Have you ever asked or wondered “what are the differences between violin and viola?” I bet you did, I have been asked a lot of times!
The famous viola player William Primrose, who like
Lionel Tertis
did a great job to make the viola well known and appreciated, said that he was asked this question so many times and always answered properly explaining all the differences between violin and viola, like the size, timbre, tone, tuning, range, etc. etc.
One time he felt a bit naughty, maybe a bit tired of having to explain all these things again and again, so he answered: “The difference between violin and viola is that the viola is a violin with a college education”.
Here you’ll find the answers. It’s true, at first sight they look the same, actually if you have only one of the two
instruments you may not see any difference at all.
There are not very big technical differences, but they are subtle and all together give the viola that distinctive, warmer tone and character.
Basically, the main differences are in: (click on each link to go to the pages with all the details)
The viola size is the first difference between violin and viola that you can notice easily, I mean if you have the two instruments in front of you to compare: the viola is bigger. The viola body length goes from 40 cm (15 ¾ in) to 42/43 cm (16.5/17 in) and it is larger accordingly, while the violin body is about 35 cm (13 ¾ in).
There are even bigger instruments, there used to be more in the 16th, 17th and early 18th century because viola music was very simple. Later they cut them down, to make them more comfortable to play.
Read more about Viola size...
The viola tuning is the second important difference between violin and viola and it goes together with the
different viola size, which also gives the viola its different (and nicer, in my opinion) timbre, tone quality.
The viola clef is different from the very familiar treble clef, used for violin and most other high pitched instruments and voices, and from the bass clef, used for low pitched instruments and voices.
Music for viola is written in what is called "C clef", which means that it indicates the position of the note C on the pentagram (five lines). Read more about Viola clef...
Viola range
The viola range is over 3 octaves and a half, nearly 4 octaves. This actually depends on the player's ability to play the high notes. It goes from the C below the middle C on the piano to nearly three octaves above the middle C on the piano. In Walton viola concerto, the highest note is an A three octaves above the middle C.
It's not that the viola cannot produce notes above there, it's quite difficult for the hand to get there because of the viola size.
The violin has a bigger range, although the very high notes, both on the violin and on the viola, can be produced as harmonics.
Before we talk about viola fingering, what is fingering? It
is the art of choosing, on any instrument, the best succession of fingers to play notes.
Yes, you can play notes almost anywhere on the viola and
with any fingers but a good fingering is one that makes your life easier (that is, no unnecessary up and down movements on the fingerboard or unnecessary awkward string crossings) and, more important, makes good music.
Read more about Viola fingering...
and, would you believe it? other differences between
violin and viola are in the players themselves!...
Hear the diffference
Anyway, if you really want to appreciate the difference between violin and viola, I’d recommend you to listen to a piece where they play together, like this short sample from the first movement of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra in this video, here is parts of it with the two instruments.
