Music Notes

One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, Fritz Kreisler was known for his sweet tone on the violin and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic...

J.S. Bach’s keyboard Partitas, and English and French Suites are full of wonderful possibilities for string ensemble arrangements. I have only gotten to a few of these, but more will be forthcoming. The suites are full of dance-like movements such as bourrées, gavottes, minuets, gigues and sarabande. My favorite of min

I first heard the Adagio from Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 (K. 361) in “Amadeus” a movie from 1984 about the life of Mozart. Of course Mozart also wrote great music specifically for strings, but I have so loved this movement, also known as the “Gran Partita” that I felt compelled to write an arrangement for my string ensemble.  One of my favorite renditions of the original scoring can be found at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-8XBbvA5BU

When I was growing up, my teacher assigned me  “Hora Staccato”. I suppose it was meant to “loosen me up” a bit – I was an introverted undemonstrative player, at best, in those days. Also, some of the bowing tricks in this piece were new to me at the time. I have used this piece in my present teaching career, and now enjoy it even better when I can accompany my students in this version of a duet for two violins. I still am amazed watching video of Heifetz performing this – he made it all look so easy! Here is a link to his performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mag2mc5Vva0

Recently I added an arrangement of Dvorak's Carnival Overture. This piece does not readily spring to mind as laying well for solo string and piano, but I had a student who loved this piece and yearned to play the "good" parts on the viola. I let it percolate for several years, but it is now available for every violist wanting to play the all the best parts. It is and was one of my favorite orchestral pieces to play - I hope you enjoy this!