Home pages:  www.contemporaryviola.com   www.nigelkeay.com


Arnold Trowell (1887 - 1966), cellist & composer

image of title page of score


Manuscript score PDF

An engraved version is in preparation and will be available in January 2026.

Copyrights; Trowell estate, Nigel Keay

The date of composition of Arnold Trowell's Viola Sonata dedicated to Lionel Tertis is not known precisely, however, Trowell had contact with Tertis probably from 1914 when they performed Cyril Scott's Sextet together, in April of that year. Trowell was the cellist in The Chamber Music Players (one of three who played in the group) in 1922 and the early part of 1923 with Tertis as violist. Stylistically the Viola Sonata has similar traits to the Violin Sonata op.24 published in 1918 by Novello. There is nothing documented about a performance of the work by Tertis, and John White's book on Tertis mentions the Sonata only as being associated with Tertis. A mention in The Strad could indicate that Tertis had performed it. The manuscript was in the hands of Robert Scott (https://www.oks.org.uk/news/remembering-robert-scott/) for several decades, from sometime in the eighties. He produced a manuscript copy of the Sonata with some passages written out in a different key signature, with the goal of simplifying some of the enharmonic spellings.

Arnold Trowell's Viola Sonata on Youtube