JAVS Fall 2011

Example 2. Karl Blench, Second Take, “The Beginning, ” mm. 14–21.

Initially, Chris Goddard’s piece, Third Nature , looked the hardest and most intimidating for the viola, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is incredibly idiomatic, despite the fact that Chris is a pianist (although I later learned he had played viola in high school). Chris’s piece is, in many respects, the most traditional in texture and musical language. The viola and piano/percussion parts are intricately intertwined, so I spent much more time learning Danny’s part for that piece than any of the others. Luna , Aaron Kreowicz’s piece, is mostly indeterminate. In the first movement, only the approximate rhythms and pitches are notated (ex. 3a). In the second, the pitches are given, but the rhythm is only suggested in relative val ues without meter (ex. 3b). I found it surprisingly challenging to play expressively when I had to “make up” the notes and rhythms, being a classically trained player who had never improvised before. I had, of course, played indeterminate pieces before, but none with the expressive power of Aaron’s piece. Finally, there was the challenge of Andrew McIntosh’s piece that Danny had arranged for us. The original version, stray from the path but a little and all is lost , is for violin and woodblock; the violinist playing the woodblock with his or her foot. The structure of the piece is an ever-shrinking loop: the player is instruct ed to play through the piece and then repeat back to the beginning, omitting one measure each time (so the first repeat starts at measure 2, the next repeat starts at measure 3, and so on). The woodblock part is straight quarter notes, which would be easy enough if the piece were in a simple meter the whole time. unfortunately, the meter changes each bar and there

Through the fall and early winter, I practiced and pre pared my parts for our rehearsals over Christmas break. Each of the pieces presented its own individual problems. Karl’s piece, Second Tak e, is a series of miniatures; each in a different character. The first movement is almost entirely pizzicato in a repeating pattern that requires a very loud double-stop Bartók pizz at the end of each cycle (ex. 2). To make matters worse, there is very little time to transition from pizzi cato to arco and back again, meaning I could not put my bow down to facilitate the pizzicato. I considered telling him it was not possible to play while holding my bow, but I soon realized I was not very good at it whether holding my bow or not! I ended up using a combination of pizz with my thumb, first finger, and both thumb and first finger (for the double-stop Bartók pizzes) and had to devise a new way of notat ing in my music which fingers I was pizzing with ver sus the fingerings I was using for my left hand. Casey Cangelosi’s piece, Theatric No. 8 , is minimalist; composed of short cells that are to be repeated a certain number of times. Toward the end of the piece, each cell in my part is in a different meter from Danny’s part, and we each repeat our cells a different number of times, resulting in a different texture and counterpoint on each repeat. It was easy enough to play on my own, but I knew it would be a challenge once we put our parts together. Daniel Corral’s piece, Ultramarine , based on a twelve-bar blues, is full of quick transitions between a variety of extended techniques, while Ingrid Lee’s piece, Nomentum , requires delicate playing behind the bridge, among other effects.

J OuRNAL OF ThE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETy 44