Richard Wagner
and the Ritter Viola

The term, "Ritter viola", refers to the violist and music author Hermann Ritter. Ritter was born on September 16, 1849 in Wismar, Germany, and died on January 25, 1926. In 1865, Ritter began violin studies at the "Neuen Akademie der Tonkunst" (New Academy of Tonal Art) in Berlin. He studied there until 1870, giving lessons to finance his education. He studied there for a short time with Joseph Joachim. In 1870, he became a member of the Court Ensemble in Schwerin for two years, followed by the position as conductor of the Heidelberg City Orchestra. He retired shortly from this position to study music and art history and philosophy in Heidelberg University. During these studies, he turned to the viola, with the aim to equal its tone to that of the violin and cello. In his study of the development of stringed instruments, he stumbled across the manuscript "Geometric Principles of Violin Making" by Antonio Bagatella, printed 1782 in Padua, Italy. According to these principles, he commissioned the Wurtzburg violinmaker, Karl Adam Hoerlein (1824-1902), to build him a "Viola alta", as he termed it. Most likely from a recommendation of Professor Ludwig Nohi, with whom Ritter had studied music history, he was invited to Bayreuth.

Ritter meets Richard Wagner

Wagner receives Liszt in the Villa Wahnfried
Hermann Ritter present

Richard Wagner was constantly in search of new tonal colors, especially in the mid-register. Therefore, the viola developed by Hermann Ritter was highly welcomed by him.

Wagner's special interest in strong mid-register instruments is well known. In 1875, he prescribed in his works in place of the English born an "Alt-Hoboe", which was constructed by the instrument maker Stengel, according to Wagner's instructions. This instrument had a larger bore size than the English horn. Its sound bell had the shape of a pear, in contrast to the normal English horn. Cosima Wagner remarked in her diary, February 9, 1876: "Mr. Ritter, from Heidelberg, is bringing a new type of viola, which Richard finds excellent and wishes to introduce into his orchestra".

Ritter described his meeting with Wagner in his work, "Richard Wagner and the Inventor of the Viola alta", with the following dialogue: "The guests arrived and he announced that I would present and perform on a better tone-developed viola. I should play 'something, which you can demonstrate all the strings'. He said further, 'Fischer will accompany you on the piano'.

"I chose Wolfram's Fantasy from Tannhauser and was accompanied by the now famous Court Conductor, Franz Fischer. As I finished, the Maestro tapped me on the shoulder and said: ‘Your instrument sings wonderfully! It's a shame I wasn't familiar earlier with it. What all I could have written in the orchestra for it! Incidentally, you are not a candidate for philosophy, but rather a true musician. Remain with your art and let the doctor title go! What need does a musician have for a doctorate?'

"Pointing to my Viola alta, Wagner stated, 'The correct alto voice! I know several beautiful pieces for your instrument from the sonatas for violin and harpsichord by Bach which lay heavily in the mid-register. Could six such Altviolins of your construction be included in the Festival Orchestra?' I answered, 'Surely, Maestro, if persons can be found, thatwould play them.' - 'I will speak with Thoms in Munich.'

"Later, as Wagner spoke in my presence with this violist from the Munich Court Theatre Orchestra, he asked, 'Why can't we have more Ritter Altviolins?' Answered Thoms, ' Yes, Maestro, it's difficult. It could be done but we'd have to learn!' "

Later, Wagner wrote Ritter a tong letter with the following script and engaged him as solo violist for the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra:

Wagner did, in fact, eventually have six Ritter violas in his orchestra.

Berlioz was also not pleased with the sound of the viola in his day, which is documented by his following statement:

In the following years, Hermann Ritter had great concert success, and the Ritter viola, as it was commonly referred to, began to break through.

When the violinmaker, Hoerleln, died, Philip Keller acquired the moulds in 1902. He was authorized by Prof. Ritter to build this viola and also developed the 5-string Ritter viola. The Ritter viola in the instrument collection of the Munich City Museum bears the label:

"Viola alta (Altgeige)
nach Modell Prof Hermann Ritter
Autorisierter Verfertiger: Phil. Keller Atelier fdr Geigenbau und Bogen
1906 Wurtzburg, gegr. 1832 Nr. 95 ".

"Ritterbratsche"

Following the death of Hermann Ritter in 1926 it became quiet regarding the Ritter viola. In 1929, when the viola society put out the question, asking "Who still plays the Ritter viola?", only one former student of Ritter, the concertmaster from Elberfeld, Karl Paasch, replied, "I am a former student of Professor Ritter and I gladly play the Ritter viola as a solo instrument. I also play it in the orchestra when its character deems proper, specifically for particular solos with great tone, such as: Harold symphony - Kaminski Magnificat - Tristan solos in Bayreuth - H. Wolf. Italian Serenade, etc. Occasionally, I arrange to have a normal and a Ritter viola in the orchestra and switch between them both."

The Royal Saxon Chamber Virtuoso, Alfred Spitzner, replied similarly in his authored title, "The Viola in Word and Picture": "Ritter rightfully states that it is completely false to produce a nasal tone from the viola in normal fashion. He attempted to help this situation with his improvement of the Viola alta. There are, in fact, a few good old violas that are not nasal. Unfortunately, the dimensions of the Ritter viola are so disadvantageous, that they are very strenuous for a player that does not have long arms and fingers, especially in the case of our present-day composers. To ease these dimensions, Ritter newly added an additional 5th E string."

In fact, the size of the Ritter viola does not make it easy to play. While normal violas have a body length of 37-42 cm, measured across the top plate, the above-mentioned Ritter viola in the museum has one of 45.3 cm with a complete length of 73.9 cm. The vibrating string length is 40.6 cm.

