# Violas



## Architekton (Jan 30, 2017)

Hello everyone!

I just want to ask, since I didnt went to music school and I am selfthought, how do you guys come up with what violas do in your compositions?

For example I write mostly film music and I lay down all harmonies and melodies with violin and cello sections...but somehow violas always get unused. I am satisfied with the sound, but I am bit lost on this field what exactly do violas do or have to do in film music arrangment.

Sorry for newb question, but have to start somewhere.

Thx


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## newcreation08 (Jan 30, 2017)

Hi,
they are placed in the middle section. For example, if your 1. violins play your melody, the celli (and basses) the bass part, then 2. violins and violas fill up the middle section of the chord.
Greetings!


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## Lassi Tani (Jan 30, 2017)

You can write a melody line for violas too. Or make them do counterpoint against violins and celli. Or as newcreation said, fill up the middle section of the chord with violas. You could get a score of film you like, and study how the composer used violas in the score, while listening to the sound. I've been doing that with Force Awakens score.


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## Parsifal666 (Jan 30, 2017)

Check out Haydn and/or Mozart's string quartets to get a good grasp on the sound of the viola and how it works with the other strings. Beethoven is the composer who started really making them equally important in Chamber music (though Haydn and Mozart certainly experimented with that), so probably a good idea to check his stuff after.

Reccomendations:

Haydn "Emperor" Quartet
Mozart "Dissonance"
Beethoven opus 59

Schnittke's Viola Concerto is an interesting take on the instrument and again, you can get used to the sound of the viola among other instruments.

For the more extensive integration in the orchestra just grab as recommended above.

If you're looking for unbelievable mastery of orchestration in general, not limited to strings, pick up any symphony by Gustav Mahler, and/or Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony.

.


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## tokatila (Jan 30, 2017)

The reason why you can't hear a viola on recordings is that recording technology has reached such an advanced level of development that all extraneous noise is eliminated.

Seriously; double with violins/cello/bass? Use to bring rhythmic motion (this is what I usually see in movie scores, maybe)? Independent lines? Filling harmonies? Syncopated figures?

The problem isn't what you can do with violas, the problem is that you can do so much with them. Like light a fire.


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## newcreation08 (Jan 30, 2017)

If you like, you can also listen to Anton Bruckner's Symphonies. He gives them quite some times important solo parts, which sound very nice with the warm tone of the violas.


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## Haakond (Jan 30, 2017)

When the melody is in the horns or clarinets, I often double it with the viola. Otherwise, I use them to fill out the chord, or rhythmic motives (Listen to Duel of the fates, by John Williams)


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## Mithrandir (Jan 30, 2017)

The beautiful _religioso _rendition of the Island theme in Williams's _Journey to the Island_ has violas and cellos playing the melody, doubled by horns, clarinets and bassoons.


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## Arbee (Jan 30, 2017)

Mithrandir said:


> The beautiful _religioso _rendition of the Island theme in Williams's _Journey to the Island_ has violas and cellos playing the melody, doubled by horns, clarinets and bassoons.



Thanks for reminding me just how beautiful this is


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## Parsifal666 (Jan 30, 2017)

Mithrandir said:


> The beautiful _religioso _rendition of the Island theme in Williams's _Journey to the Island_ has violas and cellos playing the melody, doubled by horns, clarinets and bassoons.




Awesome.


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## thesteelydane (Jan 30, 2017)

The viola is the coolest instrument of them all! It can do pretty much everything cello and violins can do. Unfortunately we have been neglected for solo repertoire, but luckily we can steal from both the violin and cello repertoire, and there are a few gems of "proper" solo repertoire, if you want to get grips with the timbre.

Take for example Vieuxtemps capriccio.



The viola doesn't really have to the power to cut through an orchestra like a violin in a violin concerto, but luckily that didn't stop Walton from writing a superb viola concerto. It's my personal theory that he modeled it on Prokofiev 's 1st violin concerto, because they are VERY similar. Roberto sounds a bit nervous here, but I don't blame him. It's a stupidly difficult piece. 



And then of course there's one of my favorite artists of all time, Kim Kashkashian. What a beautiful, glorious sound she has!


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## NoamL (Jan 30, 2017)

Perhaps you are making a mistake? in thinking of the violas, violins and cellos as "separate instruments." They are far more alike than the flute and the bassoon, or the trombone and the horn, are to each other.

Just think of "the strings." What particular string section gets a part has to do with tessitura. I wrote about that here: *How do i write chords to Strings?*

The violin, viola and cello are extremely similar in their playing technique - so all of the sorts of musical material that you would consider idiomatic to the violin is idiomatic to the viola as well. There is no need to only have the violas playing rhythmic noodling, or doubling other lines at the octave, or inner voices of chord pads, although these three are certainly among the more common roles.

