Paul Rolland,

né A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Pali Reisman (November 21, 1911, Budapest – November 9, 1978, Illinois),Fanelli, Michael P. (2001) ''Paul Rolland: His teaching career and contributions to string pedagogy and education.'' (Doctoral Dissertation) Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (UMI No. 3017071) was a violinist and an influential American

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

teacher who concentrated on the

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

of teaching fundamentals to beginning string students and on remedial techniques for string players of any level. He was famous for emphasizing that the physical demands of most violin techniques can be taught ("in embryonic form") in the first two years of violin education. He advocated that teachers learn and teach freedom of movement and use clear, specific and concise instructions when teaching. His approach to pedagogy was extremely analytical, and his teaching approach was highly systematic and logical. His wife, Clara Rolland, said of his work "Every possible movement in string playing was analyzed.... Different methods do indeed exist, but none more fundamental.... Paul never harmed anyone's playing. He helped a person through certain body movements and the knowledge of what those body movements meant physically, in the scientific way of playing the violin." ite

Education and teaching career

Paul Rolland's early childhood was spent on a farm in Paloc, Hungary where he was fascinated with the free and natural playing of gypsy musicians who travelled through the area. He was otherwise surrounded by music; his mother, aunt, and older sister were pianists. After the death of his father in 1918, the family moved to Budapest where his mother played piano in silent films to support the family. He did not receive formal violin training until age 11, this instruction being based on the German-Hungarian school of playing founded by Hubay. Later instruction was in the pedagogically progressive Hungarian school of violin playing that utilized kinesthetics, one of those proponents being Carl Flesch. From ages 18–23, he studied with Dezső Rados whose emphasis was on large free movements and who overhauled Rolland's playing. From ages 23–27, Rolland studied at the Franz Liszt Academy with Imre Waldbauer whose pedagogy was based on movement led by the larger limbs. Waldbauer was biomechanically analytical, very cerebral, a user of words, and taught by description rather than by example. He likened playing to other physical activities li