JAVS Spring 2024
Featured Article
Dalton 3rd Prize Winner The Cade Instrument Collection: Celebrating an Unloved Viola by Catherine Joy Ziegler
a popular sports drink invented to give the university’s football team extra energy during games. He made the discovery at the University of Florida in 1965 while studying the university’s football team. 2 Although Gatorade was one of Cade’s greatest accomplishments, he was also passionate about classical music. Cade’s two greatest joys in life were music and medicine. 3 Cade began taking violin lessons as a young child and played with the San Antonio Symphony while in high school. 4 While a professor at UF, Cade played both violin and viola in the University Symphony. Although Cade preferred to play the violin, he also enjoyed subbing in the viola section of the University Symphony when needed. Cade’s daughter, Phoebe Cade Miles, has said that when Cade was discouraged or depressed, music always lifted his spirits. 5 According to his daughter, Cade often contended “that playing music was one of the best medicines available in this world because it has the power to lift the human spirit.” 6 Cade was passionate about life in Gainesville. Even after legal issues arose with the university concerning Gatorade, Cade wanted to stay in Gainesville. In an interview, when asked if he had considered transferring to another university, Cade replied, “I like it here. I have a lot of friends here, and I’m writing a string quartet. One of the reasons that I like it so much is that I could play in the University Symphony and take some courses in orchestration.” 7 Cade deeply appreciated the rich culture in the Gainesville area and sought to stimulate deeper cultural activity; he noticed that many craftsmen in this area were well-recognized around the country and in their fields, but were essentially unknown in Alachua County. He dreamed of bringing local
Introduction The goal of this project is to celebrate an
underappreciated viola in the Cade Instrument Collection at the University of Florida (UF). In this paper, I provide biographies of Dr. Robert Cade, who assembled a noteworthy instrument collection in addition to being the inventor of Gatorade, as well as the makers of the two violas in his collection, Dudley Reed, and Gino Cavaceppi. Both makers were local to Alachua County, Florida. The Cavaceppi viola has never been checked out by a music student at the University of Florida because it is too large for every day playing. However, I felt this viola deserved to be played, so I commissioned a piece specifically for the instrument by UF composition student, Emelia Ulrich. I premiered the piece, titled Soliloquy , in our joint senior recital on April 1, 2023. I also explore the science behind why violas do not have a standard size and why they are considered scientifically imperfect, in addition to my experience working with a larger instrument and the adaptations I had to make to perform on this instrument. Through this project, I have inferred that Dr. Cade collected larger-than-average violas because he was interested in their improved sound quality. My intention is to shed light on the Cavaceppi viola, in particular, in the hopes that this instrument will not continue to sit unused. Robert Cade Dr. Robert Cade was born in 1927 in San Antonio, Texas. 1 Cade came to the University of Florida in 1961 as an assistant professor for the College of Medicine’s kidney division and was one of UF’s first kidney specialists. Cade is best known for inventing Gatorade,
Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 40, No. 1, Spring 2024
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