etudes – for viola
programme note:
These short etudes are an exercise on two very different aspects of making music. One starts from a classical view of virtuosity: many notes, a high tempo and rapid alternation of playing techniques. The other is challenging in terms of timing, allowing silences, and dealing with freedom.
Bearing these challenges in mind, I also set to work myself. String quartets II and III were in fact written using these viola etudes as a basis.