JAVS Fall 2008

tures. Matthew gave great advice and suggested that performers need to “minimize the effort and maximize the efficiency of body movements.” The International Viola Society held a general meeting at 10:00 a.m., followed at Noon by a lecture on viola music at the Spanish Royal Chapel by Luis Magín Muñiz. His lecture focused on a dozen manu scripts—primarily dating from 1778-1807—that he has been researching. Most of the works were written as sight-reading pieces for musicians auditioning for the Spanish Royal Orchestra (for more details see Ulrich Drüner’s article, “A Rule for Probation-playing from 1801” in the 1979 issue of Die Viola ). Muñiz played recordings of selected works and ended the lec ture by performing a few contem porary Spanish compositions. Audience members were eager to get their hands on some of the works from the Royal Chapel, but Muñiz said that the manuscripts were “held under lock and key” and the music was not likely to be available anytime soon. joint recital at 1:00 p.m., per forming solo works and several duos written expressly for them. Slapin began the recital with a transcription of the Adagio and Fugue from Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin. This was a simply stunning interpretation, and I was amazed at how still he remained while performing! Tanya next showed her considerable viola prowess in a performance of a Husband-and-wife duo Scott Slapin and Tanya Solomon gave a

Bruce E. Miller and Kenji Bunch.

The 2:00 p.m. offering, Michael Alec Rose's and Kathryn Plummer's lecture-recital on the viola and Jewishness, was a delight! Rose spoke animatedly and elo quently about what constitutes Jewish music in viola repertoire by Mendelssohn and Bloch. He made daring comments on the “sup posed” Jewish qualities in Bloch’s Suite Hébraïque . He argued that while the piece contains minor sec onds, Phrygian cadences, double leading tones, and other seemingly Jewish traits, other factors work against such Jewish qualities of the music. These include the rhapsodic nature of the first movement (undermining the simple nature of Jewish song), the developmental nature of the theme, and the ironic centrality of Wagner's "Tristan" chord to Bloch's harmonic lan guage. The two concluded the recital with movements from Rose's first and second sonatas for viola and piano, which contained

work by her husband, Three Short Pieces . The two joined forces for Patrick Neher’s Canons and Dances , a beautiful, lyrical work. Scott returned solo for move ments I and II of Frank Proto’s Soundscape No. 1 for Solo Viola . He managed to recover from a broken string during an excited pizzicato passage. Before leaving the stage to replace it he remarked that he was not accustomed to performing in such a large hall and mentioned to his wife that they would need to play a little louder than usual, but that he had perhaps gotten carried away! The duo returned again for A Day in Acadia by David Rimelis, which featured musical sounds from Louisiana (the two lived in New Orleans before being displaced by Hurricane Katrina). It was obvi ous that the two perform together extensively since their sounds meshed so well when playing as a duo.

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