its true that the viola AND violin sounds so awsome, but when you get 1st chair in violin, everyone is like OMG!!! YOU ARE SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! and when you get 1st chair Viola, everyone is like OH, THATS COOL. I think that i can play the viola just as good as any violin in my class...and to prove that to myself more than anyone i switched to violin for a year, and i got first chair. so dont get put down because of our music fellow violas!!!!

that`s exactly what happens at my school.Everyone was "oh yeah great" and only my parents and the other violas cared. You know what else ticks me off is that the concert master or mistress is almost always a violinist! Oh well, viva la violists! Violas sound cooler anyways. thanx for posting!

We can`t be held down for long. You know, violins probably became more popular automatically because they were sleek and more compact than the original viola. From there, I think the original was merely shunted to the side. But it`s only a matter of time before violas make a comeback, which as I understand it, the trend for them is going up. Yay!

Well anyways for one thing, violins came first (so their more known by conductors of days long past), violas, cellos and basses came much much later. As for viola music I know there are really good pieces out there for the viola soloist because my midle school and high school strings teacher(viola player) played really nice and hard peices sometimes when he played professionally. In my opinion he was a viola player version of Yo-Yo Ma.

There is no "first". The whole family gradually evolved. `Cellos were later, but Basses essentially evolved from viols and violins and violas were both made from around the same time ( there are arguments about which was first ). No one has found the prototype four string "arm viol" so the debate is still open. Interestingly, the earliest written record ( oppose to actual instrument ) includes all three instruments of the family ( minus basses of course, they came later ).

Violas rock!!! Rebel! rebel!

we violas need some love! We`re so neglected! violins r like squeaky doorknobs! Viola Power! (creater of jahima)

my topic`ll tell ya

Talk to me!!! waaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: "Granted, it can`t always be fair, but the is a way to balance the melody and the harmony and have the violins and violas play at the same level. The upside to all of this is that they will eventually have to, because the viola is steadily increasing in popularity (yay). They will eventually have to help us out with harder music instead of dumbing it up for us violists."

If all the composers in the world began this minute to give the violas all the best parts in all their orchestral works it wouldn`t do you a bit of good. Orchestras play OLD music. If there`s anything a conductor despises more than a living composer it`s a living composer who lives anywhere near him.