JAVS Spring 2006

ed in the Marlboro School and Festival ofMusic since its inception in 1950 and, despite a doctorate in musicology ftom Princeton University, survived to play the tJio lin and viola as soloist, charnber musician, rmd with the Cleveland Orchestra. His volume, Marlboro Music - German Vocal Texts in Translation - an Anthology, wtts published this year.

angle offlnge r placement, while rhe violin bow grip and most other technical aspects have been quire consolidated since the reign of Ivan Galamian and his Contempora~y Violin Technique and Principles of Violin Playing. O ne need only look around . Violinists look much rhe same; cellists don't. Where does rhat leave the viola? It comes in so many shapes and sizes, so many types of innate sonori ty, and with so li ttle consensus among practi ti oners in marrers of sound? How could it cul tivate more tcllingly irs own soni c domain, its very own aes theti c, vis a vis its upper and lower neighbors, whether in a solo or an ensemble context? String pl ayers are in a very favo r able pl ace today. T hey are set free - free to rake their inspirati on from any source, whether musical, li terary, pi ctorial, ethni c, or schol arl y. T hey are free to crea te their own persona. All doors are open ro fresh insights. The histo rically in formed performance movement acts as a leavening stimulus, as it rehabili ta tes the agogic and rhetor ica l cl ements of style to whi ch the modern all-purpose 'gorgeous' sound, with irs tendency to veer ing back and forth between thun - dering weight- lifting and the lush sensuality of zipless bow changes, has already begun to accommodate itself. T he passing of grea t style prescriptive personalities with mes merizing powers leaves us free to redefine all aspects of srylc and sonori ty. We are fi-ee to play di ffe r ent musics very differentl y. We arc increas ingly free to outgrow the recent wave of generic competition pl aying, which was, perhaps, a

necessary stage on the way to our present era of an emerging highly competent indi vidualism. We arc free lrom hovering authori ty fi g ures and the anxiety of having to please them, free from rhe 'anxiety of influence'. O ne can only hope that rhe gatekeepers on juries and boards of admi ss ion also rethink their expectati ons and increas ingly will value ori ginality and individu ality. Whil e this conce rns all string playing, violists will always face an addi tional task - to build a sonic realm specifi c to their instrument. Whil e the violist must match at once a violinist's facility and a cel - list's amplitude, he or she needs to cul tivate a sensiti ve respect for the ul tra-sophisti cated listening required for successful ly relating bow pressure and inflection to string length , bow speed and pres sure to string th ickness, vibrato width and speed to tess irura, and express ive intensity to the peculiar phys ical limits of the instrument as well as rhe d ictares of autonomous, non-deriva rive good taste. T he sonic realm of the viola has many more pitfalls than irs cousi ns above and below, requiring great discreti on in a subtle balanc ing act between right and left hands. Now that the viola is fully emancipated techn ically and in status, it needs to distance itself from the violin on one side, and even, though with a fraternal nod, from the cello on the other - a need to which composers, roo, mi ght begin ro give more realisric consideration. n Philipp Naegele is WiLliam R. Kenan Professor ofMusic Emeritus at Smith CoLlege. fie has participat

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