Fantasia Concertante String Quartet 1 @ Amazon.com
|
Viola Jokes don’t admonish us from filling in the harmonies and living a quiet life in the orchestra pit “Why is a viola better than a violin?” “The viola burns longer.” Ba-Du-Bum! As a viola player myself I’ve heard hundreds of viola jokes and have earned the right to retell them ad nauseum. This violist ain’t touchy in regards to viola jokes and I’ll even squirt milk out my nose when told a specially nasty one I haven’t heard yet. What I find more discouraging and hindering than viola jokes is how a great deal of people don’t even recognise what the viola is! It’s bad sufficient to be ridiculed, but far worse when no one knows you exist! When prodded with the violin vs. violin joke opener, my inner music geek is compelled to ramble the viola gospel. “The Viola is the ‘Alto’ voice of the violin family, consequently is tuned a perfective fifth beneath violin.” Blank stares await the real punch line. I need to get out more. In truth the viola is much like a violin, so much so that a great deal of symphony goers merely think they’re just more violins. Visually the technique is identical to violin playing: kept at the left shoulder and bowed up and down, but with more wide movements as the viola is more or less more prominent than a violin. A larger instrument allows for a longer string length and increased body /sound chamber to grant the low notes to reverberate properly. Simply put, the viola is like a somewhat more prominent violin who’s high E-string was substituted by a low C-string on the low end. This is beauteous much all that separates violin from the viola. For violists size actually does matter. So what, it’s a bigger, lower pitched fiddle? Why the ridicule?
“So Violinists may do not forget them.” The viola is like the quiet middle child: ignored by it is parents and overshadowed by it is other, more active and successful siblings. A fate worse than “playing second fiddle,” viola’s role in a symphony or string quartet is to provide middle harmonies (aka, the leftover scraps of chords no one else wants to play) and seldom plays the melody, or tune. “How do you get a violin to sound like a viola?” “Sit in the back and don’t play.” Even visually the viola is neglected. We may scarcely see them on stage tucked among second violins and cellos and facing their instruments away from the audience. They get less air-time than primary violins and cellos and spend the most time taking breaks from play than any other division of the strings. This leads to the solo issue. There is not much solo repertoire written for viola, which has long been viewed as the “strong, silent type.” The lack of repertoire is most likely due to it is mellow, deep tone, which, being less bright and projecting less than the violin, was believed by composers of the day to be less suitable to virtuoso display. Hence the viola is seldom showcased and has to resort largely to adaptations of violin and cello repertoire to get any attention. “How do you get a violin to sound like a viola?” “Play in the low register with a lot of wrong notes.” A gap amidst viola and frequent acceptance amongst musicians is the alto clef. Viola is beauteous much the only instrument to use the alto clef and only violists may read the darn thing, so it keeps some musicians from picking one up and learning to play. It’s like the notes are written in a code no one else wants to learn to decipher. More tragically (and poetically), violists are like a dying out race whose language is dying with them. [Cue melancholy violin solo rewritten for viola] “What is the divergence amongst a violist and a savings bond?” “Eventually the bond will mature and earn money.” No matter how bleak the plight of the violist may be, the viola is still an sheer requirement in orchestral and string ensemble playing. You can’t play a symphony without the viola section. Oh sure, you may draft some third violinists to play the part, but they can’t play the low notes and get that throaty viola tone. This is where chance knocks and gives the meek violist an awful vantage over violinists. “What do you call a Viola player with half a brain?” “Gifted.” Simply put, it’s a matter of supply and demand. There are gobs of violin players in the world and a startling shortage of violists. For example, in ten years of instructing over a hundred violin students I’ve only worked with three viola students. You don’t have to be a PhD to figure out the best way to get accepted into a music school or conservatory is to know how to play viola and read the alto clef. “What’s another name for viola auditions?” “Scratch lottery.” Picture this: There are 25 violin spaces and 5 viola spaces available in a introductory year music program. 