THE VIOLA
_The viol family; the tenor viol; technique of the viola;
viola’s place in the orchestra; Mozart’s use of the viola;
Beethoven’s use of the viola; Berlioz’s “Harold Symphony”;
Wagner’s use of the viola; viola as treated by modern
composers; Berlioz on the viola._
The viola is a fifth lower than the violin and an octave higher than the
violoncello. Its strings are C, G, D and A. The C string is particularly
resonant. The technique is the same as that of the violin; but the bow,
though similar in size and shape, is less elastic.
To understand the viola we shall have to go back to the Fifteenth Century
to examine a group of instruments that were the ancestors of the present
family of Strings.
This was the Viol Family. There were four sizes of instruments. There was
the Treble, or Discant (which always played the melody); the _viola da
braccio_ (played with the arm), or tenor; the _viola da gamba_ (the leg
viola), the bass viol; and the _violone_, or double-bass.
Another member of this family was the _viola d’amore_ (the viola
of love), a choice example of which appears facing page 50. It had
“sympathetic strings.”
These viols were all tuned in thirds, or fourths, instead of fifths, as
our modern Strings now tune.
And here we must pause for another moment to speak of an ancient
viol-maker named Gaspard Duiffoprugcar (his name is spelled in many
ways), who was born in 1514 and who died in 1570. He lived in that very
brilliant period, the Renaissance, when Italian painters were producing
magnificent works and when poets and dramatists were writing masterpieces
every day. The rich lords and ladies who patronized these artists were
very highly cultivated and accomplished; and Music was not the least
of their pleasures. Every house of wealth had a collection of fine
instruments, though this was before the days of Amati and Stradivari.
Duiffoprugcar lived in the Tyrol in the region of pines, in which
instrument-makers had long been settled, and he made lutes and viols all
his life. His instruments come so nearly to being violins that he is
sometimes called the first maker of violins. But in his hands the violin
did not quite reach the form that we find in Gasparo di Salò, who, as we
have seen (see page 22) was the true creator of the violin.
Duiffoprugcar’s instruments are valued not only because they are old and
rare, but also because they are works of art. They are often elaborately
inlaid and carved, such as the one facing page 54. Another of his
instruments, in the Brussels Conservatory, has the plan of Paris inlaid
in colored woods on the back, while the scroll ends in a finely carved
horse’s head. And still another has inlaid in the back a poetic Latin
inscription, which is a riddle that could be applied to any stringed
instrument. Translated, it reads as follows:
“_I was living in the forest; the cruel axe killed me. Living, I was
mute; dead, I sing sweetly._”
[Illustration: FIRST VIOLA, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK
_Samuel Lifschey_]
The tenor viol was the ancestor of our modern viola. It was the oldest of
the viol family. It was very large and very hard to play, because it was
so difficult to hold comfortably. But the instrument was too important
to be sacrificed to the convenience of the player and the latter had
to get along with it as well as he could; for, in the general plan of
Mediæval Music, the tenor always sang, or sustained, the melody, or
_cantus_. The need for a more manageable instrument to play the leading
melody is one of the reasons that brought about the creation of the
_little violin_ which was destined to sing soprano. But at the time we
are talking about there was no violin. This great, big, awkward tenor
viol was called _Violino_! Then when the instrument-makers developed
the little instrument that we call _violin_, they gave it the name
_violino piccolo_, or little violin. The newcomer was really the little
tenor viol! Both _violino_ (or tenor) and its small companion, _violino
piccolo_, were made in great numbers in Lombardy, whence they were sent
to the wealthy houses throughout Europe. The makers, as we have seen,
began to improve the _violino piccolo_ to get more tone out of it. They
also tried for sweetness; and the beautiful violin came into being to
charm the world. In the meantime, _violinos_ were made in two sizes—tenor
and alto. After a time these two instruments were combined into one. Then
the great, big, awkward tenor viol disappeared and the viola took its
place.
Therefore the viola is sometimes referred to as the alto and sometimes as
the tenor. Both names are correct.
The viola has been made in many sizes, from the huge instruments by
Gasparo di Salò to instruments not much larger than the modern violin.
The standard size is now about one-seventh larger than the ordinary
violin.
Fine violas are rare. Those by Maggini, of which not a dozen exist, are
especially valued. They are of a very high model: the corners short; the
purfling double; the sound-holes short, wide, upright, under-cut on the
inner edge and placed higher than on his violins; the wood is fine; and
the varnish is golden brown.
A viola often has “sleepy places,” where the notes sound muffled; and it
is also apt to have the dreaded “wolf.”[10]
It is often said that the viola is too large to be held like a violin and
too small to be held like a violoncello. So it might be described as a
half-and-half way instrument between the two.
[Illustration: VIOLA D’AMORE, WITH “FLAMING-SWORD” SOUND-HOLES]
Music for the viola is written in the Alto, or C, Clef (on the third
line). The highest notes are, however, written in the Treble, Violin,
Soprano, or G, Clef.
