The Viola in My Life*

I love the viola. It has a darker tone quality than the violin, which I find very expressive. I’ve written for it quite a bit, but it’s been awhile. Then I was reminded of it on Monday afternoon while I was driving to the grocery store. The classical radio station was playing Brahms’ Sonata no. 1 for Clarinet and Piano (between what comes in from Ann Arbor and Canada, we get really decent classical radio around here!). Brahms wrote two clarinet sonatas, and they’ve also been transcribed for the viola. I used to play them with a violist when I was an undergrad. (I also had a huge crush on said violist, but that is of no relevance. 😉 )

Here’s a link to the dynamite violist Kim Kashkashian’s recording of the Brahms sonatas.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to write for piano and viola again, in a somewhat Brahmsian, decadent late-romantic vein.

Note: the MIDI viola sound suffered a bit in translation from the sequencing program to the audio file. Oh well, like I said before, mmm, cheese! 🙂

Speaking of which, here’s a pretty good collection of viola jokes.

*Morton Feldman wrote a series of pieces with this title. It’s one of my favoritest titles ever…

Click play to listen:

[audio:http://missmusicnerd.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/audio/TheViolainMyLifeAgain.mp3|titles=The Viola in My Life, Again]

Thanks for listening!