3,127 Notes for Solo Viola

Hear an excerpt of this piece.

Composer: David Heuser
Instrumentation: Viola
Year Composed: 1996
Duration:7 minutes, 30 seconds
Pages (score): 10
Cost: Purchase: $15.00

Representative Performances:

• Jethro Marks, viola; SCI National Conference, Bloomington, IN, April 17. 1998
• Lenny Schranze, viola; Imagine '97 New Music Festival, Memphis, TN, February 21, 1997

Performance by Allyson Dawkins (2/99) reviewed in the San Antonio Express News by Mike Greenburg:

"I was impressed with its finely crafted mix of aggressiveness, rhythmic drive and yearning melody."

3,127 Notes for Solo Viola was written in the Spring of 1996 and is about seven-and-a-half minutes long. The work roughly takes the shape of a rondo in eight parts: ABACABDA. The reoccurring A music is aggressive and features a pedal point on the open G string and double-stops. By contrast the B music is slower and more lyrical, and the C music much softer and played sul ponticello. The return of the slow B-section tune (louder this time) rushes into the short, flashy D section which precedes the final return of the opening music.