Important as the viola is in the Orchestra to-day, it was a long time
before the beauty of its voice and its technical possibilities were
recognized. It was only used to play subordinate middle parts, filling
up time and helping along now and then with the bass. Never, _never_ was
it allowed to lift its sad, melancholy, tragic and religious voice. No
matter how longingly it might listen to the other instruments singing
a melody, or chattering to one another, it was doomed to silence. No
composer would let it speak. Nobody ever dreamed that _it_ had anything
to say!
_But it was there all the time._ Patient old viola, just used for the
_tutti_ passages, where every voice speaks, or screams, or cries, at
once. Sometimes in rare delight it was allowed to play in unison with the
violoncellos, and, more rarely, in unison with the violins.
But Mozart—to whom Music owes so much—_discovered the possibilities_ of
the viola!
Mozart gave the viola its proper place in the Orchestra, making it
something more than a large violin filling up a gap between soprano and
bass. He made it important in his _Trios_ and lifted it into prominence
by writing a Concerto for violin, viola and Orchestra! The next time
you hear Mozart’s magnificent _Don Giovanni_ listen for the viola, when
Zerlina is singing her aria, _Vedrai carino_. The viola has a great
deal to say in this tender love song and says it as beautifully and as
tenderly as Zerlina herself.
The viola became of great importance in Beethoven’s _Trios_, _Quartets_
and _Quintets_; and, to its joy, it was allowed to take a prominent part
in the Orchestra! First it was permitted to sing with the violoncellos
and bassoons, as in the _Egmont Overture_, and then actually to play with
the violoncellos the exquisite melody in the Andante of Beethoven’s _C
minor Symphony_ (_the Fifth_). The first critics who heard this Symphony
noticed to their amazement that the violoncellos gained roundness and
purity of tone from their association with the viola!
There are many places in Beethoven’s _Symphonies_ where the violas are
conspicuous; and they are always noble as well as beautiful. The violas
also play with the violoncellos in the Choral finale of the _Ninth
Symphony_.
Hector Berlioz, always original, did a fine thing for the viola by
writing a big solo part for it in his _Harold Symphony_, which describes
Byron’s wanderings of Childe Harold in Italy. The viola impersonates
Childe Harold.
Wagner saw what fine use Beethoven had made of this instrument; and with
his wonderful gift for understanding the character, quality and color of
every instrumental voice in the Orchestra, Wagner was impressed with the
possibilities of the viola.
[Illustration: GASPARD DUIFFOPRUGCAR]
There are new original passages and splendid melodies for the viola in
all of Wagner’s music-dramas (a student could find great profit and
pleasure by taking the orchestral scores of these works and following
the viola part from beginning to end), but one instance will suffice to
emphasize the important use Wagner made of this instrument.
The next time you hear the Overture to _Tannhäuser_ listen for the
_motive of the Venusberg_! This phrase, which Lavignac so aptly
says “recalls Weber when he is fantastic and Mendelssohn when he is
fairy-like,” is given to the viola! Here in this melodious passage Wagner
showed that the quiet, old, sedate viola could be wild, playful and
fiery. And Wagner was the first to exhibit the viola in such a _rôle_.
Tschaikowsky’s _Pathetic Symphony_ has a splendid part for this
instrument. Elgar also gives the viola much to do in his works; and
Richard Strauss, carrying Wagner’s fantastic ideas still farther, made
the viola impersonate Sancho Panza in the _Don Quixote Variations_, where
he treats it elaborately, whimsically and delightfully.
But very likely none of these composers would have thought about this
instrument had it not been for Berlioz, who said: “Of all instruments
in the Orchestra the one whose excellent qualities have been longest
misappreciated is the viola. It is no less agile than the violin.
The sound of its strings is peculiarly telling. Its upper notes are
distinguished by their mournfully passionate accent; and its quality
of tone, altogether of profound melancholy, differs from that of other
instruments played with a bow.
“The viola has, nevertheless been long neglected or put to an unimportant
and ineffectual use,—that of merely doubling in octave the upper part
of the bass. Its quality of tone so strongly attracts and captivates
the attention that it is not necessary to have in the Orchestra quite
so many violas, as second violins; and the expressive powers of its
quality of tone are so marked that in the rare occasions when the old
masters afforded its display it never failed to fulfil their intentions.
_Melodies on the high strings of the viola have a marvellous beauty in
scenes of a religious and unique character._”
These ideas, so new when they were written in the early days of the
Nineteenth Century, set composers thinking. They began to realize that
they had a color and quality of tone on their orchestral palette of which
they had been unaware. The question was how to paint with it. Wagner
boldly dashed forth with the _Venusberg motive_ and showed how agile and
fanciful the viola could be.
To-day the viola’s beautiful tone is perfectly understood. “Every skilful
violinist can in a few weeks acquire the ability to play the viola fairly
well; but the true virtuoso of the viola must study his instrument long
and carefully. In like degree as the violin is biting, incisive and
masterful, the viola is humble, wan, sad and morose. Besides using it
to fill in the harmony composers take advantage of those qualities to
obtain expressions of melancholy and resignation for which the instrument
is incomparable; for its range of sentiment runs from _sad reverie to
agonized pathos_.”[11]
[Illustration: VIOLA DA GAMBA
_By Gaspard Duiffoprugcar_]