Important as the viola is in the Orchestra to-day, it was a long time before the beauty of its voice and its technical possibilities were recognized. It was only used to play subordinate middle parts, filling up time and helping along now and then with the bass. Never, _never_ was it allowed to lift its sad, melancholy, tragic and religious voice. No matter how longingly it might listen to the other instruments singing a melody, or chattering to one another, it was doomed to silence. No composer would let it speak. Nobody ever dreamed that _it_ had anything to say! _But it was there all the time._ Patient old viola, just used for the _tutti_ passages, where every voice speaks, or screams, or cries, at once. Sometimes in rare delight it was allowed to play in unison with the violoncellos, and, more rarely, in unison with the violins. But Mozart—to whom Music owes so much—_discovered the possibilities_ of the viola! Mozart gave the viola its proper place in the Orchestra, making it something more than a large violin filling up a gap between soprano and bass. He made it important in his _Trios_ and lifted it into prominence by writing a Concerto for violin, viola and Orchestra! The next time you hear Mozart’s magnificent _Don Giovanni_ listen for the viola, when Zerlina is singing her aria, _Vedrai carino_. The viola has a great deal to say in this tender love song and says it as beautifully and as tenderly as Zerlina herself. The viola became of great importance in Beethoven’s _Trios_, _Quartets_ and _Quintets_; and, to its joy, it was allowed to take a prominent part in the Orchestra! First it was permitted to sing with the violoncellos and bassoons, as in the _Egmont Overture_, and then actually to play with the violoncellos the exquisite melody in the Andante of Beethoven’s _C minor Symphony_ (_the Fifth_). The first critics who heard this Symphony noticed to their amazement that the violoncellos gained roundness and purity of tone from their association with the viola! There are many places in Beethoven’s _Symphonies_ where the violas are conspicuous; and they are always noble as well as beautiful. The violas also play with the violoncellos in the Choral finale of the _Ninth Symphony_. Hector Berlioz, always original, did a fine thing for the viola by writing a big solo part for it in his _Harold Symphony_, which describes Byron’s wanderings of Childe Harold in Italy. The viola impersonates Childe Harold. Wagner saw what fine use Beethoven had made of this instrument; and with his wonderful gift for understanding the character, quality and color of every instrumental voice in the Orchestra, Wagner was impressed with the possibilities of the viola. [Illustration: GASPARD DUIFFOPRUGCAR]