JAVS Spring 2010

Example 3a–3c. Telemann, Viola Concerto, movt. III cadenza (mm. 25–27). Three versions.

Accordingly, select your favorite motifs or riffs. I would recom mend starting your first movement cadenza with one of the D-major themes before moving to anything in A major, as that is the key you’ll be ending on to bring the orches tra back in. There is a lot of choice here, but don’t feel that you have to include every form of arpeggio or double-stopped riff. You can use devices such as fragments of coun terpoint, broken octaves, infill of themes (as in the third movement of the Telemann) and different sorts of occasional double-stopping if wished. In addition, I would remind you of the value of silence. It can be a very effective rhetorical

device (questioning or exclamato ry), or useful if you cannot think of how to get elegantly from one key to another! You could perhaps quote the first four bars and use them as a spring board to diverge briefly into a related minor key, B minor being the most obvious. Or you might feel you would like to start with the second eight bars of the first statement (i.e., bar nine of the first solo entry). In this case, you could take a different direction when you come to the arpeggios, by varying the notes to form a little fantasia with which to segue into the A major theme. Allow your imagina

Regarding the Stamitz concerto, there are many ways to approach composing one’s own cadenza. Indeed, I believe there are many versions already published, includ ing one by my colleague Mark Knight (published by “Strings Attached Ltd.”). The concerto’s style is inherently virtuosic, particu larly in the first movement, which implies that the cadenza should be similarly virtuosic (if not more so). Whatever you write, make sure that it is well within your capabili ties! It makes sense to exploit your strong points since the target of this exercise is to tailor your caden za to show your playing capabilities in the best possible light.

J OURNAL OF THE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETY 62