text, the study points and suggested exercises. There was also intense deliberation about the use of the left-hand fourth finger beginning with the “Twinkles” and subsequent early repertoire, with no open string alternative offered. The new edition also contained a glossary of musical terms, basic explanations of notation, finger charts and an illustration of the parts of the instrument.
It was decided that the international edition would carry only English, French, German and Spanish text as the Zen-On editions would continue to be sold in Japan. The translation of all the new material from the Japanese into the four other languages would prove to be daunting, as well as create problems in formatting. As we all know, Dr. Suzuki wrote in a particular style of Japanese, which is sometimes hard to understand even in its original version. The challenge was to retain the flavor of his writing while finding ways to express these important precepts in the various vernaculars. This work would continue right up to the eventual print deadline which stretched to the summer of 2007. There was also the issue of the photographs to be used to illustrate posture. One can imagine the ensuing difficulties in this endeavor as well. The main idea agreed upon was that the pictures should be of children rather than of a teacher, as in the new Zen-On edition.
In March 2004, a meeting was scheduled in England for the ISA committee to decide on issues concerning Books 2 and 3. Louise asked Allen Lieb if he would go in her stead to represent the SAA committee for this meeting. The SAA committee sprang into action to prepare for this meeting. Each member sent annotated versions of both books, which were collated to reflect the overall position of the committee.
There were major points of divergence in the repertoire between the revised Zen-On edition and the then-current international edition. Additionally, the Zen-On edition contained added exercises and text for harmonics, vibrato, scales and arpeggios, ornamentation, and the introduction of position studies. There was vigorous debate over every issue, tempered by the dedication of each ISA committee member to the uniqueness of the Suzuki pedagogy, its heritage and its future. The SAA committee’s preferences were sometimes the majority opinion, and sometimes not. Prof. Toyoda and the TERI committee felt strongly about their research that had culminated in the revised Zen-On edition, and also felt a deep sense of loyalty to the wishes of Dr. Suzuki and the confidence he had placed in Prof. Toyoda to lead this project.
At this meeting, William Preucil Jr. was selected as the recording artist for Books 1, 2 and 3. This recording was completed in March 2005. Repertoire questions left for further discussion after the London meeting were finalized during an ISA committee conference call just prior to the recordings. In the middle of this procedure, Summy-Birchard, as a division of Warner Music Group, was sold to Alfred Publishing. Luckily for us, the main representative of the publisher for the Suzuki materials, Judi Bagnato, retained her position with the company. We are very much indebted to her cooperation and advocacy during this entire process.
It was also about this same time that Louise Behrend asked to step down from the SAA committee. The committee reluctantly agreed but asked her to remain on as ex officio. She did so and is still an active consultant to the committee. Allen was appointed to be a full member of the committee and voted as Chair by the committee during the 2006 SAA Conference.
Following the recording session of March 2005, there was a lull in editing the volumes awaiting the text translations from Japan and from the publisher, now Alfred. During this period, there was discussion concerning the new recordings. Neither the ISA committee nor the artist had been completely happy with the process or the results. After meeting with the SAA Violin Committee at the 2006 Conference on this issue, Judi Bagnato was able to arrange for a re-recording of the books from the publisher. Extensive review was accorded to the tempi, articulations, etc., prior to this second recording session. The piano accompaniment parts were thoroughly vetted by the committee and compared to the newly re-revised Zen-On edition. Additionally, Alfred Publishing asked Doris Preucil to advise on the piano parts in light of her editing and recording the piano parts for the Suzuki Viola School. This second recording session was held in April 2007, and it is this recording that comprises the new CDs issued with the revised international edition.
The remaining editing of Books 1 and 2 took place by pdf files over the summer of 2007. Considering that the ISA committee must communicate across four continents, two hemispheres and many time zones, there was concern about the logistics of meeting the publisher’s deadline. And as a result, there are mistakes in Books 1 and 2, which were published during the fall of 2007. [Please note: There are no errors in the music of Book 1, only in some text. There are two errors in Book 2—Handel Bourree, measure 17, a slur is missing on beat 3; Boccherini Minuet, measure 7, the B should be a C#.] Both the ISA committee and the publisher want the best editions possible, and are working to make the corrections in the reprints of these volumes, projected for fall 2008. The text translations are undergoing a comprehensive review by the regional associations affiliated with each language, in cooperation with the publisher who supplied the original translations.
In October 2007, the ISA committee reconvened to edit Book 4, using Prof. Toyoda’s text about to be published by Zen-On. The ISA wanted both Book 4 versions to be consistent before being published by Zen-On or Alfred. The ISA committee accomplished this task. Book 4 has been published in Japan. A recording session for the Alfred edition will be held this April, and once edits are finalized by the ISA committee and the artists—William Preucil, with Linda Perry collaborating on piano—Book 4 will be printed by Alfred. The ISA committee voted to make no changes in the present repertoire of Book 4, but with the addition of the Bohm “Perpetual Motion”, which Dr. Suzuki had originally wanted to include but could not obtain copyright permission. There are several new fingering suggestions in the repertoire reflecting the earlier introduction of position work in Books 2 and 3. The committee decided to retain the Nachez edition of the Vivaldi Concerto for its pedagogical value.
We are pleased to report that during the London meeting, the ISA committee completely reformatted Books 1 and 2, and was then able to give a comprehensive final proof of Book 3 to the publisher prior to its publication. It is important to remember that the revisions are an on-going process, and discussion about these volumes will continue in subsequent ISA committee meetings.
Next up is Book 5. The SAA Violin Committee is in the process of preparing its proposal for this volume for the next ISA Violin Committee meeting to be held next fall. The ISA Board has directed that all regional associations bring their own proposal for this volume, and for each succeeding volume, without a previous model from TERI. Each regional association’s proposal will be examined on its own merits, and a consensus of the committee will determine the distillation of the best material to be included.
This continues to be an extremely exciting and productive process for our association and the Suzuki movement as a whole. This process examines important issues that go to the very core of our teaching philosophy, and so we are understandably sensitive about them. We have the tremendous advantage, however, of starting from a position of strength in our professionalism, and unity in our ideals and goals. Our first challenge is to incorporate the revised notes and bowings in the first three volumes. We all understand there may be some general confusion during this transitional phase, but students are often much more resilient is these situations than we adults. Like many “previews” in the repertoire, this will take a little extra patience, practice and review. To this end, the SAA Violin Committee will lead a general meeting at the SAA Conference this May with all interested teachers to discuss these new developments in detail.
The SAA has literally thousands of teachers across two continents who function as a coherent group and actually like each other! We have had issues in our past that led to acrimony and tension. We realized that we did not function well as an association under these conditions, and that any successful process needs time, thought, inclusion and re-evaluation—in essence, the same qualities that inform all good teaching. The Kreisler Highway can have many lanes, and take us in many directions. What better tribute can we pay to Dr. Suzuki’s legacy than to continue his pursuit of excellence in all aspects of our teaching, including the repertoire, and to honor his spirit of constantly seeking the better way for students and parents around the world.
Respectfully submitted, March 2008
SAA Violin Committee
Allen Lieb, Chair
Ronda Cole
Lorraine Fink
Karen Kimmett
Sandy Reuning
Louise Behrend, ex officio