JAVS Fall 1996

15

VIOLA PEDAGOGY

by Laura Kuennen-Poper

S everal colleagues and I recently had the unlikely privilege of performing the United States premiere of a new work by Mozart yes, that Mozart-a recently discovered man uscript from the British Museum of a piano quartet believed to be Mozart's own transcrip tion of the Quintet in E-flat for piano and winds, K. 452. Few people upon hearing the term new music would think ofMozart. Nonetheless, in simplest terms, new music includes any work one has never before played, taught, or heard. By this definition, almost anything can be considered new music. Curiously, some violists who would not think twice about preparing a "new" work by Bach or Mozart would balk at the thought of preparing a new work by a living composer. Actually, preparing and presenting a "new" older piece is much the same as learn ing a composition so new its ink is barely dry. After performing a new work, I have often been approached by colleagues with a varia tion of the question "How did you learn to play that piece?" My usual response is along the lines of "It's nothing you can't do your self-just notes on paper," and we all laugh. Yet many musicians continue to view new music as an insurmountable challenge. Why? Some violists tend to teach only works they have studied with their mentors. Others, because of time constraints or fear engen dered by unfamiliarity, are hesitant to add contemporary works to their repertoires. As this pattern has spread across musical gen erations, it has created a small gulf between contemporary composers and performers, which has in turn created an even larger gulf between those composers and the listening Perpetuated Obstacles

public. The ultimate result is a paucity of per formances of works written in more recent decades. Concerns about how well a new work will be received by audiences and critics often prevent violists from programming contem porary pieces. Similarly, some teachers avoid newer repertoire because they feel they can not teach pieces they do not know intimately or because they believe students with limited study time must concentrate on learning established repertoire. This avoidance tends to doom performers, audiences, and auditioning committees to an unending cycle of "the big three" concerti (Walton, Hindemith, and Bartok), sonatas of the Romantic era, an occasional suite by Bach, Bloch, or Reger, and an additional sprinkling of Hindemith. Not to disparage these com positions-for they are beloved by many and have endured the test of time-but perhaps it is time to break the cycle and confer the imprimatur of "major repertoire" on a host of newer masterpieces. What follows are suggestions for the per former or teacher who wishes to approach new pieces but is not sure how or where to begin. Start by committing yourself to learn a piece written for the viola within the last thirty years-no transcriptions allowed. You may wish to start with some etudes. Lillian Fuchs's Sixteen Fantasy Etudes or Nancy Van de Yare's Six Studies for Viola are good candi dates. In addition, Paolo Centurioni's La Viola can be helpful in preparing violists for nontonal literature; the studies in his book demand that the player view the fingerboard Preparation: Taking the First Steps