JAVS Spring 2014

R ETROSPECTIVE J OHN B IGGS D ISCUSSES H IS V IOLA M USIC

undertaking for the viola—the Concerto for Viola, Woodwinds, and Percussion—has recently been rekin dled, since after a long period with out a performance, in 2013 it received two! One took place as part of a celebration of my eightieth birth day and one while I was a guest com poser at Wichita State University. In the first instance, it was performed by Los Angeles violist Victor de Almeida on February 2 in Ventura, California. In the second, the soloist was Catherine Consiglio, a member of the string faculty at Wichita State University, who performed it on March 28. I was the conductor on both occasions, and while I reac quainted myself with the piece after not hearing it for some time, I said to myself: “This piece should be per formed more often.” Perhaps one strike against it is the unusual instru mentation. It’s a bit difficult to “pair” it with other chamber works. I wrote the concerto in 1966 while doing graduate study at the University of Southern California,

John Biggs

by John Biggs

studying composition with Halsey Stevens. The choice of form, length, and ensemble was up to me. I had recently heard Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra and thought it was a fine piece, and I fell in love with the sound of the viola as a solo instrument. And I also realized that there weren’t many viola concertos around, so that’s when I decided to make it a viola concerto. The ulti mate scoring I decided on was two flutes, two clar inets, two bassoons, one percussionist, and viola, and

I have long felt that composers should consider the viola as a solo instrument more often, particularly in the concerto genre, where there have been many more concertos for the violin and cello written over the years. I believe that if one handles the orchestra tion carefully, the viola works tremendously well as a solo instrument with orchestra. I’m writing this at a time when my connection with my most ambitious

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