JAVS Summer 2018

Example 6. Hans Werner Henze, Viola Sonata, mm. 187–190. e viola’s drastic color change.

Henze SONATA per viola e pianoforte. Copyright © 1980 Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Company, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany.

Henze su ered very much, with what Auden warned of in 1939. is sonata is part of his lifelong attempt to deal with that su ering. Henze now pushes the viola player to the brink of unplayability, and over. Virtuosity and danger were something that fascinated him. He told me: Why shouldn’t instrumentalists get exhausted too— the composer did! e “almost impossible” is always interesting in music. It’s a bit like a circus act—will she, or will she not, fall from the rope? 10

so I would be careful, even now, about suggesting this! Henze loved beauty in all forms, including the beauty of unpleasant realisation. “Wake up” he seems to be saying. “ at before, that was a dream . . . which is over. is is real life.” In many ways this aesthetic is close to W H Auden; the poet with whom he had collaborated— spectacularly—on e Bassarids (1964). In 1939, Auden had written:

Yes, we are going to su er, now; the sky robs like a feverish forehead; pain is real; e groping searchlights suddenly reveal e little natures that will make us cry. 9

Example 7. Hans Werner Henze, Viola Sonata, mm. 211–219. Four-part harmony in the piano while the viola sings to itself.

Henze SONATA per viola e pianoforte. Copyright © 1980 Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of European American Music Distributors Company, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 34, 2018 Online Issue

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