The 5-string Viola alta, which also was built by Philipp Keller in Wurtzburg, was more advantageous to violists. A 5-string Ritter viola in the City Museum has a 2.7 cm shorter length of 71.2 cm, with a body length of 43 cm. The vibrating string length of this instrument is also 40.6 cm.

Herrmann Ritter imagined this 5-string viola for his idea of a string quartet, comprised of a normal violin, the 5-string viola, a tenor violin an octave lower than the violin and a cello. The composer, Felix Weingartner, authored in 1905 a well-wishing article in the magazine, "Die Musik". He made specific mention of the tone characteristics of the mid-register instruments developed by Ritter: "In the tonal function I noticed the penetrating character of the 2nd violin voice, due to that it was played on a viola seated across from the violin, while the tenor violin's voice was more pronounced to that of the cello and higher voices. More tonal independency of the 'middle registers was, therefore, the opinion of my observation. This is explained in that, while the normal quartet being represented by three individualities, the violin, viola and cello, we have here four completely separate ones, in the true meaning of a quartet. A great tone production goes hand in hand with a much darker tone color, having a wonderful effect in certain passages, which is nevertheless certainly not the overall intention of the composers."

Richard Strauss (I 864-1949) also made mention of the 5-string Ritter viola in a footnote of his 1904 expanded and revised instrumentation treatise by Hector Berlioz:

Richard Strauss was practical enough to foresee the playing difficulties of this large instrument. Ulrich von Wrochem from Milano impressively demonstrated the characteristics of this viola in a concert in the Munich City Museum.

It is suspected and remains to be explained whether the viola/violin part of the solo violist in Strauss' opera, "Elektra", was, in fact, actually intended for this 5-string Ritter viola. - C. Smith

Dr. Gunther Joppig

Felix Draeseke
1835-1913

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) viewed Felix Draeseke (1835-1913), along with Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), as his main rival in the symphonic and religious field of composition. At first this may surprise us, but this reaction ends quickly when one listens to the third symphony, bearing the title, "Symphonia tragica". Draeseke certainly did not have to hide behind his famous contemporaries, even though he never received wide pubic acclaim. In the field of experts this was not so. It was not only Brahms who respected Draeseke. Personalities such as Hans von Bulow, Arthur Nikisch, Fritz Reiner, Hans Pfitzner or Karl Boehm also quickly recognized Draeseke's compositional qualities. Nevertheless, this recognition did not gain wide-spread acceptance of his music.

Revolutionary new ideas in the beginning of the 20" century left Draeseke quickly behind and forgotten. When one opens a common program guide, usually no more than a couple lines of information about Felix Draeseke can be found. For example: "Felix Draeseke (1835-1913), in light of Schumann, Brahms and Liszt, stands at the gate of late romanticism. Occasionally one hears his attractive Serenade D major, op.49 (1988) or (from 4 Symphonies) the Tragica, c minor, op.40 (1886). His brilliant piano concerto (1886) and the violin concerto (1881) are forgotten." (Reclams Konzertfuhrer, 15.Auflage 1994, S.924)

Dmeseke had a preference for the music of Richard Wagner, as he himself gladly composed melodically and was not afraid to use dramatic expression or effects. As a critic, he supported the north German attitude, meaning, he sided with Wagner and Liszt. This did not bring him the affection of Johannes Brahms. Nevertheless, Brahms respected Draeseke as a great composer. Otherwise, he would not have considered him as a rival.

Draeseke met both Wagner and Liszt. Liszt's symphonic poetry had as deep an effect on him as did Wagner's music. Personally, however, he felt closer to Wagner, to whom he attributed great closeness to the common man. It is this affection for Wagner which has also led to the neglect of his works up to today. Unfortunately, the National Socialists in Germany used Draeseke, as well as Wagner, for their purposes. The closeness to the people, dramatic characteristics, and influential gestures were all too well suited for them to label Draeseke as a "Germanic" composer. And so it came that Draeseke's biography in two volumes appeared during the Third Reich under the title "The Life and Passion of a German Master", by Erich Roeder.

From 1862-1876, Draeseke resided in Switzerland. Later, he also traveled distantly. For example, in 1869, he traveled from France to Spain, to North Africa and, lastly, to Italy. On this trip, he composed the first of his four symphonies (op. 12), which was premiered in Dresden on January 31, 1873, under the direction of Julius Rietz. In it, Draeseke combined "The Music of the Future " with "classical forms". His perception goes toward the future as well as looking to the past. His critics gladly overlooked this fact. His reported total admiration for Richard Wagner is also only a half-truth. Draeseke said, "Of the new composers, Wagner remains for me the most influential." But he also said, "It took a long time until I could come to terms with the maestro's (Wagner) late development, and I have to admit I am still not sympathetic with certain peculiarities of his later style, and do not like to see them copied or become standard."

As stated, Wagner and Liszt played a large influence on Draeseke. Now that he had composed three symphonies, it was he who influenced younger composers. For example, Richard Strauss (1864-1949), received ideas from Draeseke's symphonies. The "Tragica" was premiered on January 13, 1888, under the direction of Ernst von Schuch. In this period, Draeseke experienced his greatest success, not only with his symphonies, but also with his other works, such as, "Das Leben ein Traum" (Calderon) or "Penthesilea" (Kleist).

After Draeseke's death, Arthur Nikisch promoted his works further, especially the third symphony. Nonetheless, even he could not hinder the waning interest of his works, which eventually became all but forgotten. There were too many events and musical developments occurring at the time.

One only has to consider such composers as Stravinsky (,,Sacre du printemps", 1913) or Schoenberg. Only now, at the beginning of the 21st century, does time appear again to be ripe to open itself to Draeseke’s music, which has suffered neglect under the wheels of so-called development.