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Posted

I'm in the process of writing a trio for Flute, Harp and Viola. I was unsure, if the Viola part was playable. I bring this up because of something I read in the Adler Orchestration book, which is that the highest of the practical touch four artificial harmonics on a viola is B6 (written B6 with a diamond a fourth above). I'm not a violist which is where my problem pops up. I recently redid the Viola part so it was lower, but I don't know if it's playable or not. Could you guys help me out? Half of the harmonics written in the piece used to be an octave higher than what they are now.

cristal liturgy - Viola.pdf

PDF
Posted

Could you tell me, perhaps, which part you were looking at?

The Adler book? It's in the very beginning where he lists all of the artificial harmonics for the string family. It's just before he talks about the individual stringed instruments.

Posted

According to Cecil Forsyth's Orchestration, the highest possible (artificial) harmonic is D7 (actual pitch sounded). I can scan in the page if you want.

If you're not a violist, you should bear in mind that harmonics sounds quite different to the beautiful violin harmonics. Just for fun, here's my favourite piece with viola harmonics:

Posted

No, I mean the bars in the music.

OH lol. Wow silly me. No I meant the whole part in general cause I'm really not a violist and any input you can give would be grately appreciated.

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