JAVS Fall 2005

RITTER's \{roLA ALTA: THE VIOLA'S NINETEENl'r-f CENTURY IDENTITY CRISIS

by Linda Shavei'-Gieason

This wor·k of Ms. Shm;er-Cleason was selected as thefirst-prize winner ofthe2005 David Dalton Viola Research Competition. She is a 2005 graduate ofRoosevelt University in Chicago, and now lives in San Diego, California. The conAi ct berween the viola's size and sonority has plagued the instrument from irs earliest days. Whereas the violin is widely accepted to exhibit the ideal physi cal properties ro proj ect and sup port its acoustical properti es,' the "standard viola" (if such a label can apply, since violas vary in size from instrument to instrument) is roo small to produce equiva lent projec tion. Making the viola larger, how ever, risks placing roo much physi cal strain on its player, leading to chronic injuries and even to short ened careers. During the nine teenth century, the desire for loud er, more powerful sounds led to an upsurge in popularity of large vio las, most notably the viola alta, designed by German violist Hermann Ritter (1848-1926). Though the viola alta once seemed poised to replace the viola in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings, it has since faded into obscuri ty. Most accounts attribute its down- £1. .11 to its unwieldy size, bur a less concrete contribution to the viola alra's failure was irs sound; it also

Gene Moon plays 18.5 inch Ritter model made by Philip Kelfet; 1923.

produced a tone remarkably differ ent from that of a standard viola. Although its initial success seemed to confirm the assumption that a stronger, more brilliant sound would immensely improve the viola, the viola alta's subsequent disuse indicates that the viola's identi ty relies heavily upon its unique tone color. The role of the viola changed dra matically during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from serving as harmonic filler to making inde pendent melodic and timbral con uibutions to the ensemble. ln his 1843 Grand 1J·aitc d' instrumenta tion et d'orchestration modernes, Hector Berlioz notes, "Of all the instruments in the ord1esu·a it is the viola whose excellent qualities have

been unappreciated for the longest time... .The general character of its tones is one of profow1d melan choly and is notably different from that of the other string instruments. Nevertheless, it has long been neg lected-or used, senselessly and ineffectually, for doubling the basses in the higher ocrave"LAs composers began experimenting with tone color and orchestral effects in the Romantic era, they fOLmd the viola's "mournfully passionate sound," as Berlioz described it/ particularly suited to their needs. Thus, the vi ola emerged from irs accompani mental role and was given more exposed, prominent lines. Berlioz attributed composers' pre vious neglect of the viola to more than just a different aesthetic, how-

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