The Viola - leave it alone!

Hi Guys! It's me again. I have decided to make this blog a weekly thing, updating every Tuesday with different topics to discuss.

First a joke!
What's the definition of a minor second?
Two violists playing in unison.

As you may have guessed I shall be talking about the Viola. This is definitely the most under-rated, most mocked and most mis-understood of the orchestral instruments. This is due to the over-shadowing by it's higher, sweeter sounding brother, the Violin; and the deeper
more resinate tone of it's cousin, the 'Cello. For me, the Viola is the most imprtant instrument in a string group (an orchestra or quartet) as it provides the harmony for the piece and is most likely to play the thirds of each chord. it is also, personally speaking, much more fun to play than the Violin due to the deep, resonate C string as well as having close to the range of the Violin. I started as a Violinist and converted to Viola. Due to this, my Violin playing has improved no end, as well as my knowledge of harmony in general.
The Viola was established in 1535 as a member of the violin family (the violin being of unknown origins and known to be made before 1533- see Giovanni Lanfranco's Scintille di Musica (1533). Although the Viola existed in this time, it was so hard to play that it was hardly used. The reason it was so hard to play was its size. The largest Viola was 19 inches long (Andrea Amati viola) and grew in length during the 19th century where Viola makers tried improving the sound. Because it was hardly used, there were no known virtuistic violists, thus there was no repetoire for the instrument. It was only until the late 18th century that the Viola was treated as a solo instrument, even though composers such as Bach, Handel and Vivaldi gave the viola imprtant parts in fugues and concertos. The first main piece to have a major part for the viola was Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante (1779) This piece treated the Violin and the Viola as equal partners. As well as this, Paganini wrote caprices for the Viola as he played it as well as the Violin. It was not until the late 20th century, however, when notably famous Viola virtuosos came to light. These including Lionel Tertis and Paul Hindemith. More solo Viola works were written in this era, such as Walton's Viola Concertos and Bartok's Viola Concertos. Hindermith himself also wrote concertos for the Viola as well as pieces for Viola and Piano and Solo Viola works.
The modern viola owes a lot to the work of Tertis. He created an instrument, in the 1940's, that both combined the fullness and depth of a "full-size" viola while still being manageable by the player.

Lastly!
Why are Viola jokes so short?
So Violinists can understand them!

Essential Listening

• Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante (the first, famous piece of music to treat the Viola the same as the Violin
• Pagnini - Sonata for Viola in C minor (one of Paganini's works for viola)
• Walton - First Viola Concerto (Tricky to play but great to listen to - was first played by Hindermith)
• Hummel - Fantasie (an essential part of repetoire and a glorious piece of music, was a transcription of parts of a Mozart Opera [try to guess which one] due to him being taught by Mozart himself)
• Vaughan-Williams - Suite for Viola and Orchestra (A grand set of dances for the viola. The Christmas dance is my favourite, although Galop is also very good)
• Berlioz - Harold in Italy (has a very pivotal Viola part, was infamously not tricky enough for Paganini to even look at)

The First Blog

Hello everyone out there in the digital world. My name is Matt and the reason I created this blog is to write about some of my favourite composers, pieces, eras and orchestra/ensembles throughout the Western history of music.
Hopefully this blog will impart some wisdom of music and, maybe, introduce new people to some obscure composers who shaped the world of classical music today. I also hope to spark some debates on who is better. For example; Bach or Beethoven, Corelli or Muffat, Prokofiev or Debussy.
I would also love some feedback on things, such as, your favourite composer, your particular favourite piece of music and maybe your own ideas of what I write about.

Now, down to business. The first thing I shall write about is the, still, underestimated value and influence of early baroque music on later composers.
I remember being in a music class last year and we were studying a keyboard piece by Sweelinck called "Pavane Lachrimae". This piece was a transcription of a Dowland song "Flow My Tears" and, to me, it was a very good example of early harpsichord writing. This, however, was not the shared view of the class. One student said "I don't like baroque music". This stunned me for a bit and I was fully intent on discussing why this was the case for him and how he could have bunged all baroque compositions into that one statement. He was saved the debate by the teacher wanting to move on.
This type of sentiment is still shared by a wide number of people who do not understand the importance of the era and how it shaped the harmonic structure of nearly every piece of music you hear now, be it a classical symphony by Beethoven, a romantic opera by Wagner or a rap beat by Jay Z.
This is mostly due to the staggering number of people throughout the world whose only knowledge of "classical" music includes Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" and Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik". These are also the type of people who say "classical" as a general term for all music that involves strings, woodwind and timps (oh and excuse my hypocrisy in relation to the blog's title but this is due to "needing a name" as apposed to anything else).
Since the revival of baroque music's popularity in the last century, it has steadily grown more popular and more people know of composers like Vivaldi and Corelli but it still undervalued as a definitive era of music. The reason baroque music, in my view, is so interesting and influential is the experimentalism and the bravery of the harmonic progressions you hear in early music. For example, in Gabreli's "In Ecclesiis" there is a postively Faure like chord change which, when I first heard it, was astonishing. As well as that, in the really early pieces by composers such as Boismortier and Frescobaldi, there are some incredible harmonic progressions which you can struggle to call "functional". Let us not forget the English genius that is Purcell whose vocal music is just magical to behold as is his "Funeral March". Other vocal marvels include Palestrina's "Stabat Mater" and Allegri's "Miserere".
Now, of course nothing about baroque harmony would be complete without at least one reference to the King of harmony, J.S Bach. Without him there would be a very different musical world and a less adventurous one at that. His Chorales alone show the transition from the early renaissance view of writing a line at a time, instead of writing block chords, coupled with the, then, modern harmonys. He is the real link between the renaissence-esque way of writing singing melodic lines and the late baroque, early classical way of using different harmonies than previously comprehended.

Of course there are a few composers who were strongly influenced by this and earlier periods of music. The most important being, of course, Felix Mendelsohn, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Hector Berlioz and Bela Bartok. The most famous pieces (which were influenced in this way) from these composers were Vaughan-Williams' "Sea Symphony" and "Fantasia on Greensleeves" and Berlioz' "Harold in Italy". These composers led the way for the baroque revival in the 19th century and the surge of romantic pieces with the hint of baroque-ism.

There are just so many examples of baroque music that shaped the Western musical world that I just won't have time to fit them into one blog. However I will give you this list of essential baroque music to listen to.

1. Bach - any of his chorales, (or, if you play piano, get his book of chorales and play through them, noting the different keys he wizzes through.)
2. Palestrina - Stabat Mater (it uses two choirs who weave into one another to create an atmosphere of a fused antiphony with the melody being the glue)
3. Allegri - Miserere (an incredible piece of vocal writing, the sopranos having to sing up to a top C [and not as in Beethoven's ninth, but as a normal, equal note])
4. Purcell - Funeral March (If anyone has seen "A Clockwork Orange" you will recognise it immediately, if not this is still a truly marvelous piece of brass writing and a real pleasure to hear the harmonic changes)
5. Handel - Sarabande (This piece utilises one of the most famous and widely used chord progressions in music. It is called La Folia and dates back to 1672. www.folia.tk tells all about it)
6. Vaughan-Williams - Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis (Probably the best examples of string writing I know. Famed for his utilisation of English folk music, this was based on an early baroque piece of music)