JAVS Spring 1994

8

R()SEMARY GLYI)E (1948-1994): A REMEMBRANCE

Weiji, Rosemary Glyde's quartet for four violas, was composed during the last months of her life and was premiered by members of the New York Viola Society on January 10, 1994. The title signifies crisis and opportunity: from physical crisis came musical chrysalis. This four-movement work is a monument not only to a splendid imagination and finely honed musicality, but to the passion and commitment that characterized all that she touched. Weiji is a piece that is destined to make a lasting con tribution to viola literature. It captures Rosemary's remarkable thought and feel for the instrument-both its rich timbral qualities and virtuosic technical range. I begin with this new work because it is emblematic of Rosemary's personality and musicality. As someone who thought like a composer, she was a musical interpreter in the grand tradition of the term. The music she played resonated through her dynamic imagination. One sensed in her playing a drive to express the very essence of her being. Whether performing her own work or interpreting that of others, this quality was paramount. A recipient of the DMA from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Lillian Fuchs and Dorothy DeLay, Rosemary Glyde made her New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1973 as a winner of the Juilliard Viola Competition. She appeared frequently as a recitalist, was a member of the Manhattan String Quartet, and was soloist with numerous symphony orchestras. She taught at the Mannes School of Music, the Sewanee Summer Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Bowdoin Summer Festival. During the twenty-three years of our friendship and collaboration I had ample opportunity to observe Rosemary's approach. It was active, it was personal, it was par ticular. She had strong opinions about music and remained true to them. As an Anglophile who was partial to the music ofYork Bowen and the English romantics, she gave the U.S. Premiere of Bowen's Viola Concerto at the XXI International Viola Congress. She believed that this music should be heard and programmed it regularly. A staunch believer in the development of repertoire for the instrument, Rosemary worked consistently and proudly to liberate the viola from preconceptions regarding its range. She searched tirelessly through older repertoire to see what nuggets she might find. She edited and gave the New York premiere of the Concerto pour 1'Alto Principale (c.1S00) by Johann Andreas Amon. She transcribed and performed the Bach Cello Suites and Gamba Sonatas, to be released on CD in the near future, as well as Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata and the spiritual Breaking Bread. Rosemary Glyde was involved in commissioning and championing new music for the viola throughout her career. She premiered Bernard Hoffer's Viola Concerto at the 1993 International Viola Congress and during recent years premiered Hoffer's Sonata for Viola and Piano, Richard Lane's Concert Music for Two Violas, Emanuel Vardi's Suite for Viola and Piano, and her own Fantasia for Solo Viola (Whyda). Mr. Hoffer commented on the depth of Rosemary's understanding of his music. She also performed music by composers such as Ruth Schonthal and Walter Ross. And she premiered and programmed five works that she commissioned from me. From the earliest days of our acquaintance, beginning at the Aspen Music

Festival in 1971, Rosemary coaxed me into joining her effort to expand the viola reper toire. She had an easy time of it, as I too am enamored of the instrument and knew that