8/15/2023 0 Comments Viola pizzicato![]() ![]() Positions above the third are inconvenienced by the awkwardness of getting around the shoulder of the viola with the left hand. The extension of the left forearm in the first position proves tiring after long playing. Playing the viola requires a large hand and strong fingers, particularly the fourth finger, which is held in a more extended position than on the violin. Since there is a difference of some 2 1/2 inches in the'two string lengths, the major and minor second intervals between the fingers are proportionately larger. The fingering system of the viola is identical with that of the violin. ![]() Some players use wound strings for all four, and metal A-strings are also used. The two lower strings are wound with wire, the others being plain gut. They are not to be shunned, but one should realize that only skillful players with good instruments can make them sound effectively. The viola's heavier strings speak with more reluctance, and tone production requires a certain amount of "digging in." Light and airy types of bowing are therefore less natural to the viola than to the violin. The bow is somewhat thicker than the violin bow, and hence heavier. The larger the instrument the more difficult it is to handle, especially when playing in upper positions. Even the largest violas are not big enough in comparison with the violin to correspond to the pitch a perfect fifth lower, and this discrepancy is doubtless responsible in large part for the unique tone quality of the viola. The viola presents an especially marked example of the continuity of the evolutionary process, which we cannot assume to be completed in the case of any of our instruments.Ī hypothetical norm or average may be given for the principal measurements: length of body 16 5/8 inches length of neck 6 1/16 inches over-all length 27 1/4 inches sounding length of strings 15 1/4 inches. This common ideal is being delayed in its crystallizing by an unusual divergence of opinion among performers, composers, and listeners, both as to what kind of tone the viola should produce and what kind of music it should be expected to play. It seems that every imaginable combination of measurements has been tried in the as yet unfinished evolutionary process, the goal of which is to achieve an instrumental design that will answer to a common ideal of the viola's sound and capabilities. Fine violas exist, and are being played, whose measurements show variations of 1 1/2 to 2 inches in body length, and comparable differences in sounding string lengths. The proportions of the viola cannot be as nearly defined as those of the violin, which can be said to have a standard size within quite small limits of variation. ![]()
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