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Viola
The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth higher) and the cello (which is tuned an octave lower). The strings from low to high are typically tuned to C3, G3, D4, and A4. In the past, the viola varied in size and style, as did its names. The word ''viola'' originates from the Italian language. The Italians often used the term '' viola da braccio'', meaning, literally, 'of the arm'. "Brazzo" was another Italian word for the viola, which the Germans adopted as ''Bratsche''. The French had their own names: ''cinquiesme'' was a small viola, ''haute contre'' was a large viola, and ''taile'' was a tenor. Today, the French use the term ''alto'', a reference to its range. The viola was popular in the heyday of five-part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quixote (Strauss)
''Don Quixote'', Op. 35 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss for cello, viola, and orchestra. Subtitled ''Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters'' (''Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character''), the work is based on the novel '' Don Quixote de la Mancha'' by Miguel de Cervantes. Strauss composed this work in Munich in 1897. The premiere took place in Cologne on 8 March 1898, with Friedrich Grützmacher as the cello soloist and Franz Wüllner as the conductor. The score is 45 minutes long and is written in theme and variations form, with the solo cello representing Don Quixote, and the solo viola, tenor tuba, and bass clarinet depicting his squire Sancho Panza. The second variation depicts an episode where Don Quixote encounters a herd of sheep and perceives them as an approaching army. Strauss uses dissonant flutter-tonguing in the brass to emulate the bleating of the sheep, an early instance of this extended technique. Strauss later quot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Primrose
William Primrose (23 August 19041 May 1982) was a Scottish violist and teacher. He performed with the London String Quartet from 1930 to 1935. He then joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra where he formed the Primrose Quartet. He performed in various countries around the world as a soloist throughout his career. He also taught at several universities and institutions. He authored several books on viola technique. Biography Early years William Primrose was born in Glasgow, Scotland to John Primrose and Margaret McInnis (Whiteside) Primrose. He was the oldest of their three children. His father, John Primrose, taught violin and was part of the Scottish Orchestra. His father bought Primrose his first violin in 1908, when Primrose was only 4 years old. That same year, his father arranged violin lessons with Camillo Ritter, who had studied with Joseph Joachim and Otakar Ševčík. Primrose performed his first public concert on the violin in 1916, at the age of 12, playing Mendelsso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (29 December 187622 February 1975) was an English viola, violist. He was one of the first viola players to achieve international fame, and a noted teacher. Career Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants. Tertis's first instrument was the piano, and at thirteen he left home to earn a living as a pianist. In 1892 he had saved enough money to enter Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Trinity College of Music in London, where he had violin lessons under B.M. Carrodus, whilst continuing to learn the piano under R. W. Lewis for three intermittent terms. In 1895, after six months at Leipzig Conservatorium, Tertis entered the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London and studied the violin under Hans Wessely. In 1897, whilst at the RAM, he was encouraged by the principal, Alexander Mackenzie (composer), Alexander Mackenzie, to take up the viola instead. Under the additional influen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, scientific pitch notation, C2, G2, D3 and A3. The viola's four strings are each an octave higher. Music for the cello is generally written in the bass clef; the tenor clef and treble clef are used for higher-range passages. Played by a ''List of cellists, cellist'' or ''violoncellist'', it enjoys a large solo repertoire Cello sonata, with and List of solo cello pieces, without accompaniment, as well as numerous cello concerto, concerti. As a solo instrument, the cello uses its whole range, from bass to soprano, and in chamber music, such as string quartets and the orchestra's string section, it often plays the bass part, where it may be reinforced an octave lower by the double basses. Figured bass music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viola Da Braccio
Viola da braccio (from Italian "arm viola", plural ''viole da braccio'') is a term variously applied during the baroque period to instruments of the violin family, in distinction to the viola da gamba ("leg viola") and the viol family to which the latter belongs. At first "''da braccio''" seems to encompass the entire violin family. Monteverdi's '' Orfeo'' (printed 1609) designates an entire six-part string section "''viole da brazzo''", apparently including bass instruments held between the knees like the cello and bass violin. His '' Selva morale'' (1641) contains a piece calling for "''due violini & 3 viole da brazzo ouero 3 Tronboni''" (2 violins & 3 viole da braccio or trombones), reflecting a general shift in meaning towards the lower instruments. Eventually it came to be reserved for the alto member, the viola. A famous example is Bach's Sixth Brandenburg Concerto (1721), combining two viole da braccio with two viole da gamba. The German word for viola, ''Bratsche'', i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold En Italie
