A Tune a Day

Abstract

A Tune a Day, by C. Paul Herfurth. This is a first book for violin instruction. It is published by the author, who is Director of Instrumental Music in East Orange, New Jersey, and it was evidently written for use in his own excellent work there. The title might mislead the reader slightly, for the material is not all "tunes," nor is the beginning material given musical character by the provision of a teacher's violin part or piano accompaniment. Instead, the first exercises are plain and unadorned open-string bowings. Nevertheless musical quality soon appears-first by means of open-string rhythms that bear the title and follow the metre of familiar verse, such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," and as soon as possible by the use of familiar tunes as exercises. Selection and gradation of material, from a technical standpoint, are admirable. Nor does the technical material, notwithstanding it dispenses with the musical enrichments now so generally sought, appear unlovely and formidable. Partly this is because the author evidently knows children and gauges accurately their interests and