My Instrument by Annika Noel

My Instrument

 

I have been playing the viola since about halfway through 4th grade. I started by playing violin but as the year went on I was told there were so few violas that if I played one and stuck with it my college transcript would look better. Even in fourth grade I always planned to go to college and I hadn’t really cared yet anyway so I switched to viola. Though being more unique for colleges might have been my motivation for playing viola in elementary school, that has since changed. Now my reason for playing it is a genuine love for the instrument and music. 

I may not be first chair in my section, but I have now played the viola for over half of my schooling and it is by far my favorite instrument. Violins are often showcased more often and cellos and basses are also beautiful but for me, violas will always be the best strings instrument. For example, look at Yo-Yo Ma, he is a professional cellist who has gotten great renown for playing his instrument and I love his music but I will always stick with my viola as my favorite instrument. 

Anyone in an orchestra can tell you that violins are often seen as the most important part of the orchestra, they usually have the melody, there’s more of them, and they are one of the most recognizable instruments to an audience. When describing violas, people will describe them as slightly bigger violins but smaller than cellos, with different strings. This is an easy definition to help people understand the instrument without being nuanced or annoying. It wasn't until very recently that I found out that there is a deeper history to violas size and strings than just being slightly bigger and with different strings. 

The viola was first created and shown in historical records through paintings in around 1520. It was closely created along with the violin and cello but the debate regarding whether the viola or violin was created first is still ongoing. As the viola became a fixture in orchestras there would be different kinds of violas, like alto and tenor, tuned and created differently so that their registers would overlap. As time went on, tenor violas became useless and orchestras changed so there would be violins, cellos, and alto violas. Violas remained characteristically larger and had a larger sound and volume, when compared to violins, which is crucial to their style. Unfortunately, the larger body of the viola, including its weight, had made the instrument harder to play so adjustments and different attempts were made throughout the decades to try to make it smaller without losing the sound and volume. These attempts have led to some very interesting and different violas. Now professional violists tend to have larger violas despite the increased difficulties while amateurs will have slightly smaller ones. 

I have had several different violas throughout my life playing the instrument and I cannot say I have ever had a particular favorite out of the individual violas I have played. They have all grown with me during the school years as I have sized up and they have blended together in my mind as just the instrument I love to play. My viola is very important to me and though we may almost never have the melody, and it's kind of heavy, I wouldn't ever change it. 

Andrea Amati 1570s viola

https://www.theinstrumentplace.com/history-of-the-viola/

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Viola/History