The Viola

From DIMA

Author: Marius Suărăşan

The viola is a musical instrument with strings, usually played with a bow. The modern viola uses four strings, pitched in perfect fifths. The viola is the second member of the violin family, having a deeper sound than the violin and more sharp that the cello. In Romanian language are known also other terms for the viola, used especially when talking about the instrument adapted for the necessities of folk music. Mainly in Transylvania, the viola is called braci or brace (compared to Bratsche, the German term for the viola; both have their origin in the name of a very fashionable instrument in the 17-18^th centuries, called viola da braccio).

History of viola

The instrument called nowadays viola belongs to the family of the violin, together with the cello and the double bass. This family of instruments traces its roots in 16^th century Italy. At the time the already existed several instruments with strings and bow. Both the viola and the cello are placed in the class of the da gamba violins, which were divided in two: da braccio and da punta, according to the position in which they were played.

The quartet of violas was composed of:

1. viola di soprano o violetta
2. viola tenore - (1, 2, 3 = viole da braccio)
3. alto
4. basso di viola – viola da gamba

The pitch of the six strings of these instruments at the beginning of the 16^th century was the following, according to Pietro Canal (the abbot) in his work "Della musica in Mantova", Venezia , 1881 (ex. 1).

Basso di viola had seven strings and at the beginning of the 17^th century there appeared "controbasso di viola" or violone, pitched at a fourth beneath the "basso di viola" (ex. 2).

th-17th centuries

The beginning of the 16^th century marks the appearance of a new family of string instruments. The cultivated music of the era was mainly vocal, the already existing instruments being used for accompaniment or to double the human voice. The emergence of the instruments of the violin family (approx. 1530) marks a turning point in instrumental music.

In the 17^th century the violas were used in large number in ensembles – in an ensemble of four sections, two were of viola and in one of five sections three were of viola – so that there were built many instruments by renowned luthiers such as the Amati, da Salo, Maggini, Stradivari families. The great variety of viola sizes derives from the fact that they were used both for the alto register and for the tenor one. Some of the instruments remaining from the 16^th-27^th centuries are so large that they can barely be played on.

The 18th century

Starting with the 18^th century, the violin becomes the string instrument preferred by the composers, while the number of violas requested in an orchestra drops, being grouped in a single section. The main role of the viola was to fill the middle part of the harmony or even to double the bass. Given the fact that it was no longer necessary for the violin to cover a large range, the instruments of medium size began to be preferred.

The 19th-20th centuries

The development of the bow, after the Tourte model at the end of the 18^th century, led to alterations in the manufacturing of the string instruments, at the beginning of the 19^th century. These improvements referred to increasing the tension on the strings, the increase of the sound volume and finding new ways to simplify the technique of the left hand.

Following many experiments and researches, in 1937 Lionel Tertis begins to collaborate with the luthier Arthur Richardson, in order to create a new type of viola which would combine a pleasant, powerful and deep sound with a structure that would allow for an easy handling. Their attempts were successful, and the new type of viola was called Tertis, being for the first time used in a concert in 1939, afterwards being manufactured by luthiers all over the world.

Repertory for viola

Until 1750

Before 1750 the viola was rarely used as a soloist instrument, being generally kept between the limits of accompaniment. The majority of the works written before 1750 which the violinists play in the present time are transcriptions or arrangements which were originally written for violin, cello, viola da gamba, viola d’amore or other instruments.

Between 1750 – 1800

After 1750 the viola began to be employed also as a soloist instrument. Teleman, C. Stamitz and Mozart are among the first composers who wrote concertos for viola. Beginning with Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven the role of the viola changed also in chamber music, a fact reflected in the large number of quartets, quintets, trios and duos. The role of the violinist as an individual instrumentalist, as well as his responsibility within the ensemble grows in importance, even if he maintains the middle harmony and therefore accompanies the others the first composers of string quartets, such as Haydn, began to acknowledge the necessity to enrich the middle lines of the ensemble, namely the violin II and the viola. Accordingly, they introduce in the parts for the viola thematic motifs, fragments of obligato or accompaniments featuring virtuosity.

In the chamber music written by Mozart and Beethoven in their maturity years, especially in the string quartets, it is noticeable a balance in the importance conferred to each instrument and therefore an obvious progress in the technique of the viola. Beethoven also asks both technical features of the viola and a wide timbral, colour and expressive variety.

Mozart was among the few composers of his age who dared to write a piece in which the viola was given a solo part. In the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (KV 364, 1779) he treats the violin and viola as equal partners, offering them scores of the same degree of difficulty.

After 1800

After Beethoven, composers such as Berlioz, Brahms, Verdi and Tschaikovsky compelled the strings instrumentalists to master an increasingly more performant technique in order to perform their works. The composers of the 19^th century began to appreciate the potential of the viola as regards the tone, colour and specific sonority.

Still, the composers of the 19^th century tended to limit the interest for the viola to the area of chamber music, where this instrument seems to find its proper place. Of the numerous chamber combinations, the string quartet is undoubtedly the most balanced version, a fact residing in the numerous pieces written by the composers in this type of formation. Within this field, due to composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Shostakovitch, Prokofiev etc., the viola becomes an essential instrument, whose valences are fully valorized and whose personality is no longer ignored.

