REBECCA CLARKE, THE VIOLIST: HER CAREER AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICE ON AN EMERGING SOLO INSTRUMENT IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) was a violist and composer of the early twentieth century whose career spanned thirty-five years. The scholarship on Clarke tends to focus on her career in composition while neglecting her immense contributions in the field of viola performance. My written dissertation traces her performance career, including her education, influences, international travel, chamber ensembles, performance reviews, collaborators, and radio broadcasts as found in contemporaneous primary sources. The second chapter draws specific conclusions about Clarke’s playing style and performance practice based on marginalia found in works she studied and performed. A new discovery resulting from this research is a cadenza for the Casadesus Viola Concerto, written by Clarke and pasted into her sheet music. In support of this project I performed a solo recital at the University of Maryland on February 11, 2023. I selected six works representative of Clarke’s professional accomplishments and her particular style of playing: Sussex Mummer’s Christmas Carol by Percy Grainger; Variations on “Bonny Sweet Robin” by Ethel Smyth; Komm’, Süsser Tod by Johann Sebastian Bach; Zwei Gesänge, op. 91 by Johannes Brahms; Dumka by Clarke herself; and Viola Concerto in B Minor by Henri Casadesus, including Clarke’s cadenza. My performances of these works may be found as supplemental files to the dissertation document.