JAVS Fall 2007

humanities symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Strongly rec ommended as the start to any sab batical!) Then to Colorado, where I presented recitals and classes on period practices. The last leg of my journey was a five-week trip to Europe. Based in London, I trav eled around Europe and the UK hearing concerts, meeting musi cians, and conducting research for some of my transcription projects. Other than having a thoroughly delightful travel experience, it became apparent the differences in the musical cultures of the US and Europe, especially in period per formance. The mosr obvious dif ference was the fact that almost all schools of music have period per formance curricula as the norm and offered degree specializations in that area. The other obvious dif ference was the enormous wealth of period performance ensembles and concerts around Europe, and not just in large metropolitan areas.

for over 15 years without a break, I finally mustered up the courage ro take a sabbatical semester. The plan was to put my beloved mod ern viola in its case for a long "nap" and totally immerse myself on Baroque viola. I knew that if I ever wanted to become a serious Baroque violist that this was absolutely necessary; the two tech niques are that different. When playing the Baroque instrument I have to make sure that I mentally and physically make the switch, or else things get a bit "thorny," to say the least. It is sort of like convincing yourself that you are reading the same music but playing the bassoon (or saxophone, or Aure, etc.). The plan for the six-month odyssey was to travel around the US and Europe playing, reaching, observing, and generally absorbing as much of the early music culture as I could. During that time I also planned on completing and pub lishing several transcriptions for viola of Baroque masterpieces that were written for other instruments.

My primary goal was to create edi tions that closely adhered to man uscripts and/or the best scholarly sources possible. As violists know, many of the editions available to us have been so over-edited and marked that it is hard ro recognize any semblance of the original sources. Furthermore, trudging through the process of finding reli able sources and then marking up your own part is not only a pain, but makes for a very fine mess to read. I was convinced that vio lists, like violinists and cellists, were hungry to understand authentic performance practices and ro have good pans available that are specifically for viola. o, the path was set; now to take those first steps. My Burgess viola, who has been my good and Faithful friend for so many years, was temporarily retired. And my Paul Hart Baroque viola was now enlisted as my partner in my new jour neys. The first stop was a lec ture/recital at an arts and

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