"EV's Viola Corner"

[ElliotViola]

Hiya all,

I made an account here a while ago, and have sadly neglected this forum. I promise to be on here more often from now!

I'm starting a thread to discuss the Viola. Some of you may know that my life's goal is to write the repertoire for the Viola into the massive holes that were left in the Classical/Romantic eras. There's only a few pieces from the Classical era, for instancethe Schubert 'Arpeggione' sonata, and the Stamitz concerti and duets; but the Romantic era is even sparser, with a Mendelssohn sonata and a few Brahms things but not much.

20th Century went overboard, and lots of weird, wacky and wonderful music appeared there, including Machonky, Walton, Rebecca Clarke and Bartok to name but a few. However, the standard romantic concerti are just non-existent.

I'm going to write in the gaps, seeing as I like tonal composition in a romantic-ish style!

So the purpose of this thread is to share and discuss Viola Music that is appealing to the ear, and also to post my own Viola compositions as well, with the hope of some critical feedback.

-EV

[ElliotViola]

For instance, here is my "Suite of Preludes" for Solo Viola:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lCn2apXgEI

Let me know what you think!

[Treestump]

I am an expert at asking questions?

I have a friend who is a composer. Her suggestion is that while you are composing you must have a good job to pay the bills.

She writes music that can be played by amateurs. There is quite a lot of music available by many composers where the notes can be managed by amateurs. What sort of music are you thinking of writing? Something that can be played by most people or music that can only be played by a professional violist? You will probably sell more music if it can be played by anybody.

[ReinerTorheit]

Originally Posted by ElliotViola

the Romantic era is even sparser, with a Mendelssohn sonata and a few Brahms things but not much.

Harold in Italy? Yeah, I know, but when things are sparse you have to be grateful for whatever you can find