Throughout music history, the viola has not always been thought of as a solo
instrument. There were a number of problems with the actual size and shape of the viola,
which made it difficult to play, and these problems helped shape the literature that was
written for the instrument. In order to play the viola today, a violist must have the same
technique as a violinist, but that wasn’t always the case. Taking a look at the music from
each time period, it is obvious that the viola literature has changed significantly through
the centuries. The amount of literature written in each time period holds some
significance to how the viola was viewed. The attached appendix shows the original
viola music during each time period. Prior to the 20th century, there was little viola
literature, but in the 20th century the outlook of the viola really changed. This appendix is
organized into time periods to help students and teachers know what literature is
available for the viola from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, as well as the
20th and 21st centuries.
The viola as we know it today came into being about the same time as the rest of
the violin family, in about 1535 in northern Italy. The modern viola was developed from
the luther’s quest to achieve greater acoustical potential than other existing bowed
instruments. They wanted to find a model that was attractive, and to make a viola that
could be played and held with maximum ease. The main problem with the original viola
is that it was too big and it could hardly be played on the arm. Around 1500, the word
“viola” was more of a general term that could mean any string instrument. So the word
itself was modified in the 16th and 17th centuries to help define a specific instrument, such
as viola da braccio (meaning arm viola), viola da gamba (meaning leg viola), or basso di
viola da gamba (meaning bass viol).