JAVS Fall 2006

cury, the duo for the viola and cell o appeared agai8n. Why did it return?What circumstances brought about a desire or the need for a comeback?T he impetus seems co have had three inspira tion , all coming together at the . arne time. First, there was the arrival and lasting inAuence of viola virruosos at the beginning of the 20th century. Second, the viola's possibilities were again explored by composers as a solo voice inspired by these soloist . Third, the violist-composers at the turn of the century rook an in ter est in viola-cello duos and per formed rhcm frequently. The beginning of the 20th century heralded the explosion of viola as a solo instrument. The importance of this occurrence cannot be underes timated; this is most likely what reawakened the compositional ca r to placing the viola in the role of the upper or solo voice. Two exem plars precipitated this change: the solo careers of Lionel Terris and William Primrose helped the viola take a giant step forward . Two fine composers who also per formed regularly on the concert stage at the beginning of the 20th century were Rebecca C larke and Paul Hindcmi rh. They were fine violists and important protagoni sts of the viola-cello duo. Concert programs and recordings tell us that they performed with cellists often. Rebecca Clarke freq uenrly performed wi th the cellist, May MuciJe. Clarke composed her Tiuo Pieces for Viola and Cello (com posed circa 1916) co give them more repertoire to do together. The violist-composer Paul

od1er string duos he says, "The remaining ducts for rwo instru ments...are of fur less imporrance." ' 9 He fa ils to list any duos for viola

Hindemith was intimately fam iliar with the Beethoven "Eyeglass" duo. Hindemi th recorded it with his brother, Rudolf, in 1924. Th is reco rding is sriJ I avaiJable on the History ofthe Recorded Viofa. 11 J His own viola-cello composition was reco rded and published in 1934. These two duos were among the first to explore the vio la-cello genre agai n, after almost a century gap in the rcpcrroi rc. Clarke's Duo is important because it was one of the earliest duos to be composed in the 20th century. Tt was the first published by a woman for this genre. Other female com posers that wrote for the viola-cello duo genre arc Mary Jeanne Applcdorn and Thea Musgrave. The combination of these inAu ences had a significant impacr on the grea ter number ofwo rks for rhc viola, and this was felt in the viola-cello duo genre. There are about fifty compositions for this pairing. Some personal favo rites in addition to those listed above include one by Hanning Schroder, a substantial three movement work by the jazz inAuenced Walter Piston, and a fine transcription by folk-melody inAuenced Witold Lutoslawski. CONCLUSIONS In 1929, Walrcr Wilson Cobbcrr described ducts for strings in his Cyclopedic Survey ofChamber Music as unimportant musically and primarily only for usc as peda gogical material. He "rr·ears spar ingly of ducts of a type which have not been considered of sufficient chamber musical importance," as he covers duos for twO violins. Of y_ LUME 22 NUMBER 2 21