JAVS Spring 2013

R ETROSPECTIVE W ORKS BY L EO S OWERBY AND A LVIN E TLER

by TomTatton

interest in creating works within the framework of new textures with diverse sonorities and colors, including pieces for viola and percussion, viola and gamelan, viola and voice, viola and organ—and then there are those futuristic violists creating electro acoustic compositions. Again, what will become of all these pieces? Are we truly evaluating our newfound treasures, or are we continually searching for un-performed works for the novelty of it all? Perhaps we should step back, every once in a while, to reflect, re-evaluate and re-program repertoire. One has only to think of Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata, neglected for decades after its composition until rediscovered in the 1970s and now part of the standard repertoire. Of course, just because we cele brate the plethora of our diversity does not mean we must like everything equally well. Styles and tastes change, and in two hundred years hence, enterprising violists will surely rediscover and re-evaluate the pieces we today have seen to abandon. The purpose of this new department is to provide opportunity for just such a re-evaluation, not only of repertoire, but perhaps neglected recordings and remarkable performers of bygone times as well. Today we stand on the platform created by those violists and composers who came before us. Celebrating our past is an important ingredient in creating our future. The works we look at here include Poem , for viola and organ by Leo Sowerby and Sonata for Viola and Harpsichord by Alvin Etler. Both of these pieces, written in the mid-twentieth century, are by thor oughly American composers who, like all composers, reflect the compositional techniques, note palette, structural templates, and ethos of their time. Both

As violists we live in a most interesting and quite wonderful time! There is a palpable passion world wide for new viola-centric compositions, and new works are being created at a blazing pace. An exami nation of the literature programmed at the recent 40th International Viola Congress reveals more than a dozen works written by American composers who were born after 1950! In a five-day period, over two dozen relatively new works were performed. What will become of all these pieces? Of course the stan dard and ultimately true answer is: the test of time will separate the masterpieces from the rest. Going in the opposite direction, violists are search ing with incredible vigor the dusty shelves of very old libraries. The happy results have been striking! Multiple works by Alessandro Rolla (1757–1841) have recently become available; doctoral dissertations on the viola compositions of york Bowen (1884–1961) are stirring interest; composers the likes of Florian Leopold Gassmann (1729–1774), Johann Gottlieb Graun (1703–1771), and Christoph Graupner (1683–1760), along with a multitude of others are becoming topics of discus sion in viola circles. Of course, modern technologies (the Internet, scanning devices, music engraving software, etc.) have made the search for—and shar ing of—scarce viola music even that much easier. Violists themselves are also exploding their common repertoire by creating and performing a multitude of transcriptions. At the 40th International Viola Congress, in addition to the traditional mixture of transcriptions and original works performed throughout the congress, an entire recital was dedi cated to transcribed pieces. Add to this mix the

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