Sonata Per Viola Solo

SKU: BT.YE0009

Very little is known about the two sonatas which appear here in their original keys. They were placed in the library of the Music School in Oxford at the end of the seventeenth century in a form convenient for playing (i.e.unbound). The library was catalogued by Hake between 1850 and 1855 and the sonatas were eventually bound in 1855 with other instrumental and vocal manuscripts of the same period, some of which are dated 1698.

The sonatasare both inscribed on the title page Sonata Violone Solo. Col Basso per l'Organo, o Cembalo. A third sonata bears the words Sonata Violino e Violoncino â?¦ di Giovannino del Violone. Giovannino (=Little, or Young John)musthave been a performer, and although the third sonata has been copied by a different hand, it is conceivable that Giovannino is a connecting link between the three. He cannot, however, be assumed to be theirauthor.

The Violone was a six-stringed instrument with frets, and there is evidence to suggest that the Contrabasso of the same period was similar but probably a little larger; the Violoncino (=Little Violone, orVioloncello) must have been smaller. The word 'Violone' was also used as a collective term embracing all members of the Viol family, which means that the sonatas might well have been written for a tenor or a bass Viol, and notnecessarily a Violone as such. Indeed, when they are played on a Violone, or Double Bass the continuo bass line must be played at a lower pitch than the solo instrument, to prevent inversion of the intended harmony. (The use ofa Violone/Double Bass continuo or 16' organ tone would overcome this problem.)

The editor has added no ornaments or embellishments to the solo part as it appears in the original manuscript. It is open to debate whether aViolone player, owing to the very nature of his instrument, would have used any but the simplest melodic decorations. Nevertheless, the performer should acquaint himself thoroughly with those seventeenth century traditions thatare known today (see Dart.

SKU: HL.48024561

ISBN 9781784543518. 0.078 inches.

This Sonata for Viola (unaccompanied) was written in 1999. The soloists C-string is tuned down a semitone for the entire piece, giving a duskier quality to the tone-colour, and setting up in the very first bar the characteristic melodic/harmonic shape that infiltrates all four movements. I - slowish and thoughtful - gradually expands this opening idea into cantilena and pattern, as prelude to II - Vivacissimo - played muted throughout, a tremolando tarantella, with contrasting section, chunky double-stops, alternating withsomething of a gigue. III - adagio - rhapsodic and quasi-improvisando, enclosing a simple self-contained melody, and linking into IV, where the gigue-like material from the scherzo provides the principal substance, expanding into an ardent cantabile, and calminginto the Coda not just the finale but, in its reminiscences of I, to the sonata as a whole.

SKU: IS.VA4754EM

ISBN 9790365047543.

Thou gh born in the Netherlands, composer Marinus de Jong (1891 - 1984) traded his Dutch citizenship for a Belgian one in 1926, and is considered one of Belgium's most prominent composers and pianists of the 20th century. He began his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, Belgium, at the age of 15, studying under Lodewijk Mortelmans and Emile Bosquet. His Sonata for Viola Solo, Op. 106 (Sonate voor altviool solo), published by Metropolis Music Publishers in 1973, is a masterful work in four movements. It demonstrates not only his compositional style, sometimes playful and jazzy, other times plaintive and improvisatory, but also his familiarity with the viola, an instrument which he also played.