JAVS Fall 2008

The important thing is that the Maurice W. Riley Collection be accessible to violists, possibly by creating an index or table of con tents to make information easy to find for violists coming to PIVA to do research. Eventually this collection will need to be accessi ble online through the BYU Library catalog or PIVA website. Riley’s purpose in writing The History of the Viola was to share the viola’s history with as many people as he could, and there could be no better way to honor his life than by ensuring that his research and materials be made available to violists worldwide. LESSONS FROM MAURICE RILEY One can imagine the intimidating task of writing the history for an instrument that had never been properly recorded. In a time with out the convenience of the Internet, Riley relied on travel and correspondence to acquire the information he needed. Trips to International Viola Congresses became research expeditions to foreign libraries, music schools, and the homes and libraries of famed viola pioneers like Vadim Borissovsky and Franz Zeyringer. Collecting biographical informa tion on several international vio lists brought him new contacts who were able to visit places and obtain information he couldn’t get on his own. While sorting through thousands of pages of research, drafts, and concert programs, I found several notes written in margins from

Leila Riley’s Viola Groupy t-shirt.

Maurice to Leila. It was touching to see the love that existed between the two. Rarely did Riley attend a viola congress without his wife. From my observation it appears that almost everything he published or presented was typed, edited, or at least passed through the hands of Leila. She was obvi ously as committed to viola schol arship as her husband. Some of the greatest treasures found in the Maurice W. Riley Collection are the two shirts worn by Leila at several International Viola Congresses, bearing the words “Viola Groupy” and “It’s No Treble.” When I started this project I experienced tremendous stress and panic as I realized how large this collection really was. Though I had never met Maurice Riley, I had enjoyed reading The History of the Viola as a young viola stu dent. Going through the thou sands and thousands of docu ments made him come to life for

me, and after the two years spent going through his papers he became a dear friend. I felt the frustration he must have as I read several rejection letters from pub lishers (the Rileys ended up pub lishing the book themselves and turned their home into a shipping office) and understood his joy as I sorted through hundreds of requests for a copy of The History of the Viola . Hundreds of receipts and bills made me realize the financial sacrifices Riley made— though not a wealthy man—in order to attend almost every viola congress, publish his own research, and just pay for all those stamps! Were there another comparable book more thoroughly researched or written by someone more prominent in the academic world, it might explain why demand for The History of the Viola is so low. Yet with such low demand the price of a volume (both volumes are now out of print) can range

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