Oh man, there are soooooo many good Viola jokes. How many, you ask? So many, that Wikipedia has a an entry for “Viola Jokes“.

The viola is definitely the black sheep of the string family. Essentially, it’s an oversized violin – but it’s out of proportion to the violin and the cello – the body is larger than the violin, but the neck isn’t proportionally longer, and so the strings aren’t as tense as the violin or cello, giving it a sound distinct from its family members (a subtle difference, but it’s there.) Historically, violinists who couldn’t cut it on the violin were “demoted” to viola, which tended to have boring, easier parts to play.

But that was soooooo 1700. Nowadays, violists might still be the black sheep, but they can play just as well as their violin/cello counterparts, and have even managed to score a handful of pieces specifically for their instrument. Carl Maria von Weber was attracted to the dark, muted timbre of the instrument, and churned out this little two-movement Hungarian dance for the instrument.