Performance at the International Viola Congress, Paris, France

The Voice of the Viola: Betsy Jolas’s Works for Viola

French composer Betsy Jolas (b. 1926) has written a body of captivating and beguiling works for the viola. While she once joked that she belonged to the musical movement called “marginal,” she has become one of the most important French woman composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She is a trailblazing woman composer has blended Messiaen expressivity with Boulezian intricacy, while infusing her musical with a sense of lyricism. But her music defies simple classification, which adds to its intriguing appeal.

This lecture recital will illuminate her musical style through the analysis and performance of two works featuring the viola: Quatre Duos for viola and piano (1979), and Épisode Sixieme for solo viola (1984). The main themes addressed will be her dominant thread of lyricism throughout her works, her flexible and unfurling sense of rhythmic organization, and her timbral variety. I will also use the richness of her biography—her French/American duality, her early friendships with James Joyce and other modernist intellectuals, and her career as a teacher—to shed light on her music. We will also pay close attention to her work with, and pieces written for violist Serge Collot.

Each movement of the Quatre Duos is an abstract portrait of a women, but each is drawn with incisive expressive clarity. The first movement originated as the Examination piece at the Paris Conservatory in 1979, and Jolas added the three following pieces later. Over the twelve minutes of this piece, Jolas allows the viola to become a kaleidoscopic instrument. She understands it better than most, plumbing its un-explored corners for subtle and fresh sounds.

At its core, Épisode Sixieme is a vocal piece for the viola. A thread of lyricism is the dominant voice of the piece, even if at times it becomes submerged or drowned out by other music. Capricious skittering gestures, far-flung timbres, and jagged rhythms momentarily distract from this idea, but the melodic voice always re-emerges, exerting its subtle, lyrical pull on the musical narrative. Jolas carefully balances lyricism with the gestural figuration, and the metrical flow meanders along with an insouciant disposition. It has a through-composed quality, and elements rarely repeat; yet, this pervading sense of lyricism, however abstract, binds the piece together.

            By analyzing these works, performing them, and providing examples from across Jolas’s oeuvre, I will showcase Jolas’s incredible writing for our instrument. Her music is perfectly suited to the viola: lyrical, elusive, and imaginative, and her music should be included in every violist’s repertoire. It is my hope that this lecture recital will bring further and renewed attention to this trailblazing, French woman composer.