Here are 10 great pieces arranged for pure solo viola - no piano required! This collection has more than 40 minutes of classical and patriotic songs ideally suited for formal recitals, wedding celebrations, and background music gigs.

These are not just lame copies of the melody line; they are all fully worked out arrangements designed to be as rich as possible and to highlight the viola. These are direct transcriptions of the original "Pure Cello" series, now available for viola. As a professional cellist, I originally arranged these pieces for my personal use, and I have performed every one of them in public.

These are fairly challenging pieces; I would compare their difficulty to Bach Cello Suite #2 on the easy side and Bruch Cello Concerto on the harder side. But with some practice you will have some amazing additions to your solo repertoire.

Each of the songs in this collection is also available separately, but buying the full volume saves you over 60%.

Volume 1 contains the following:
1. Strauss Blue Danube Waltz
2. Dvorak Goin' Home (Largo from "New World" Symphony #9)
3. Schubert Ave Maria
4. Faure Apres un reve
5. Tchaikovsky Melodie
6. Marais Le Tableau de l'Operation de la Taille (Depiction of a Bladder Stone Operation)
7. Joplin The Entertainer
8. Calistri-Yeh Variations on "My Country 'Tis of Thee"
9. Sousa Stars and Stripes Forever
10. Ward America the Beautiful

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.