Appalachia Waltz MO155

Appalachia Waltz for unaccompanied viola by Mark O?Connor

Viola Solo

Music by Mark O?Connor

3 pages - 5:00 minutes in length



Appalachia Waltz is a piece composed by Mark O?Connor for unaccompanied violin which gained fame as the title track from the album featuring O?Connor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Edgar Meyer. The Sony Classical release remained for many months in the top ten of Billboard Magazine?s Classical music chart. O?Connor originally composed the piece as a solo for unaccompanied violin in 1993 before he brought it to the trio when compiling material for their album. Here, adapted to viola, ?Appalachia Waltz? is very similar to the violin version O?Connor performs in his solo concerts. With the musical influences coming from Scandinavian and Appalachian folk fiddling, it is one of O?Connor?s most beautiful pieces. The music is suited for advanced and intermediate levels.

Arpeggios have always been a popularresource for composers of all kinds of music, as well as a method for instrumentalmusicians to study and perfect their personal technique, and work with themajority of musical instruments. This volume is aimed at students andprofessional viola players that need to achieve an excellent technical level,or that want to achieve the level of a virtuoso in a short space of time. It ismagnificent opportunity to accomplish two important goals: spectacularlyimprove your technical level and study and master the main types of arpeggiosused in jazz improvisation.

You will come across arpeggioscoming from major chords with major seventh, with minor seventh, majorarpeggios with major seventh and augmented fifth, minor arpeggios with majorseventh and minor seventh: the diminished, semi diminished and augmented arpeggiosare also included.

In a short space of time, thestudy of arpeggios will provide you with a solid technical base that will allowyou to solve the most difficult passages you will find amongst viola scores.The only requirements are a little tenacity and patience.