300 violinists and 2 violists have applied. Do the math and you may pretty much guarantee those 2 violists will make it in without much fuss from admissions staff. “Violinists are a dime a dozen” turns into, “Invite two more viola playing friends and save up to 50% off your tuition! Call now!” The same speaks for scholarships available to violists only. They’re rare, but they do exist. “Classified Ads: Established string quartet seeking two violinists and a cellist.” Carry this conception forward to getting a position in a group. I had the privilege of playing at the BC Provincial music festival because a string quartet was short a viola player. I’m sure I never would have made it into the group as a violinist as the players were beyond my level, but I was the only gal around who could read that pesky alto clef! Symphony auditions don’t even seem as rigid for violists. “You play viola? You may sit here,” was beauteous much the response I received when inquiring with the Kamloops Symphony. I joined the vast viola division of two other violists for one concert and managed my way into the original violin section where I stayed content for the rest of the season. It is very apparent that there is far less contest involved and violists do have an edge. “Did you listen regarding the violist who played in tune?” “Neither did I.” I don’t intend to infer that as a violist you may get away with being a mediocre player. Far from it; you will have to have a command of the instrument which is both strong and sensible at the same time. You must likewise have a feel for the instrument, which as legendary violist and conductor of Canada’s National Arts Council Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman, explained to me in an interview. “The bow application is dissimilar on the viola,” he said. “A more or less slower bow application is used on the viola because it’s heavier and requiring little effort to control.” Zukerman also said, “Hearing the sonority of the instrument made me want to play the viola.” And this is where a heap of players are attracted to the viola. That wonderful, low C-string that reverberates in your bones. “Why do Violinists switch to Viola?” “So they may park in handicapped spaces.” I loved the viola before I even knew what it was. It was in my second year of violin when I purchased the score to my favourite piece of music, Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 by J. S. Bach. Imagine my disappointment when I saw the solo elements written in a strange, alien clef. My school orchestra conductor kindly loaned me a viola and I learned the clef over the weekend so I could scratch out even the slightest bit of the music. I was hooked on viola from then on. I’ve since worked to convince a good deal of of my violin students to switch to viola, citing the numerous fantasti chances cited above. It’s got to be done! Viola players are just hard to come by otherwise. In my years instructing only one viola student learned viola before violin, the rest were violin transplants. This unforeseen anomaly is perchance the only case of a violist who took up violin later. “What do you call somebody who hangs around musicians a lot?” “A Viola player.” Who knows their reasons behind playing viola, but a lot of amazing and well-respected musicians have played the viola over the centuries including J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schubert and violin virtuoso Paganini. Czech composer Dvorák considered getting a professional violist but rather pursued composition where he wrote pieces which gave the viola a far more active role. Some composers even preferent viola over violin, such as Mozart who was said to have performed the Principal Viola solo at the premiere of his then ground-breaking “Sinfonia Concertante.” And a heap of greats had their musical commence on the viola. Jimi Hendrix, perhaps the 20th century’s finest and most modern rock- started his musical career at an early age on the viola! “Why did the violist marry the guitarist?” “Upward mobility.” Okay, so smashing a flaming Fender is way cooler than playing the viola. Heck, you may loose a teeny bit of sex appeal and overall charisma when you take up viola. “Why is the violin littler than the viola?” “It’s an optical illusion. They’re in truth the same size and appear littler because the violinist’s heads are so much larger.” In the end, it’s not genuinely the life of glamour and fame enjoyed by violinists. As the showy violinists clambour for a probability in the limelight, the humbled violists abandon any delusions of glory and accepts their fate with a healthful mix of zen detachment and humiliation. Ahh, but inside each viola player is a daring rebel. An person who has broken away from the establishment. You see them slogging away in the bowels of the orchestra, playing their distinctive middle harmonies with knowing grins on their smug faces. “We’re perfectly necessary and we know it.” Let the violists have the last laugh. Most helpful customer reviews 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. |
Great performances of some mostly great music