JAVS Spring 2023

In addition to the practical layout of technique across Variego’s collection, there are some musically charming, maybe nostalgic, etudes, particularly no. 6 “Teleminimal” and no. 16 “White gloves”. The challenges listed for “Teleminimal” include the exercise of Telemann passage work and the player will find snatches of figures pulled from the second movement of his Viola Concerto in G major. More subtly, “White gloves” opens with bowing patterns and chords reminiscent of the prelude from Bach’s first cello suite, albeit in A-flat major and not the original G major. I find this to be very appealing and helpful in determining the purpose of the etudes, something we considered above, and roots them in the extant repertoire which reinforces that purpose. All this suggests that Variego’s etudes will please teachers and students, and they may in time prove as enduring as collections composed by those revered and venerable creators of the canon.

Footnotes 1 Variego Etudes, 4. 2 Simon Fischer Basics, online. https://www. simonfischeronline.com/uploads/5/7/7/9/57796211/06 7slowb.pdf.

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

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