| According to musicologists and critics, the "English Musical Renaissance" or the second Renaissance of English music, as it also called, to distinguish it from the generation of English musicians of the Renaissance, produced many composers in Great Britain during the years 1880 to 1966. This resurgence of nationalistic musical activity was a time of prolific musical output by composers such as Edward Elgar, Arnold Bax, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Another composer who flourished during the English Renaissance was Edwin York Bowen (1884-1961). His Viola Concerto in C minor, Op. 25 (1907), is the subject of this essay. Bowen's Viola Concerto was written with Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) in mind. Tertis, the leading violist of the day, made it his life's mission to popularize the viola as a solo instrument. This essay explores the Concerto from a theoretical point of view. In addition, the piece will be approached from a performance/pedagogical point of view, with the inclusion of a methodology of study based on sixteen specific technical excerpts drawn from the piece. |
