I'm a tall adult female with small hands trying to work out what size of viola to get. Just interested to see what is the most common size..

I'm 6ft tall, with quite big hands (can stretch an 11th on the piano), and I have a 16" viola, which I find to be about the right size. I could probably manage most stuff on a 16.5", but one of my grade 8 pieces requires a double-stop of a 10th, which is HUGE and a bit painful for me on my viola. I think the size of the viola that you should get is partly dependent on the sort of music that you're going to be playing.

15"... I am tall and have fairly long fingers, but I needed a viola that wasn't too heavy. There's a trade-off between size and tone, but as I have Gliga Gama the tone is very good anyway

I'm thinking of getting a 15.5" but wonder whether there would be much difference between that and a 16"..?

W

Liz (elidatrading) explained to me that an inch is about the same as the difference between one size and another in violins... so the difference between a 15 and a 16 inch one is like the difference between a 3/4 and full size violin, which is why they make them in half inches. You need to try one out ideally. Do you have one/what size is it?

??!!!! You mean that's even POSSIBLE???!!!!!

What piece is it?

Liz

The most wonderful violas I have ever heard anywhere so far - at any price - were both Gligas, two 17 inch (a Gems 2 and a Gama 2) and one 17.5 inch Gems 2. If only I could cope with them!!

Of course, for the really brave or foolhardy, or those with something to prove, you can sometimes get old violas of 18 inches or more - but why not just play a small cello?



Sorry, zoda, couldn't resist

Liz

[quote=elidatrading,Oct 11 2005, 06:03 PM]
[quote=sarah-flute,Oct 11 2005, 05:57 PM]15"... I am tall and have fairly long fingers, but I needed a viola that wasn't too heavy. There's a trade-off between size and tone, but as I have Gliga Gama the tone is very good anyway

[/quote]

Something went horribly wrong with this post - I might try again later...
W

18 inches? or more???!

15 1/2" - and I'm only little.

I've no idea what size my viola is - when I wanted to buy one I spent ages at a dealer's house trying out loads of them until I found one I particularly liked. I didn't even know they came in different sizes until I read this thread (apart from maybe quarter, half and three-quarter sizes as there are for violins)!

Now that's a nice complicated one. Some dealers / makers call a 14 inch viola "3/4 size" when in fact it is exactly the same size as a full size violin. Very confusing. I always ask people to specify a back length if they can - much easier!

Liz

Principal violist of the LSO, Paul Silverthorne, plays a viola made c.1690 by the Amati brothers. It's about 18 inches long. Although he says he wouldn't be parted from it, it is said that he has now started to develop a few aches and pains through playing an instrument that really is a bit too big for comfort. The viola doesn't belong to him, it actually belongs to the RAM.

Incidentally, to get a viola to sound truly alto, it would need to be about 21 inches in length, but this would mean having to play it in the same fashion as a cello or the old viols.

O I don't know. That 1/8 size cello I played under the chin has a back length of 20.5 inches. A man of 6 foot 6 or so might manage a 21 inch viola reasonably enough, and people are getting taller every generation. I think it likely that in 100 years time violists will be cursing their ancestors for having cut down those lovely 20 inch plus "tenor violas" in the 19th century. I guess also that someone will have to come up with a 1.25 size violin within the next couple of generations.

Liz

perhaps on average by a few millimetres, but certainly no more. The Victorians and even their 17th and 18th century predecessors weren't quite as small as we'd be led to think. If we were increasing by inches every generation the average height by now would be about 9' tall

ED. not everyone will be getting taller. Physical attributes such as height and build are inherited - predetermined to some extent at conception - and that can mean genetics jumping one or two generations - so people's heights may increase slightly but not dramatically.

1st movement of Hoffmeister's Viola Concerto in D major. Yes the 10th is rather difficult... *pain*

Sounds like one to avoid like the plague

????
The only tenth double stop I can find is between D (D string) and the F sharp a tenth above it. Why not just use the open D string???

Perhaps we've got different editions? Mine's the Musica Antiqua edition



Liz

perhaps you could encapsulate that photo in a few sweeping pen strokes, and make it the elidatrading logo! Not sure what message it would send out though!
It's not actually a Gliga that one is it? it looks a bit too orangey.

My viola is 15" and I'm about 6' with quite thin fingers. I'm pretty confident I could stretch alright on a 15.5" or 16" instrument, but I think double stopping would be more difficult (not that I do much anyway).

I've read in a few places that the minimum acceptable size to be viewed as truly full size is 16 1/4 inches. Interesting to see from the poll that some of us have a slightly rebellious streak in us!

Yeah, that's me - rebel without a cause (but with a viola )

It can be quite frustrating finding somewhere to put your viola on a motorbike. No wonder James Dean always looked so fed up.

Yeah, they wanted me to be in a film you know, but they wouldn't give me a sidecar for the viola, so I had to turn them down....


(15 inch viola player and proud )*















* I should clarify that it's the viola that's 15".... I'm quite a bit taller than that...

I see from the poll there's eleven viola players on here. Wouldn't it be funny if we randomly picked one of those little amateur orchestras with one viola player and all just turned up one day for a rehearsal with no explanation!

What a great idea!

We could do a tour of randomly turning up and tripling viola sections.....

where do you get all those great faces from! I want them all!

In my edition (can't remember off hand which edition it is) there is also a double-stop between F# on the D string and A on the A string, in the same passage as the D to F# double stop, directly after it actually I think...

http://ashuu.free.fr/phpBB2/images/smiles/

Enjoy

Ah now we don't want to frighten the customers away, you know.

It is a Gliga - genial 2

Liz