The viola and cello are natural melodic instruments because they correspond to the ranges of the human voice. The viola is an alto instrument of course, and the cello is very roughly a baritone (but can also play tenor).


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## Architekton (Jan 31, 2017)

Thanks for the info guys, gonna try to incorporate more violas to my songs....


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## JJP (Jan 31, 2017)

This is one of the pitfalls of learning to write on a sequencer. If you were writing for live instruments, the need for violas would become apparent rather quickly.

The violins and cellos can play all the notes you need, but that doesn't mean that they are the best option. You will often have the violins playing at the bottom of their range while the cellos are playing at the top of theirs. If these were live instruments, it would be very difficult to make them blend into a homogenous ensemble sound. In a DAW, you can ride automation or play with eq and velocity to force it to work, but to an experienced ear it will still sound unnatural.

Using the viola section gives you the ability to redistribute the notes across the sections so that each section is playing in relatively the same register on its instrument (i.e. high, middle, low, etc). This allows them to blend much better. Your middle notes won't be forced to be in the lowest octave of the violins or the higher octaves of the cellos because the violas can cover the middle range like the violins and cellos do the high and low.

Once you are able to create a homogenous sound, you have the ability to choose which notes stand out based on how you voice them within the instrument's range. This provides more options for color because you can, for example, place the melody on an instrument where it will sparkle, be dark, or stand out against the texture of the rest of the ensemble. If you want a dark, rough, chord, you can voice it in the lower registers of the instruments. If you want that same chord to sound more strident, you can voice it in the higher register of the instruments.

I am simplifying things, but this is part of the basic theory behind orchestration. Instruments have different sound qualities in their different registers. A high cello has a very different texture than a low cello. Each register is useful in its own way. Great writers know how to exploit these registers in almost magical ways.


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## mcalis (Jan 31, 2017)

I tend to think of violas as simply warmer/darker violins and use them accordingly. Generally speaking the section size of violas is smaller too, so I find myself using them in places where I want a more intimate sound. Something else I tend to do is repeat a violin melody/rhythm one octave lower on the violas...not saying that's that how you should use them, but that's what I find myself doing.

Perhaps violas should be renamed violins III for people to use them more


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## peter5992 (Jan 31, 2017)

Violas can be extremely expressive ... use them to your best advantage. Give them their own lines. (and ignore all the viola jokes you may have seen on facebook).


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## David Stiles (Jan 31, 2017)

Personally, I like to write for strings by having the violins and violas play off each other, sometimes by providing harmonic support, and at other times providing counterpoint. I often place the violas in the lowest octave of their range, a place that violins cannot fully inhabit. And I would second what peter5992 just said about them being extremely expressive. I actually find them to be more expressive (and also a bit more melancholy) than the violins. The orchestra would be a much poorer place without them.


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## Saxer (Feb 1, 2017)

The DAW concept of orchestral composing is very different to the real world. If you want a 'chord pad' you can't use a cello patch and play chords... one note per string instrument section is a healthy thing in learning string writing. Just use five monophonic patches (Vl1/Vl2/Vla/Ce/Bass). Get used to it before thinking of divisi at all. If you write a part for string section that way you will miss the viola pretty soon.


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## Smikes77 (Feb 1, 2017)

thesteelydane said:


> The viola is the coolest instrument of them all! It can do pretty much everything cello and violins can do. Unfortunately we have been neglected for solo repertoire, but luckily we can steal from both the violin and cello repertoire, and there are a few gems of "proper" solo repertoire, if you want to get grips with the timbre.
> 
> Take for example Vieuxtemps capriccio.
> 
> ...




I read that as Kim kardashian first. I thought 'Damn, she`s all over social media but keeps THAT quiet'


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## thesteelydane (Feb 1, 2017)

Smikes77 said:


> I read that as Kim kardashian first. I thought 'Damn, she`s all over social media but keeps THAT quiet'


Someone does every time I mention her name. One is a true artist and one is errr....not.

It appears it happens to herself as well: "In an interview with Hollywood.com, Kashkashian claimed that she is constantly confused with reality television personality Kim Kardashian due to their similar spelling surnames. She commented "People actually realize that I’m not that person, but they look at my credit card at a store and say, 'Oh, you’re not Kim Kardashian, are you?' It’s been happening for years." (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Kashkashian)


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## Smikes77 (Feb 1, 2017)

thesteelydane said:


> Someone does every time I mention her name. One is a true artist and one is errr....not.
> 
> It appears it happens to herself as well: "In an interview with Hollywood.com, Kashkashian claimed that she is constantly confused with reality television personality Kim Kardashian due to their similar spelling surnames. She commented "People actually realize that I’m not that person, but they look at my credit card at a store and say, 'Oh, you’re not Kim Kardashian, are you?' It’s been happening for years." (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Kashkashian)



What total idiots...


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