(''Harold in Italy, symphony with viola obbligato''), as the manuscript describes it, is a four-movement orchestral work by Hector Berlioz, his Opus 16, H. 68, written in 1834. Throughout, the unusual viola part represents the titular protagonist, without casting the form as a concerto. The movements have these titles, alluding to a programme: # ''Harold in the mountains'' # ''March of the pilgrims'' # ''Serenade of an Abruzzo mountaineer'' # ''Orgy of bandits'' Creation The Italian composer Niccolò Paganini encouraged Hector Berlioz to write . The two first met after a concert of Berlioz's works conducted by Narcisse Girard on 22 December 1833, three years after the premiere of Berlioz's . According to Berlioz' , Paganini had acquired a "superb viola", a Stradivarius (the so-called "Paganini-Mendelssohn") — "But I have no suitable music. Would you like to write a solo for viola? You are the only one I can trust for this task." ("") Berlioz began "by writing a solo for v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino piccolo and the pochette (musical instrument), pochette, but these are virtually unused. Most violins have a hollow wooden body, and commonly have four strings (music), strings (sometimes five-string violin, five), usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and are most commonly played by drawing a bow (music), bow across the strings. The violin can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and, in specialized cases, by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow (col legno). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical music, Western classical tradition, both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras) and as solo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violin Family
The violin family of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the 16th century. At the time the name of this family of instruments was viole da braccio which was used to distinguish them from the viol family (viole ''da gamba''). The standard modern violin family consists of the violin, viola, cello, and (possibly) double bass. Instrument names in the violin family are all derived from the root ''viola'', which is a derivative of the Medieval Latin word ''vitula'' (meaning "stringed instrument"). A ''violin'' is a "little viola", a ''violone'' is a "big viola" or a bass violin, and a ''violoncello'' (often abbreviated ''cello'') is a "small violone" (or literally, a "small big viola"). (The '' violone'' is not part of the modern violin family; its place is taken by the modern double bass, an instrument with a mix of violin and viol characteristics.) Background The instruments of the violin family may be descended in part from the lira da braccio and the medieval Byzan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet
The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violinists, a Viola, violist, and a Cello, cellist. The string quartet was developed into its present form by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, whose works in the 1750s established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. Since that time, the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form; writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. String quartet composition flourished in the Classical music era, Classical era, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven and Franz Schubert, Schubert each wrote a number of them. Many Romantic era music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-twentieth-century composers composed string quarte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenor Violin
A tenor violin (or tenor viola) is an instrument with a range between those of the cello and the viola. An earlier development of the evolution of the violin family of instruments, the instrument is not standard in the modern symphony orchestra. Its tuning, typically G2-D3-A3-E4 (an octave below the regular violin) places the range between the cello and viola and thus is sometimes confused with the modern baritone violin which has the same tuning on the standard violin body. History As a formal development, the 17th-century tenor violin existed as an instrument with a body larger than a viola but with a short neck. In earlier designs, the tenor was played upright in the musician's lap. Tenor violin parts were written in Clef#Tenor clef, tenor clef. Antonio Stradivari constructed two different models of tenor violin, as well as tenor variations of violas. As with the violins of the period, many of these examples feature fretted fingerboard. The smaller tenor violins were of an u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cello Suites (Bach)
The six Cello Suites, BWV 1007–1012, are suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). They are some of the most frequently performed solo compositions ever written for cello. Bach most likely composed them during the period 1717–1723, when he served as ''Kapellmeister'' in Köthen. The title given on the cover of the Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript was ''Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso'' (Suites for cello solo without bass). As usual in a Baroque musical suite, after the prelude which begins each suite, all the other movements are based around baroque dance types.Wittstruck, Anna."Dancing with J.S. Bach and a Cello – Introduction". Stanford University. ''Stanford.edu''. 2012. The cello suites are structured in six movements each: prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande, two minuets or two bourrées or two gavottes, and a final gigue. Gary S. Dalkin of MusicWeb International called Bach's cello suites "among the most profound of all classica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
