| JAVS Online Summer 2008 - Viola Power
Viola Power
By Myron Rosenblum
(Editor’s note: This article first appeared on page 11of the January 1972 issue of Allegro, the official publication of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians in New York City. The article was instrumental in making violists aware of the Viola Research Society and in establishing the future of the American Viola Society. Reproduced with permission of Local 802 of AFM, www.local802afm.org/)
INSTRUMENTAL clubs are in! Devotees and fanatics of a wide variety of musical instruments have expressed their monomanias in the formation of clubs and societies dedicated to the propagation and dissemination of information on such instruments as the flute, harp, ‘cello, recorder, and the viola da gamba.
The latest venture in these specialized areas is the recent formation of the Viola Research Society, officially known as the Viola-Forschungsgesellschaft. Lodged in Kassel, West Germany, it has quickly grown to international proportions. Under the expert leadership of the Austrian violist, teacher and musicologist, Franz Zeyringer, the society has attracted the attention of violists from major orchestras, renowned teachers, music publishers, and musicologists from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, East Germany, West Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.
When Mr. Zeyringer was a viola student in Vienna, he was bothered by recurrent dogmatic statements thrown out by his fellow musicians—that the viola had little original music of any value written for it. The question he kept asking himself was, “How is it possible that the viola, an instrument more than 400 years old, and the real ‘first’ of the modern stringed instruments, had virtually no music written for it?” He recalled how infuriated he had become one day when he read an article in a German musical periodical, in which the author deprecated the viola as an insignificant instrument, owing to its paltry literature. The viola works of any value mentioned by that author were concertos by Telemann and Stamitz, the two Brahms sonatas, the Reger suites, and a few Hindemith works. To prove his point, the author pointed out that Prof. Etienne Ginot, string pedagogue in the Paris Conservatory, deemed it an absolute necessity for the survival of the viola to transcribe more than 20 violin concertos for viola. Without these transcriptions of concertos by Wienawski, Vieuxtemps, de Beriot, Rode, etc., according to Ginot, the future of the viola as a viable solo instrument was indeed dim.
Intrigued and disturbed by all this, Mr. Zeyringer started on a research project, to attempt to disprove that the literature of the viola was as insignificant as most people believed.
Visits to music libraries and endless correspondence with violists, music publishers and music scholars revealed that there were far more original works for viola than was commonly known. Mr. Zeyringer’s catalogue of viola works started to grow rapidly and in 1963, his book Literature for Viola was published in Austria. In it were listed all the known compositions for viola in which it was very prominent: unaccompanied works, concertos (single and multiple), duos, trios, chamber works with unusual instrumentation, étude and method books, and even transcriptions.
Such valuable information as publisher, city of publication, library containing the MS (if original) and its catalogue number, and any other source, such as a private collection holding the manuscript is given in the book. Thus, anyone interested in obtaining a specific work can have a good point of departure.
In 1965, a supplement to Literature for Viola was published in which many new works were listed and corrections made where necessary. To date, Mr. Zeyringer has catalogued approximately 10,000 works with solo or important viola roles. Of them, there are more than 300 original viola concertos, many of them from the 18th and 19th centuries.
As Mr. Zeyringer’s work became known, a band of followers grew to include viola enthusiasts from all over the world. The response was so favorable that the formation of some kind of viola organization seemed the next logical step. So— the Viola Research Society came into being!
Using the Zeyringer book as a starting point, the society has quickly set out to achieve some interesting goals: a viola archive has been initiated, which will aim to have as complete a collection of all viola works as possible—in manuscript, published editions, and on microfilm; a biographical file of all outstanding violist will be kept current; phonograph recordings of the important viola works played by major artists will make up a separate collection. Any member of the society is entitled to use these research items on a loan basis.
A periodic gift, such as a relevant book, viola edition, or recording, will be presented to members. A newsletter will be sent out to inform violists of new and recently discovered viola pieces and where they can be located, as well as other viola-related items of interest.
What’s in store for the future? Mr. Zeyringer and his devoted corps of violamaniacs will pursue further research into the history of the instrument, the publishing of viola compositions, and international viola congresses. They sincerely hope that this will be another positive push in the direction of uniting musicians from the West and the East by a common interest.
Chapter organizations are now in the process of being formed. The American chapter will be one of the first to function, owing to the large number of first-rate violists coming out of American conservatories and the interest in the viola by American composers. The Viola Research Society welcomes all interested violists, teachers, string players, musicians, publishers, and musicologists to participate in this new and exciting organization. For further information, write:
Myron Rosenblum
c/o Music Department
Queensborough Comm. College
Bayside, N.Y. 11364
Or
Viola-Forschungsgesellschaft
35 Kassel
Brüder Grimmplatz 4A
West Germany
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