These Studies by Hubert Ries, from volume 2 of his famous Violin School, were originally written for the violin. Some years ago, I transcribed them for viola for my own use and found them to be very effective aids for building fluency in the positions, especially second position – so often neglected in pedagogical materials for viola. Although Ries published his first version of the Violin School in c. 1873, the English language version from which I have worked was published in 1908 and came from the library of the wonderful violinist, conductor, and teacher, Marie Endres, in Madison, Wisconsin.
I have taken a “less is more” approach to editing, providing just enough fingering to clarify the position at the beginning of each exercise, and to address passages that are unusually chromatic or extend, momentarily, to a different position. This was done because I find the practice of adding too much fingering ends up being a “second layer” of information that actually delays the development of fluency in reading the notation – the main purpose of such exercises.
Because the rhythmic patterns in these studies are quite continuous, they can be played with many different bowing patterns, and I decided it would be better (almost always) to leave the choice of bowing up to the violist, while encouraging lots of experimentation with different possibilities. One useful approach would be to try applying bowings from the Sevcik studies (in similar meter and rhythmic patterns) to studies in this collection.
Finally, I have included here: sixteen of the Ries second position studies, five of the fourth position ones, and only one (much longer) fifth position study. This choice was made in response to the greater need for second position and fourth position studies for viola, while fifth position studies are much more easily available from other sources.
-- Paul Seitz
I have taken a “less is more” approach to editing, providing just enough fingering to clarify the position at the beginning of each exercise, and to address passages that are unusually chromatic or extend, momentarily, to a different position. This was done because I find the practice of adding too much fingering ends up being a “second layer” of information that actually delays the development of fluency in reading the notation – the main purpose of such exercises.
Because the rhythmic patterns in these studies are quite continuous, they can be played with many different bowing patterns, and I decided it would be better (almost always) to leave the choice of bowing up to the violist, while encouraging lots of experimentation with different possibilities. One useful approach would be to try applying bowings from the Sevcik studies (in similar meter and rhythmic patterns) to studies in this collection.
Finally, I have included here: sixteen of the Ries second position studies, five of the fourth position ones, and only one (much longer) fifth position study. This choice was made in response to the greater need for second position and fourth position studies for viola, while fifth position studies are much more easily available from other sources.
-- Paul Seitz