JAVS Spring 2023

Score Review Review: 18+3 Etudes for Solo Viola by Jorge Variego by Kevin Nordstrom

When taking up the subject of “studies,” be they etudes or the performance pieces called caprices, violists might contemplate with gladness that it is one where we can find some separation from our respected kin: violinists. Of course, the violin has generously shared with the viola valuable “study” material: the famous compilations by Wohlfahrt, Kayser, Dont!, Kreutzer, Rode, and a certain devilish Italian for example, which when taken together effectively comprise a canon of such things. The term canon might at first seem inappropriately or unnecessarily applied to study material. But name me a violinist or violist who has trained in the classical manner or hopes to gain an undergraduate degree on their instrument and in that tradition without having studied at least one Kreutzer etude or something by those other composers. This simply does not happen, and shouldn’t; thus, the etude canon . Whilst violists must attend to portions of this etude canon it is not always necessary or practical for them to work through all of it. This assessment is worthy of further discussion which I intend to have later and elsewhere, but in brief we can do without studies, etudes, caprices riddled with extensions in the lower positions and painful, large double-stops and chords which might cause injury and really teach us very little. I have similar feelings regarding the incessant drilling of a single three octave scale for months on end when much more can be gained by practicing two-octave or even one-octave scales in all keys daily. Elaboration on this will also be saved for another time.

Fortunately, violists are blessed with material that can be used to supplement the canon as described above, or, depending on one’s agenda, in place of some portions of it. This material spans many musical eras. For instance, Campagnoli’s caprices of 1815, Hugo Steiner’s of 1909, and Garth Knox’s Viola Spaces completed in 2007. Above all of these in my estimation are the three extremely worthy collections by Lillian Fuchs, her Fifteen Characteristic Studies , Twelve Caprices , Sixteen Fantasy Etudes, which each possess much that is musically compelling and pedagogically useful. What can now be added to this list supplementing the canon is a collection by Jorge Variego, his 18+3 Etudes for solo viola , which will be our subject moving forward. The title is a twist on the traditional, precise, pedantic formula which tells us the exact quantity of studies in the collection: 60 this, 42 that, 24 such and such. Variego explains the title himself in the introductory pages, identifying his audience at the same time. He writes: “The first 18 etudes in the book are roughly ordered with an increasing level of difficulty, always having in mind a violist of intermediate level. The etudes labeled with a “+” present some more advanced challenges.” 1 One of the things that I like most about this collection is that we are never left to guess at the challenges of each etude because Variego has elucidated them in a well-organized and highly useful table of contents. In doing so, he has also described each etude’s purpose pedagogically, which is important information.

The table of contents gives us the etude’s number, its name, its various challenges, an excerpt from it, and its

So, we return to studies.

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