JAVS Spring 2023

Example 5. The main melody from Arthur Bliss’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, mvt. II, mm. 8–11.

Example 6. The viola’s arpeggios lead into the cataclysm in Arthur Bliss’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, mvt. II, mm. 101–103.

Bliss conjures a world of sentimentality and nostalgia in the movement’s first large section (mm. 8–101). Following the viola’s initial statements of the main theme, Bliss hands it over to the piano ( molto espressivo il canto ) overlayed with descant-like triplet filigree in the viola (m. 25). Moments like these—decorative gestures layered over melody and accompaniment—create a sense of nostalgia, like watching grainy old footage. A secondary theme introduced in m. 52 counterbalances the linearity of the main theme with searching, leaping sixths. The viola ushers in the climactic section as it rockets up to a high E above the treble clef staff (ex. 6). It’s less of a climax and more like a cataclysm. The piano crashes in with accented fortissimo seven-note blocked chords, overwhelming the viola and forcing it to fall silent for

the rest of the section. Something terrible has happened in the sentimental world Bliss conjured, and I can’t help but think about those sporadic “streaks of violence” that suddenly appear in Bliss’s music. He interweaves snatches of earlier themes into this clangorous fray, and, as the cataclysmic floodwaters recede, the piano’s right hand plays meandering eighths while sinewy semitone quarter notes plod through the bass. In the final section of the movement’s central narrative, Bliss recalls and reconfigures the music from before, always with this processional feeling lurking within the musical texture. The movement ends as it began with the viola pizzicato recitative, as Bliss closes with an unsettling harmonic resolution from F-sharp minor to B-flat major.

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

23