German - English.

Garth Knox is one of the most prominent violists of his generation, and as former long-time member of the Arditti Quartet he has developed and maintained a fondness of contemporary music. In the mean time, he gives concerts and teaches courses all over the world.

With 'Viola Spaces' he wants to make contemporary playing techniques accessible to advanced players. The pieces, or 'playing spaces', are true concert studies, each of them dealing with specific techniques such as harmonics, pizzicato (with 9 fingers!) or tremolos which are explained in great detail.

Another volume with modern playing techniques for two violas and a volume with variations on a piece by the French viola da gamba master Marin Marais for four violas are planned.

German.

This volume of studies is intended not only as a supplement to the ".Viola Method". but also, in the coise and varying difficulties of its contents, to be of value to every student of the Viola.
These studies which have been extracted from the multitude of excellent etudes for the Violin for their varying technical problems have been chosen with special regard for their suitability to the Viola. The order in which the student works at these studies is left to his, or his teacher's discretion, and therefore as it is not proposed that the book is worked through from beginning to end but that each technical problem is overcome by the most suitable exercise.
Unklike hitherto existing collections the technique of the instrument is divided under 7 main headings.
As the bowing exercises are in no way exhaustive space has been left for the student or teacher to devise his own.

Would you like toplay the viola well, with a solid technique and impeccable intonation? We allknow that to do this you have to start from the beginning. That is, withscales. In this volume you can find them all, in three octaves and presented inan innovative, interesting and fun way. For the first time you can study themgrouped into parallel (or ?homophone?) keys, which is what scales that begin inthe same tone are called (e.g. C major-C minor, B Major-B minor etc.). In thesame way, you will practice the corresponding arpeggios, also in three octaves,followed by scales on double stops (thirds, sixths and eighths). All of this,with specific fingering for the viola, and with a focus on original technicalsolutions, that make the study considerably easier. The benefits gained fromstudying the scales grouped in this way are enormous, and they ensure that youwill achieve an excellent intonation.Both ways (major and minor), share the same physical space on the Viola?sfingerboard; they also share four of the seven sounds of the scale, which makesvery easy to recognise the different ones. Another innovative technique is the intonationcontrol semibreve, located eitherbelow or above various sounds of the scale. Each semibreve highlights theneed to check the tuning of the sound that accompanies, with the open string thatit indicates, since this is practically the only possible way of verifying thetuning. To sum up, this book proposes an innovative method of studying scales,as a result of the author?s many years of orchestra and teachingexperience.