JAVS Spring 2023

Example 4. A rapid succession of themes. Arthur Bliss, Sonata for Viola and Piano, mvt I, mm. 28–36.

Bliss expands the false-relation element into long strings of sixths in a separate theme, seen partially in mm. 30–32 in example 4. This theme smacks of the falsely-related sixths in Walton’s Viola Concerto, which themselves mock the concluding passage of the second movement of Hindemith’s Kammermusik no. 5. Bliss balances these rollicking themes with contrasting themes: elegantly crafted melodic lines (m. 74), or playful and perky melodies (m. 42). Apart from each theme’s individual meaning, their interplay and cross-pollination helps create the work’s expressive power. A transitional passage in the early part of the movement (mm. 28–36, ex. 4) illustrates this assemblage quality. It begins with an arpeggiated gesture from the opening theme, switches to a lyrical theme in sixths, and then later introduces a new, jagged sixteenth note theme. Yet, Bliss does more than simply present each theme as if reciting a list: he develops, alters, and recombines his themes, imbuing the movement with an organic and forward-moving character. We will see this approach most clearly in the work’s fourth and final movement. (The first movement of his Oboe Quintet is a less-elegant example of Bliss’s polythematicism.) Second Movement: Expressive Depth A similar thematic investigation of the second movement reveals even more of Bliss’s compositional prowess, particularly his ability to generate the entire movement from a single motive. But it will be more fruitful to examine this movement’s expressive and narrative

complexity, as it contains the Sonata’s most tender and devastating moments.

The movement stands almost as a complete piece by itself, cast like a miniature opera with a prologue, main section in three parts, and a postlude. An initial arpeggiated piano chord raises the curtain for the viola’s meandering, recitative-like pizzicato melody. It concludes with enigmatic arco double-stops that set the stage for the movement’s main theme. This theme is one of the “sad processionals” that arise throughout Bliss’s oeuvre: a heavy, linear melody accompanied by plodding chords in the piano (ex. 5). Bliss creates the “processional” element with descending fourth bass motion in m. 8, which is echoed in ascending fifths between the initial notes of each successive melodic entrance (mm. 8 vs. 11 in the viola; and later mm. 25 vs. 28 in the piano). The melancholic mood arises from modal mixture, a hold-over from the first movement: the descending semitone in the initial viola notes changes the harmony from B-flat major to B-flat minor (enharmonically spelled). Bliss wrote essentially tonal music, but his chromatic deviations infused his harmony with a sense of uncertainty and anxiety. This tonal chromaticism lends a greater richness to his harmonic language in comparison to many of his British contemporaries.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 39, No. 1, Spring 2023