The Primrose International Viola Archive (PIVA) is the official viola archive of both the International Viola Society and American Viola Society. It is located in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. Scottish-American violist William Primrose started the archive with the donation of his many materials on the viola. [1]
Brigham Young University faculty violist emeritus David Dalton studied viola under William Primrose at Indiana University. While writing Primrose's memoirs, Dalton suggested that the Harold B. Lee library could preserve Primrose's papers. After meeting with library officials in 1974, Primrose decided to donate his memorabilia to the Harold B. Lee library as part of a project to start a national-scale viola archive. [2] [3] In 1979, the archive was established, and the library's existing viola holdings along with Primrose's contributions formed the Primrose Viola Archive. [2]
In 1981, the International Viola Society combined its archive in Austria with the Primrose archive, and the archive's name changed to the Primrose International Viola Archive. From 1983, the archive has collected newly published viola music and made a special effort to make its repository of viola music exhaustive. Notable donors include Jan Albrecht, Paul Doktor, Ulrich Druner, Walter Lebermann, Rudolf Tretzsch, Ernst Wallfisch, and Franz Zeyringer, founder of the International Viola Society. [2] [4] In 2005, Brigham Young University hosted the American Viola Society's Primrose International Viola Competition and Festival. [5]
The PIVA includes over 6,000 published scores, [6] around 250 sound recordings, and hundreds of manuscripts and correspondence. [2]
The collection includes viola manuscripts from Primrose's collection, a viola manuscript by Ernst Toch with a dedication to Primrose, a holograph score of Efrem Zimbalist's "Sarasateana: Suite of Spanish Dances," Milhaud's second viola concerto with a dedication from the composer, the working manuscript for Béla Bartók's viola concerto, and the manuscript for George Rochberg's Viola Sonata. [2] The collection also includes Primrose recordings and a Primrose photo archive.
The viola ( vee-OH-lə, Italian:[ˈvjɔːla,viˈɔːla]) is a string instrument that is usually bowed. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth higher) and the cello (which is tuned an octave lower). The strings from low to high are typically tuned to C3, G3, D4, and A4.
William Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher. He performed with the London String Quartet from 1930 to 1935. He then joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra where he formed the Primrose Quartet. He performed in various countries around the world as a soloist throughout his career. He also taught at several universities and institutions. He authored several books on viola technique.
A viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body of musical instruments such as an orchestra or chamber music ensemble. Throughout music history, especially during the Baroque, Classical, Romantic eras, viola was viewed mostly as an ensemble instrument. Though there were a few notable concertos written for the instrument in this time period, these instances were quite rare and the instrument continued to be ignored. However, during the 20th century, the instrument was revitalized thanks to the work of a number of violists and composers, which led to the commission and composition of many more viola concertos, expanding the repertoire significantly.
The Viola Concerto, Sz. 120, BB 128 was one of the last pieces Béla Bartók wrote. He began composing it while living in Saranac Lake, New York, in July 1945. It was commissioned by William Primrose, a respected violist who knew that Bartók could provide a challenging piece for him to perform. He said that Bartók should not "feel in any way proscribed by the apparent technical limitations of the instrument". Bartók was suffering the terminal stages of leukemia when he began writing the piece and left only sketches at the time of his death.
Antoine Tamestit is a French violist.
Jennifer Stumm is a concert violist, professor of viola at the University of Music and Arts of the City of Vienna and director of the Ilumina Festival in São Paulo.
Martha Strongin Katz is a violist and member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she teaches viola and chamber music. She was a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet, along with her former husband, Paul Katz (cellist), and Peter Salaff and Donald Weilerstein (violinists). From 1969 until her departure from the group in 1980, she performed more than 1,000 concerts, including appearances at the White House, the Grammy Awards, on the NBC Today Show, and in the major concert halls of five continents.
The Primrose International Viola Competition (PIVC), also referred to as the Primrose Memorial Scholarship Competition (PMSC), is an international music competition for viola players sponsored by the American Viola Society and named for the 20th-century virtuoso William Primrose.
