Twitter Etudes No. 3, a short virtuosic work for solo viola by Canadian composer John Burge, follows alog in the series started for violin (No. 1) and oboe (No. 2). The violin set was composerd as the test piece for the First Bader-Overton Violin Competition organized by Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and turned out so well the composer has continued to add to the collection. In this partiular case, the viola set is dedicated with much appreciationton to the wonderful violist and teacher, Sharon Wei, who has premiered, performed and recorded a number of works by the composer with great musicianship and facility. To date, all the sets of Twitter Etudes have consisted of six short etudes each of which is limited to just 140 distinctive attacks, the original limitation of the number of characters per message on Twitter. Each of the viola etudes have been given a descriptive title as follows: Sixths, Spiccato, Singing Arpeggios, Pizzicato Duet, Passacaglia and Groove. The composer really could not decide on the optimal ordering of the etudes and although they are printed in the order just listed, performers are encouraged to find their own ordering when performing the complete set. In fact, the composer notes that playing the etudes in the reverse arrangement of the printed ordering is a great option.
