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Old Jun 22 2008, 4:15 PM
J. Lee Graham J. Lee Graham is offline

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Biddy, this is an ambitious and noble undertaking. I regret I only had time this morning to hear the first movement, but here are my impressions.

I have to agree with some of the prior comments about the technical demands you've made of the viola. While not impossible, many of the double stop passages are awkward because of the rapid changes in position necessary; one sees such things in Paganini, and in etudes specifically written as musical calishthenics, but you have to ask yourself whether you only want your piece decently playable by five to ten percent of the professional violists out there. Also, the arpeggios in the viola solo at 225-226 are, in my opinion, unplayable; the shifts back and forth from 3rd to 1st position at that speed are prohibitive. The others in the same section are fairly straightforward, though.

There is a curious mix of technical knowledge and nievete in this movement. There is plenty of rhythmic variety, and you seem to know something of what the capabilities of your forces are, yet the piece is harmonically quite static - whole sections going back and forth between two chords in various inversions, sometimes outlining the same chord for many measures on end, as if you didn't know what to do, so you did nothing. Finally at measure 159 there is some harmonic interest, but it seems incongruous, having nothing whatever do with what came before. If I were you, I would work on greater harmonic variety, as well as modulations and transitions.
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