clef change problem for viola

[MichelRE]

I'm posting an example here, though I think it's not the most extreme one from this piece.

My viola part has a lot of going to the extreme high register then back down to low notes, and back up.

I find passages like the one I'm attaching here to look a bit too extreme, but if I include a clef change to treble it creates an uncomfortable visual leap (despite the notes being relatively conjunct.)

There are other passages where the music leaps up to 5 or 6 or even 7 ledger lines for a few notes, then down to middle of the alto clef staff then back up again, and back down... and in those cases a clef change looks also very weird.

Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated.

[John Ruggero]

Composers instinctively don't like breaking up melodies visually, and rightly so. In this case, it's even worse because a clef change would drop the melody at its very climax and make what is supposed to look high, look low. I would try to find an early logical place to change to treble clef so that this phrase remains in one clef. However, what to do about the quick changes of register? One would have to see those passages.

[David Ward]

Certainly the whole of the passage shown could be in the treble clef.

In the 1960s I did a little work with a commercial music arranger who refused to use the alto clef and who wrote entire viola parts in the treble. The session musicians had no trouble reading what he wrote when an awkward copyist once failed to change his notation. In the example shown you have five ledger lines above the stave, while viola C would have only four below if written in the treble clef. In other words, perhaps consider making more use of the treble clef.

FWIW I've just checked the solo part of my own viola concerto from 1997. There are perhaps some clef changes that break the line; but on the recording I have there is no hint of this.

[MichelRE]

After reading up on viola clef changes from (supposedly) authorities on the topic (ie: viola players) I've become mildly paranoid about using those clef changes.
A couple of "orchestration online" type sites also set rather strict and awkward "standards" for when to use a clef change and when not to.

It's been driving me mad.

[hautbois baryton]

I agree with David that putting the whole passage in treble clef would probably be the best situation.

[MichelRE]

thanks hautbois.

I looked over the whole viola solo part, and used treble clefs for entire phrases where a large part of the phrase was in 3+ ledger lines, but where no section used ledger lines below the staff (other than middle C.)

it does look much cleaner now, it certainly takes less vertical space in the score, and I'm pretty sure it will be more easily read this way. There are a lot of high passages with chords, double-stops, and messy rhythmic figurations, so less work for the soloist the better.

[Callasmaniac]

A a bassoon player, I have seen many clef changes . I'd put only the 3rd bar to treble clef here. There is a repeated a flat which helps the player to orientate even if the melodyline distorts.

[OCTO]

I've always had trouble with the viola and its alto clef.  Having two ledger lines for first position on the A string is already more than "enough" for me.  I've always felt that the viola should be notated in mezzo-soprano clef, and it would resemble the violin notation perfectly.

Regarding your question, I would use the treble clef starting from the second measure and return to the alto clef in the fourth measure.

[NeeraWM]

I've always had trouble with the viola and its alto clef.  Having two ledger lines for first position on the A string is already more than "enough" for me.  I've always felt that the viola should be notated in mezzo-soprano clef, and it would resemble the violin notation perfectly.

Regarding your question, I would use the treble clef starting from the second measure and return to the alto clef in the fourth measure.

Great idea about the mezzo-soprano clef, it would actually be a second from the bass clef, helping transcribing cello music, and then switching to treble whenever we (cellists!) would switch to tenor/treble.
In this case, I would place everything in treble.

Now, my curiosity: we (cellists!) had Romberg who gifted us with his revolutionary proposal of “Three clefs to rule them all” (one to the king of elves, etc …). Was there anyone in viola history that did something similar? Was the viola always reading in alto clef?

[MichelRE]

Now, my curiosity: we (cellists!) had Romberg who gifted us with his revolutionary proposal of “Three clefs to rule them all” (one to the king of elves, etc …). Was there anyone in viola history that did something similar? Was the viola always reading in alto clef?

A far as we know, viola was always written in alto clef. The only instrument written in alto clef, actually. (probably thus it's name alto = viola in many languages)

The rule I've come across most often is that the viola should always be in alto clef, unless a passage makes considerably use of more than 3 ledger lines.

personally, I have no difficulty at all reading in alto clef up to 3rd ledger line in most contexts.
Even the A (1st ledger line above the staff in treble clef) is only in 3rd position for viola, being only one octave above the open string.

I think we tend to be afraid to write viola in its higher register BECAUSE we know it goes down to that C below middle C. I call it "cello syndrome".

Even my beginner exercises for viola make extensive use of notes up to and including an octave above the open string A. None of those exercises make use of treble clef at any time.