Brigham Young University Press was the university press of Brigham Young University (BYU).
The L. Tom Perry Special Collections is the special collections department of Brigham Young University (BYU)'s Harold B. Lee Library in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1957 with 1,000 books and 50 manuscript collections, as of 2016 the Library's special collections contained over 300,000 books, 11,000 manuscript collections, and over 2.5 million photographs, among many other rare and unique research materials. Since its inception, the special collections have been housed in numerous places including the crawl space of a university building and a wholesale grocery warehouse. Since 2016, the special collections have been located on the first floor of the Harold B. Lee Library and is considered to hold "the finest collection of rare books in the Intermountain West and the second finest Mormon collection in existence".
Sheila Browne is an American-Irish concert violist from Gladwyne, Pennsylvania with dual citizenship. She is a concert and recording artist and Associate Professor at the University of Delaware. For ten years she was on faculty and Associate Professor of Viola at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Named the William Primrose Recitalist of 2016 in conjunction with the Primrose International Viola Archive (PIVA), Ms. Browne has played solo, concerto and chamber music concerts and has played principal of orchestras on six continents, performing in major venues in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. She is in the Fire Pink Trio and principal of the New York Women's Philharmonic, making her Carnegie- Stern Hall concerto debut in 2011. Browne is the Director and faculty member of the January Karen Tuttle Viola Workshop, founder in 2015 and faculty member of the first European Karen Tuttle Viola Workshop at NYU- Prague 2016, and has served on the Executive Board of the American Viola Society Ms. Browne was the violist of the Gotham, Arianna, Pelligrini and Serafin string quartets. She has served on the faculties of Duke and New York universities, University of Missouri- St. Louis and of Tennessee- Knoxville, and Juilliard's Music Advancement Program.
Ernst Wallfisch was a prominent viola soloist, recording artist and pedagogue, primarily remembered along with his wife, pianist Lory Wallfisch, as partners of the Wallfisch Duo.
Lawrence Power is a British violist, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.
The American Viola Society (AVS) is an organization headquartered in Dallas, Texas that encourages excellence in performance, pedagogy, research, composition, and lutherie by fostering communication and friendship among violists of all skill levels, ages, nationalities, and backgrounds.
Merrill Bradshaw was an American composer and professor at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he was composer-in-residence from 1967 to 1994.
Carl Valentin Wunderle was a German-American musician and composer. He was a child prodigy in music, and spent his entire adult life playing violin and viola in major U.S. orchestras in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, while at the same time maintaining a separate concertizing career. He played numerous instruments including the viola d'amore, for which he wrote several compositions.
Michael O. Tunnell is an American children's writer and educator. He was the department chair of children's literature at Brigham Young University (BYU), but recently retired. He has published several books on children's literature, especially on the work of Lloyd Alexander. Tunnell is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
David Johnson Dalton was an American violist, author, and professor emeritus at Brigham Young University (BYU). He graduated from Eastman School of Music in 1961 and received his doctorate in viola performance in 1970 at Indiana University School of Music under William Primrose. As a faculty member at BYU, Dalton's main contribution was the establishment of the Primrose International Viola Archive, one of the largest viola archives in the world. Dalton's other significant positions include editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society, president of the American Viola Society, and president of the International Viola Society.
The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the main academic library of Brigham Young University (BYU) located in Provo, Utah. The library started as a small collection of books in the president's office in 1876 before moving in 1891. The Heber J. Grant Library building was completed in 1925, and in 1961 the library moved to the newly constructed J. Reuben Clark Library where it stands today. That building was renamed to the Harold B. Lee Library in 1974.
The International Harp Archives (IHA) is a collection of archives from the World Harp Congress, American Harp Society, and individual harpists. It is located at the Harold B. Lee Library in Brigham Young University (BYU). The archives began as a collection established by Samuel and Rosalie Pratt, and it may be the largest collection of harp materials in the world.