The purpose of this project is to bring Kim’s caprices into the mainstream violin literature through a three-prong approach by examining each caprice via musical analysis, technical analysis, and by investigating its pedagogical merit. After inspecting each caprice through three different lenses mentioned above, the paper will organize the twelve caprices around a tripartite structure; serial, atonal, and free tonal.
The work opens with a six-measure Motto. While the relationship between the Motto and the rest of the work is not immediately clear, thorough musical and formal analysis will provide insight into the work’s cohesion.
This project will also examine pedagogically what specific technical challenges lay in selected caprices and how to solve thorny problems. The caprices are truly innovative in a sense that they present opportunities to understand non-tonal polyphonic writing on what is supposed to be a monophonic instrument while expanding the tradition of the Violin Caprice
