JAVS Fall 1991

7

Maurice Vieux's Vingt Etudes

by LeeAnn J. Morgan

MAURICE VIEUX has been called "the father of the modern French Viola School". He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Laforge where he won first prize in viola in 1902. For many \. years he was the Principal Violist of the Paris Opera Orchestra. Vieux was appointed head of the viola department at the Conservatoire in 1918 after the death of Laforge. In this position Vieux was influential in setting a high standard of viola performance. Many outstanding French violists were his students, including Francois Broos, Marie..Therese Chailley, Etienne Ginot, Colette Lequien, Alice Merkel, Leon Pascal, Pierre Pasquier and Serge Collot. In a 1928 article Vieux emphasizes the need for violists of the 20th century to develop a technique comparable to that required for contemporary violinists. He served annually on the juries at the Paris Conservatoire, and frequently as a guest on the juries at the Brussels Conservatoire. He was frequently a soloist in the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire and also took part in many prestigious chamber music performances. As a soloist he premiered many viola compositions of contemporary French composers, and all of the viola solo literature composed and dedicated to him by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. Among the didactic works Vieux composed for the viola, the following are particularly significant: Vingt Etudes (dedicated to his best students) and Dix Etudes sur des traits d'orchestre (Publisher Leduc), both for the advanced player. Vieux had a great influence on Joseph Jongen and inspired Jongen to write the following works: Trio for Violin, Viola, and Piano in F# Minor, Op. 30, (1907); Suite in 0 Major for Viola and ()rchestra, Op. 48, (1928); Allegro Appassionato in 0 Minor for Viola and Piano, Op. 79, (1926); and Introduction and Dance for Viola and Piano, Op. 102, (1935). The Primrose International Viola Archive at Brigham Young University has all of the ctudes of Maurice Vieux with the exception of the Dix Neuen Etuden. The BYU Library call number for the Vingt Etudes is: PlVA .. Call No. quarto MT 285 .V54 V65X.

Twenty Etudes (Vingt Etudes pour Alto)

No.1 Dedication:

Jean Gay, Prix d'Excellence du Conservatoire (1919), Professeur au Conservatoire de Lyon

Possible Approaches

Technical Aspects

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·double stops.. mainly sixths

·practice as broken Appendix

chords (see A,#l)

·practice timed bows, take the longest bow possible while still maintaining a good tone.

• three and four note chords sustained followed by a run

·fingered harmonics

• know which notes produce what harmonics rule: P4 = 2 octaves above stopped note P5 = 1 octave