“The viola is commonly (with rare exceptions indeed) played by infirm violinists, or by decrepit players of wind instruments who happen to have been acquainted with a stringed instrument once upon a time: at best a competent viola player occupies the first desk, so that he may play the occasional soli for that instrument: but, I have even seen this function performed by the leader of the first violins. It was pointed out to me that in a large orchestra, which contained eight violas, there was only one player who could deal with the rather difficult passages in one of my later scores!
"Such a state of things may be excusable from a humane point of view; it arose from the older methods of instrumentation, where the role of the viola consisted for the most part in filling up the accompaniments; and it has since found some sort of justification in the meager method of instrumentation adopted by the composers of Italian operas, whose works constitute an important element in he repertoire of the German opera theaters.”
Project Gutenberg is truly a marvelous creation; this was from Wagner’s On Conducting, which I found with my new iPhone and downloaded from the Project Gutenberg site in a few seconds.
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