JAVS Summer 2011

Current Substitutions Current substitutions include the use of either cellos or violas—and the occasional performance without the viola da gamba parts at all, in favor of Martin Geck’s conjecture of a preceding trio sonata version. 32 Performances with cello or viola replacements are in two general categories: with one player to each viola da gamba part or multiple players with distinctions between tutti and solo sections. In addition, there are massed viola performances, most notably at international viola congresses, which Riley neatly phrased as intending to demonstrate the “sheer joy and love for the music,” rather than to make a statement as to the application or flexibility of the instrumentation. 33 As discussed earlier, the application of generic mixing demonstrates how Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 moves from concertino to ripieno and back again. A large proportion of the work does exist as a concertino work, and complications arise when instruments identical to the solo instruments are substituted for the violas da gamba, since it interrupts the tonal distinction. One could argue that this takes away from the contrast of timbre inherent in the genre of the concerto, 34 particularly considering the sparse instrumentation in this instance. Substituting cellos for the gambas avoids the problem of pitches below the range of violas but creates the issue of having a viola da gamba part played with uncharacteristic projection, leading to the hazard of interrupting both the solo violas and solo cello. Between the cello and the viola there is historical evidence to support that the latter would have been a more suitable substitute. Riley notes that in the seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries, the first viola solos were adapted from works written for viola da gamba. 35 More specifically to the sixth concerto, in discussing Geck’s observations on revisions for the viola da gamba parts, Marissen suggests that a pattern emerges pointing toward an original scoring for four violas. 36 He further notes that the action of shifting the clef could be to “heighten visually the distinction” 37 between the da braccio and da gamba instruments—particularly relevant in Marissen’s theory of a reversal of roles between the instruments. If a change in clefs could signify a visual distinction, then a tonal one would be just as likely, if not more so. The scoring seems to point in this direction as well, at least that of the first movement. The earlier example of the single solo Viola I line (see m. 42 in ex. 2) has a five-part accompaniment split into two: a subgroup of the second viola with the violas da gamba and a subgroup of the cello with the basso continuo. The further exploitation of the theme first introduced in the five part fugue has the top four lines grouped together with the cello emerging at the end in response to this group of four (ex. 5).

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