Editing Vertical viola

{{Short description|Musical Instrument}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox Instrument
|name= Vertical viola
|names= Alto Violin<ref name="Nardolillo1" />
|image=  
|image_capt= A man playing a vertical viola
|classification=
*[[Bowed string instrument]]s
|range=
|related= 
* [[Violin]]
* [[Viola]]
* [[Cello]]
* [[Double bass]]
}}
The '''vertical viola''', '''alto violin''' or '''upright viola''', is a stringed instrument with the range of a [[viola]] that is played vertically in the manner of a [[cello]].<ref name="Nardolillo1">{{Cite book |last=Nardolillo |first=Jo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gDsfAwAAQBAJ |title=All Things Strings: An Illustrated Dictionary |date=2014-03-14 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-8444-1 |page=116 |language=en |quote=Vertical viola. A variation on the viola designed by Carleen Hutchins as part of the new violin family. The vertical viola is 2.5 inches longer than a standard viola and is held vertically to be played like a cello. Also called an alto violin...}}</ref> It is the fourth-highest member of the [[violin octet]] (after the treble, soprano, and mezzo violins).

The standard viola is about as big as can conveniently be played under the chin. The physicist/instrument maker [[Carleen Hutchins]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Murray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D_15UtgRVJsC |title=Musical Instruments: History, Technology, and Performance of Instruments of Western Music |last2=Greated |first2=Clive A. |last3=Myers |first3=Arnold |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-816504-0 |page=254 |language=en |quote=Carleen Hutchins, the American physicist and violin maker, has designed a viola whose principal body resonances are in the same relative positions as those of the violin, but even this instrument has a body length of 510 mm, rather long to hold on the arm.}}</ref> working during the 1960s, reasoned that a viola played vertically could be made larger, and that a larger viola might produce a better sound. Based on principles of instrument design she had observed in top-quality existing instruments, Hutchins designed a viola about {{cvt|6|cm|in|frac=2}} longer than the regular viola, intended to be played vertically like a cello.  (Despite Hutchins's original intention, a few violists have played her viola horizontally.)

The fundamental acoustic principle underlying the vertical viola is that the main body [[resonance]] (resonance of the wood of the instrument) should match the second-highest string, and the main cavity resonance (resonance of the air the instrument contains) should match the third-highest string. On a viola these strings are D and G, respectively. The standard viola is too small to achieve this matchup of string frequency to resonance frequency.<ref>Another approach to solving this problem has been the "hole-in-the-heart" design; see e.g. [https://www.vioglyn.com/Product_services_661825.html].</ref>

The same design principle was used by Hutchins to design a complete family of eight stringed instruments, commonly called the [[violin octet]], of which the vertical viola has been the most successful. Since all of the instruments are designed based on the violin, Hutchins gave the name ''alto violin'' to her vertical viola design.

Hutchins's instrument has attracted admiration for its power and beauty of tone. The cellist [[Yo-Yo Ma]] has employed a Hutchins vertical viola to perform and record [[Béla Bartók]]'s [[Viola Concerto (Bartók)|Viola Concerto]].<ref>{{Cite news |year=1995 |title=The New York Album |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/the-new-york-album |access-date=23 February 2024 |work=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]] |issue=3 |quote=As to the Bartok Concerto, Ma's decision to use a vertical viola, or alto violin (''a large viola fitted with a long endpin and held like a cello'') stems from his apparent dissatisfaction with ''the registral displacement'': of the authorized cello version (recorded by Janos Starker on RCA, 3/92).}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.nvfa.org Web site of the New Violin Family Association]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080723110235/http://www.sonyclassical.com/music/57961 Yo-Yo Ma's recording of the Bartók Viola Concerto (record company's site)] 
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150503000550/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-02-28/features/1993059247_1_viola-concerto-yo-yo-ma-play-the-viola Yo-Yo Ma playing the Bartók Viola Concerto on the vertical viola]
*[http://www.yo-yoma.com/music/the-new-york-album Yo-Yo Ma's recording of Bartók Viola Concerto on the vertical viola, the ''New York Album'', tracks 5-6-7]

{{Violin family}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vertical Viola}}
[[Category:Violas]]