JAVS Fall 2020

From the Editor

These many months of quarantine and COVID enforced isolation have changed our daily lives in so many ways. A year ago, I’d only ever used Zoom for our AVS Board meetings, and now I spend hours every day peering into my laptop screen, teaching pixelated students through this now essential computer program. More than just work-related changes, the pandemic has pushed

Along similar lines, Elena Artamonova offers another tantalizing glimpse into an area for further research: a newly discovered relationship between two viola pioneers, Lionel Tertis and Vadim Borisovsky. Her article details the musical exchange between Russia and the UK during World War II and the decades thereafter, providing an inspiring portrait of international collaboration during a time of crisis. Both Artamonova’s and Jenkins’s articles show us the potential for discovery in all realms of our musical world. While new discoveries can be found through researching and deep investigation of the past, Anne Lanzilotti shows us how to create our own discoveries by bringing new musical works to life. Her second article about The 19/20 Project details the behind-the-scenes process of working directly with composers and the free interchange of ideas. Part of the beauty in this project lies in its use of the old, the three famous 1919 viola pieces, to inspire the new, these three newly commissioned works. As Lanzilotti’s article delves into the creation of the works, Daphne Gerling elucidates the cultural, historical, and artistic crosscurrents swirling through the 1919 works by Bloch, Clarke, and Hindemith. This pair of articles perfectly captures what many of us do daily: studying the past to create something new. This issue features many more articles with current relevance. Joelle Arhnold’s analysis of Paul Neubauer’s work, Joan Your Phone is Always Busy brings about a welcome examination of humor in the concert hall, and its place in our new world of socially-distanced performance; long-time JAVS contributor Thomas Tatton provides a personal meditation on aging; Lanson Wells reviews the AVS’s Online Festival; and Gregory Williams reviews two uplifting Irish works, much needed during this time. While we’re all desperate to return to regular performing, I am grateful and encouraged by the outpouring of viola research I’ve received in recent months. This is, at least, the one thing from the year 2020 that’s worth keeping around.

us to explore new hobbies and activities. I have, unabashedly, joined the countless number of newly-minted bread bakers, so much so that my family and friends are now drowning in more sourdough than they could possibly eat. And I was finally able to grow a summer garden (if only for the fact that my summer teaching engagements were all cancelled). While the negative effects of this virus on our society are immeasurable—especially for those in musical performance fields—I am happy to have found at least one silver lining. Over the past six months, I’ve received nearly triple the number of article submissions and requests than I’ve had—in total—during my time as the editor of JAVS . Violists are a truly resilient bunch. If the world conspires against us through cancelled concerts and engagements, we hunker down and keep promoting our art form through writing and advocacy. On top of the regular submissions to the journal, we’ve had the largest and most successful iteration of the David Dalton Research Competition in recent memory. The 2020 Competition received a stunning array of student research submissions, many of which explored new avenues of viola related research. This issue begins the showcasing of the winning articles with Christopher Jenkins’s second-prize winning article, “African-American Violists: A Retrospective.” Much more than just a profile of four Black violists throughout American history, his article illuminates a vital area of research. His conclusion provides a clear and direct pathway for further research, as he compels us to explore the lives, contributions, and role of Black violists in America.

Sincerely,

Andrew Braddock Editor

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 36, No. 2, Fall 2020

3