JAVS Winter 1991

there! I see him from afar, a pilgrim in the name of the viola-attending congresses, and searching through libraries and private archives in Europe and North America. That takes both time and money, and for that reason he is missing in many of our pictures, and these are in black and white and on cheap paper. He returns with new impressions, ideas, plans, thoughts-also burdened with problems-and always with new incentives in his viola case. On at least one occasion, someone in the United States asked to see a picture of his family, his wife, and of us, his children. "Sorry," he would have to say, but he did not have one. On the day after his retum we all went to the photographer. So now he has worked over three decades for and about the viola, during which time he has also has served as soloist, chamber musician, and director, and led the Music Academy in Pollau which he founded. Some might chide him for premature decisions, yet as the saying goes of mistakes-they always cause him and others to continue searching and do so with greater consequence. "He who continually strives can be redeemed." 1) German pun, based on homonyms "Lehremeinung" and "Leermeinung," could also be translated" ... 'school of thought' was a 'void of thought.'" Translator's note. 2) The metaphor on "strings," those of a viola and a tennis racket, is difficult to put into an English context. Literal translation would be," ... where other strings become strung differently ..." Translator's note. About This Book What enthusiastic musician would not like to hold in his hands a book which places his instrument in the focal point and illuminates it from page to page? Like a small lexicon, or like a detailed explanation from the long life of his instrument? Or perhaps like a documentary film, with panorama and panned shots, with slow motion and detailed studies? The many works of my father on viola subjects, some already published, others not publicized, combined with new writing could result in such a book, we thought. We also wanted to produce it in a clear and understandable structure for the less technically oriented reader, and consciously depart from the tedium of academic subject jargon and its paucity of footnotes. Certain repetitions cannot be entirely avoided since they assure intelligibility in the closely related chapters of Morphology, Etymology, the Bow, and the IVS... PIVA. Greatest caution was taken with source material. Since no original instruments from antiquity are extant, one is forced to rely on literary sources, which in many instances permit different interpretations, or graphic depictions which more or less differ from reality in "artistic freedom." How many drawings we possess which depict an instrument in a configuration which is totally unplayable(!), or in which the proportions do not correspond to reality! Besides, some consideration must be given to the technically untrained public: at the time of the origin of the sources, be they pictures, sculptures, or scripts, the objects-in our case, instruments-must have already existed. An instrument could not have been developed or "discovered" in the same year that its performance practice was integrated, or that it was first precisely described, drawn, or carved in stone. Knowing medieval conditions, we can assume that an instrument had existed for an extended period before it was described or illustrated. For several of our sources and objects we still do not have historically accurate connections. For example, the oldest European sources which show a string instrument's bow are dated from the year 860 A.D. But it is pOSSible that the Bishop of Poitiers, Venantius Fortunatus, had already mentioned the bow around the year 600. That is a gap in excess of 200 years which might close more and more. It is becoming clear that there were stringed instruments in Europe certainly before the presently known sources indicate. For the sake of clarity: The section "Literatur fur Viola" in Chapter V is not a bibliography of viola literature; it is only a brief summary about the origin of the compendium, "Literatur fur Viola," published in 1963, 1976, and 1985 by Franz Zeyringer. The section "Literatur uber Viola" in Chapter V is a Bibliography which lists approximately 1000 titles from books, brochures, articles, and dissertations (among others) about the viola. -Klaus Zeyringer St..Mars las Jaille, France, 1987

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