“Listening to inner voices” is a phrase that can mean a lot of things.

For musicians who play the viola, PROVIDING those inner voices, musically speaking, is their daily bread and butter. In the modern orchestra, the viola provides the alto voice in the string choir, filling in harmonies and musical lines between the violins on top, and the cellos and double basses on the bottom.

But (unfortunately) occasionally violists like to step forward, front and center, as soloists. And some composers have shown a special fondness for the viola’s distinctive dusky color.

According to the American composer David Ward-Steinman that color might well be likened to cinnabar, the ore of mercury, a crystallized reddish-brown mineral with flashes of quicksilver.  Asked to write a solo for the 19th Annual Viola Congress held at Ithaca, New York, Ward-Steinman’s “Cinnabar” for solo viola and piano premiered on today’s date in 1991. 

David Ward-Steinman served as Composer-in-Residence at San Diego State University for many years. His own teachers included Wallingford Riegger, Darius Milhaud, Milton Babbitt, and Nadia Boulanger. Ward-Steinman’s catalog of original works ranges from solo pieces and chamber works like “Cinnabar,” to large-scale theatrical scores and ballets.

David Ward-Steinman (b. 1936): Cinnabar (Karen Elaine, viola; David Ward-Steinman, piano) Fleur de Son 57935