During the 20^th century the compositions which include the presence of the viola as a solo instrument became increasingly frequent, to a large extent given the emergence in the musical life of remarkable viola players: Lionel Tertis, Wiliam Primrose and Paul Hindemith. These performers encouraged and inspired several composers such as: Walton, Forsyth, Bartok to write even concertos for viola and orchestra.

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra KV 364

W. A. Mozart and the crystallization of the instrumental concerto

The concerto style and the genre of the concert developed especially during the last centuries, given to objective and subjective factors. The development of the musical science and the improvement of the instruments, the appearance of new ones, created the foundations necessary to outline the genre. Although the 17^th and 18^th centuries represented the period of affirmation of the genre, we must specify that certain particular characteristics can be traced even earlier. In the moment when one instrument or another is able to render in optimum circumstances (regarding the expression and technical qualities) a melody, and the rest of the instruments accompaniy it, the objective material basis for the development of the genre is created. As subjective elements we underline, in the first place, the wish of affirmation of the soloists, their efforts to enrich the ways of expression.

The term concert derives from the Latin concertare, with the meaning of "participating in a competition," or from Italian, where concerto signifies "harmony, understanding". An accessible and extremely appreciated genre by the music lovers, the concert for soloist with orchestral accompaniment conveys a much easier to grasp content, and on the other hand it allows the display of expressive and technical features of the performers.

The major contribution brought by Mozart is that he outlined the succession of three movements on the ground of contrast between the parts, andante-lento-andante, and he fixed the structures according to a plan already present in the chamber and orchestral works of Joseph Haydn: part I – sonata form; part II – lied form, sonata without development or theme with variations’ part III – rondo, rondo-sonata, sonata form or theme with variations.

Furthermore, adapting the sonata form to the expressive necessitied of the concerto according to the component soloist-ensemble determined Mozart to bring about some alterations. Among these, essential is the double exposition, of the orchestra and of the soloist. The purpose had in view was to familiarize the audience with the themes and athmosphere of the first section of the concert and this way the soloist had time to accommodate with the stage, the audience, to enter in the athmosphere of the work, and then he could pass on to the presentation of the second exposition, actually the beginning of the sonata form proper.

W. A. Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in Eflat Major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, KV 364

Sinfonia concertante for Violin and Viola KV 364 in E-flat Major is one of Mozart’s masterpieces. Composed probably in the summer of 1779 in Salzburg, the piece is formed of the following parts: I Allegro maestoso in E-flat Major, II – Andante in C Minor and III – Presto in E-flat Major. The parts for the two solo instruments, the violin and the viola, denote not only the mastery of the technique of these instruments, but also the art and skillfulness with which the composer builds the formulas of the three movements diversified in their expression: vitality (part I), melancholy (part II), joyful vivacity of counter-dance (part III). The orchestra composed of string sextet, two oboes, two horns, contributes with phantasy in the dialogue or echoes he two solo instruments.

BÉLA BARTÓK: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra

The context of elaborating the Concerto for Viola

Following a journey to the US, Bartok decided to leave Hungary and on 8 October 1940 played his last concert in Budapest. He moved to New York, as researcher at Columbia University, where he held several conferences, although his material situation was very modest.

He experienced adaptation problems and found it difficult to compose given the fact that he was almost unknown, and the public interest in his music was very low. In order to survice, Bartok and his wife held concerts, but their financial situation was precarious. He played in a few concerts with the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. At the same time, he transcribed for orchestra his concert op. 110. His heath was to become ever more precarious; he suffered from leukemia.

The String Quartet no. 6 would have been his last composition if it hadn’t been for Serge Koussevitsky who, at the request of the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the conductor Fritz Reiner, commission in 1943 a piece for the Boston symphonic orchestra, the Concerto for Orchestra, first performed in 1944. The work became well known, and his financial situation improved. Yehudi Menuhin also commissions him to write a piece, and Bartok composes the Sonata for Solo Violin op. 117.

On 22 January 1945, the English violinist William Primrose sends the maestro a letter, asking him to write a concert for viola and orchestra. Bartok enjoyed the idea and on 27 January 1945 he asked his publisher the score of the symphonic poem Harold in Italy by Berlioz, intending to use it as a model for the future work. The piece was written in three stages: the first of Tibor Serly (1950), followed by the one of Paul Bartok, Paul Neubauer and Nelson Dellamaggiore (1995), and the last one of Csaba Erdelyi. In a letter written to Primrose, Bartok mentioned his intention to add a fourth part to the concert.

From a stylistic point of view, the Concerto for Viola, on a Romanian folk theme from Bihor, resembles the Concerto No. 3 written for piano during the same period, differing from the first two ones due to its neoclassic character.

Analysis

The first part of the 20^th century brings in the area of the concert a trend towards colour and dynamics, intertwined with interesting elements of virtuosity, to which are added the new tendencies of the Viennese serial school, turned concrete in the concerts of Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, and also in the powerful influence of the national schools (Grieg, Tschaikovsky, Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Khachaturian, Hindemith, Bartók etc.). There is also to be taken into account the influence of jazz music on symphonic music and especially on the genre of the instrumental concert, with pieces which entered and remained in the repertory of the great soloists, such as the works by Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Bartók, Hindemith, Britten, Gershwin, Copland etc.

Two of the most important concerts for viola of the fisrt part of the 20^th century, representing two different directions in the tendencies of musical neoclassicism, and respectively of neomodalism, are the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra ’Der Schwanendreher’ by P. Hindemith and the Concerto for Viola and Orchestra by Bartok.