Word: violas
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...organization deserve as much recognition as the special big-name artists. In proportion to the pleasure which they give, the individual members of the orchestra, particularly those of the wind choirs, seldom receive their due. To my mind, there is as much beauty in a fine clarinet or viola passage as in an aria performed by a good singer. And as for the horn, the "poetry and passion" of that glamorous instrument is equalled only by outstanding operatic tenors...
...takes at least 70 musicians to make a symphony orchestra, and they must be as carefully fitted as the parts of a machine. A symphony orchestra in good running order has from 28 to 34 violinists, from twelve to 14 viola players, from ten to twelve cellists, from eight to twelve contrabassists., It must have one piccolo player, two flutists, two oboists, an English-horn player, two clarinetists, a bass clarinetist, two bassoonists, a contrabassoonist, four or five horn players, three trumpeters, three trombonists, a tuba player, a kettledrummer, and a harpist. Each of these musical specialists is indispensable...
Unlike many modernist composers, 42-year-old Hindemith has had wide experience as a practical musician, is a virtuoso on the viola. After running away from home at the age of eleven, he earned his own living playing in dance bands, cafés and cinema orchestras. A diligent student, he spent his spare time plowing through courses at the Frankfurt Conservatory, studying violin, viola and composition. In 1915 he became head violinist of the Frankfurt Opera House, rose to the post of conductor. Among German composers his pre-Hitler reputation was second only to that of aging Richard Strauss...
...give cards & spades to most of his contemporaries. In 1936 he was to have introduced one of his larger compositions at a London broadcast, but the death of King George V caused the British Broadcasting Corp. to ask for more appropriate music. Hindemith, who was to appear as viola soloist, could find nothing appropriate to play. Two days before the broadcast he gave up the search, decided to compose something himself for the occasion. Result: his Funeral Music, composed in a single...
...after spending several years trying to find a new plot, Playwright Lonsdale turned up with an old one. It led off with a butler, a decanter of port and the Sunday Observer, and soon made plain that the Duke of Hampshire (Hugh Williams) was carrying on with Liz Pleydell (Viola Keats) and that the Duchess (Ina Claire) wasn't going to be too obliging about it. From then on, the situations were as familiar to veteran Lonsdaliers as are way stations to veteran commuters...