Kollinui - The Art Of The Viola [CD]

Chamber Works for ViolaBeethoven Schumann Handel / Halvorsen Hindemith BrittenA Short History of the ViolaWhat follows sounds like the beginning of a viola joke,but it is nothing but the truth. What have Joseph Haydnand the viola in common? The answer is that they wereboth the beginning and the end. Both were marginalisedby the next generation and laughed at. Both have beenrehabilitated in more recent times. So, as Haydnestablished the symphony, the string quartet, the pianosonata and the oratorio in their modern forms without,since his time, any improvements in these forms, so theviola is also the origin and centre of the rich anddazzling history of string instruments.From the viola the violin, a 'little viola', developed,and the violone, a 'big viola', a sort of double bass, thesmaller form of which is the cello, the 'little violone'.Etymology is also on our side. 'Viola' comes from theLatin word vitulari (to celebrate). The German wordGeige (violin) comes from the Middle High Germangige, related to the German gicksen (to squeak) thattoday is reserved for our colleagues in the brass. Cello,as we have said, is a simple diminutive.In spite of its tempestuous and spectacular career,we have for a long time been swept aside by theinstruments mentioned and banished to the orchestralbasement. To start with early history, stringinstruments, in Asia, where almost all elements ofcivilisation had their origin, developed from pluckedinstruments. In the beginning there were bows, a stickfrom the ends of which a cord was stretched. The firstresonance chamber was the mouth, with an implementheld in front. Later men had recourse to gourds, seashells,tortoise-shells, coconut-shells and woodenboxes, stretched strings across them and put the bow toa new use, the one we have today. The Indianravanastron, a functioning string instrument, dates fromfive thousand years before Christ; from the NorthAfrican rebab came the pear-shaped European rebec.The French vielle with four strings and F-holes wasrelated to the later form of the viola.In the Middle Ages the fiddle (like viola derivedfrom the Latin vitulari) was the favourite instrument,played by wandering musicians and performers to kingsand to peasants. From the sixteenth century there arosein the North Italian cities of Milan, Brescia, Cremonaand Venice makers such as Andrea and Nicola Amati,Gasparo da Sal??, Andrea Guarneri and AntonioStradivari, who set standards in instrument-making thatup till today have never been exceeded.There were two viola prototypes from which alllater instruments developed (with the viola d'amore,that continued into the Romantic period for specialeffects, between the two):The viola da braccio (the last word from the Italianfor arm, the derivation of the German word for viola,Bratsche), flat, with arched bouts, F-holes and fourstrings over a curved bridge, and neck set at the sameplane as the body; it was played held horizontally. Fromthis the violin developed.The viola da gamba was,