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Differences between
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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”.
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
Viola size
Viola tuning
Viola clef
Viola range
Viola fingering
and, would you believe it? in the players themselves!...
Click on each link to go to the pages with all the details.
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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 second movement of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra or watch this video of the cadenza from the first movement (wonder who is the viola player? myself!).
Also you can read a description of it and even watch and listen to the whole work played by two famous violin players (Oistrakh father and son)conducted by another famous violin player (Menuhin). By the way, out of these three, two were famous violin players who played the viola too.
