Progressive music bands with Viola featured prominently?

[Progmatic]

I can not think of any.
The Canadian band Contrevent featured Cello and that's all I got

How about fusion violinists like Michal Urbaniak, Jean Luc Ponty, Didier Lokwood, Jerry Goodman....

[Trane]

A viola is tuned a fifth lower than a violin
Violin G D A E
Viola C G D A

Isn't there a size difference, as well?

Not that noticeable when you see them apart, but next to each other, the viola is +/- 120% of the violin.

And one octave above the cello. Violin, viola, and cello can play a lot of the same lines.

Yes, but I definitely prefer the cello's sonics. It's much harder to make a cello sound "screechy".

[Sean]

[Rarebird]

Isn't there a size difference, as well?

Not that noticeable when you see them apart, but next to each other, the viola is +/- 120% of the violin.



Yes, but I definitely prefer the cello's sonics. It's much harder to make a cello sound "screechy".

Yes, a viola is bigger.
The tuning is the same as that of a tenor-banjo.

Don't ask me for the tuning of a guitar though.

[arturs]

I'm pretty sure that Billy Currie plays viola on Vienna.

[Rarebird]

I'm pretty sure that Billy Currie plays viola on Vienna.

You might be right. It was his original instrument on the music academy, according to Wikipedia.

[roylayer]

After Crying features cello prominently.

[mozo-pg]

After Crying features cello prominently.

They do. I'd add that I can't think of any band that does it more effectively.

[Progbear]

Caravan and Hoelderlin are the obvious choices here. The string players from Hoelderlin (Christoph Noppeney on viola and Joachim von Grumbkow on cello) guest on a couple of tracks on Birth Control’s Plastic People album, with Nops getting a stunning viola solo on “My Mind.”

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Caravan and Hoelderlin are the obvious choices here. The string players from Hoelderlin (Christoph Noppeney on viola and Joachim von Grumbkow on cello) guest on a couple of tracks on Birth Control’s Plastic People album, with Nops getting a stunning viola solo on “My Mind.”

thanks for an accurate answer

I am not asking about Violin or Cello, so all the recs of those artists are superfluous; i.e. I already knew about all of those.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

How about fusion violinists like Michal Urbaniak, Jean Luc Ponty, Didier Lokwood, Jerry Goodman....

I know and love all those. I'm only interested in Viola for this thread, thanks

[begnagrad]

And then... there is Viola and violin humor

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-m...acuum-cleaner/

[Rarebird]

And then... there is Viola and violin humor

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-m...acuum-cleaner/

Funny, but as a lover of the viola also a bit hurting.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

did you know...

the Viola was Mozart's favorite instrument

And then... there is Viola and violin humor

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-m...acuum-cleaner/

[Dan Maske]

It's much harder to make a cello sound "screechy".

My wife seems to excel at it. 😁

[adap2it]

There's occasional viola in Gentle Giant. The songs Black Cat, On Reflection and Dog's Life.

No viola in Gentle Giant...violin & cello strings only.

[moecurlythanu]

My wife seems to excel at it. ��

[luvyesmusic]

I'm pretty sure that Billy Currie plays viola on Vienna.

I love Billy's keyboards in Ultravox. I mentioned to Steve Howe that he guested on a couple songs on one of Billy's solo albums. Steve said "Yes, and he played on one of my albums ( Turbulence )."

[Progbear]

There’s also Don Dinovo of Lighthouse...sort of. The original line-up (with frontman Pinky Dauvin) featured a full string quartet. By the time of One Fine Morning, they were reduced two two string players: Don Dinovo (viola) and Dick Armin (cello). I say “sort of” as Dinovo commissioned a custom five-string electric “violina” for those later albums, allowing him to cover both violin and viola parts*.

I don’t quite know where to place the “baritone violin,” which is a regular violin strung with cello strings and tuned an octave lower. Jean-Luc Ponty played one on the two Mahavishnu Orchestra albums he was on (it’s all over Visions of the Emerald Beyond) and I know Urban Blitz also played one on the Doctors of Madness albums.

*To say nothing of latter-day electric violins with six strings, covering the cello range as well. Though I imagine with the smaller scale, the timbre is quite different from a cello.

[Rarebird]

There’s also Don Dinovo of Lighthouse...sort of. The original line-up (with frontman Pinky Dauvin) featured a full string quartet. By the time of One Fine Morning, they were reduced two two string players: Don Dinovo (viola) and Dick Armin (cello). I say “sort of” as Dinovo commissioned a custom five-string electric “violina” for those later albums, allowing him to cover both violin and viola parts*.

I don’t quite know where to place the “baritone violin,” which is a regular violin strung with cello strings and tuned an octave lower. Jean-Luc Ponty played one on the two Mahavishnu Orchestra albums he was on (it’s all over Visions of the Emerald Beyond) and I know Urban Blitz also played one on the Doctors of Madness albums.

*To say nothing of latter-day electric violins with six strings, covering the cello range as well. Though I imagine with the smaller scale, the timbre is quite different from a cello.

If we get to cellos, I think of Stadion (a Swedish band) with Sebastian Öberg (who also played with Fläsket Brinner) on cello, the group was augumented with 3 other stringplayers: Jonas Lindgren - violin, Örjan Högberg - viola and Matias Heldén - cello. The music sounds like some ELO doing punk.