Přehled o publikaci

The study aims to present the possibilities of the viola d’amore from the perspective of a contemporary composer. Firstly, it deals with general information about the instrument and focuses on its special features. These include the presence of sympathetic strings and their influence on the sound in terms of tone color, resonance, and dynamic progression. The viola d’amore, which has up to seven played strings and seven sympathetic strings, also has a rich tradition of tuning variety in the played strings, which is unusual for string instruments. A wide range of extended techniques, which can also be used on the modern viola but which will have a different sound quality on the viola d’amore, can be found in contemporary compositions for this instrument, of which more than sixty have been found. Contemporary composers are finding new ways to exploit the flexibility of tuning. Their compositions make use of micro-intervals and relationships from just intonation, which is particularly impressive on the viola d’amore. My own artistic research in the form of a composition for solo viola d’amore Girlandy/Garlands focused on some of the aspects mentioned above. I followed in the footsteps of composers who used just intonation in their compositions, resulting in a new string tuning. The number of strings on the viola d’amore was used in an original way for this composition. Each of the strings became the fundament for the transposition of the chosen mode. The basis was formed by double stops, which contained one open string and another with a melodic movement that was linked to the sounding open string and required tuning. The composition also works significantly with the resonance of the strings in the abundant use of pauses.