JAVS Summer 2026

As demonstrated throughout this article, the pedagogical works of Bezrukov and Oznobishchev appear to constitute a substantial technical resource for viola students, teachers, and professional performers. 26 Soviet fingerings and bowings may initially seem unfamiliar to Western players, as they emerge from a distinct aesthetic. The methods of Bezrukov and Oznobishchev, as well as those of the other pedagogues discussed above, offer insight into the aesthetics underlying Soviet performance practice and therefore serve as valuable supplements for the study of Soviet and Russian repertoire. They familiarize players with Soviet approaches to fingerboard use, articulation patterns, and bow distribution. In the common situation where little interpretive guidance is provided in solo, orchestral, or chamber music parts, these methods may help violists develop stylistically informed fingerings and bowings. Such an informed approach may then lead to further exploration of how Soviet fingerings and bowings shaped phrasing, dynamic range, intensity, and other expressive dimensions of performance. If a student or performer finds this approach detrimental to intonation, vibrato, or the maintenance of resonance—particularly in acoustically challenging environments—adaptation to more familiar technical patterns may be necessary. Even then, such adaptation may still reflect a different understanding of the musical (con)text. This final pedagogical installment brings the series on original Soviet viola compositions to a close. It has aimed to introduce another important dimension to the narrative of the Soviet viola and, in doing so, to present a more comprehensive— tselostnyy (to use Soviet terminology common in music analysis—outline of the viola in the USSR. I would like to thank the American Viola Society, the International Viola Society, JAVS and its editor, Dr. Christina Ebersohl-Van Scyoc, as well as Professors Heidi Castleman and Jodi Levitz, for encouraging, supervising, and supporting this decade long research. I would also like to thank you, the reader of this series, for your interest in Soviet music and, through that interest, for participating in the effort to preserve and recover music from bitter epochs.

The topics explored throughout this series represent only the beginning of a broader field of potential inquiry, including musicological, organological, theoretical, and pedagogical perspectives. At a time when war continues to threaten the future of the arts and humanities, this research calls for curiosity, a critical engagement with history, and compassion toward those whose contributions have been unjustly forgotten. Footnotes: 1 See Nethanel E. Pollak, “The Viola Behind the Iron Curtain: A Survey of Original Viola Works from the Soviet Era,” (DMA diss., University of Miami, 2024). 2 Pollak, 2024: 60-61. 3 Maya Pritzker, “The Music Education System in the USSR,” The American Music Teacher 41, no.1 (August 1991), 19-20, 52. 4 Stanislav Poniatovsky, Istoriya al’tovogo iskusstva (History of Viola Artistry ), (Moscow: Muzyka, 2007), 267-269. 5 See bibliography for a list of primary sources. 8 Boris Sibor, preface to Elementary School for Viola by M. Reitikh, ed. Boris Sibor (Baku, AzSSR: Azmuzgiz, 1940), 3. 9 Poniatovsky, 284. 10 Nikolai Teran, “Uchebno-Metodichiskaya Literatura kak Sredstvo Obycheniya Al’tista na Nachal’nam Etape [Pedagogical-Methodical Literature as a Learning Device for Violists in Early Stages],” Uchyonie Zapiski [Scientific Notes] no.1 (2021), 53. See Pt. I of this series for more history on Alexandr Ryvkin and his contribution to the Leningrad viola community. 11 Pollak 2024, 50. 12 Teran, 54. 13 Teran, 54. 14 See Appendix A in Pollak 2024, for a full list of Soviet pedagogical publications. 6 Poniatovsky, 284. 7 Poniatovsky, 284.

15 Teran, 54-55. 16 Teran, 54-55. 17 Drawn from Pollak 2024, Appendix A.

19 Poniatovsky, 283; “Orchestral String Instruments,” Gnessin Academy of Music website, https://gnessinka. ru/low/uchashchimsya/uchebnye-podrazdeleniya/ otdeleniya-i-spetsialnosti/strunnye-orkestrovye instrumenty/.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 42, Summer 2026 Online Issue