Hans Werner Henze's output is primarily dominated by large-scale, representative musical genres with a richly differentiated instrumental tonal palette: opera and other forms of musical theatre works, ballet, solo concertos and cantatas and also music for large-scale orchestra or chamber ensemble. In contrast, the chamber music works which Henze has composed throughout his entire compositional career right up to the present day have always remained somewhat on the sidelines. Many of these chamber music works had been composed for specific occasions, chiefly to honour figures who had accompanied him on longer or shorter stretches of his journey through life.

Henze composed An Brenton in July 1993 for an event commemorating the Australian violinist Brenton Langbein who had just died. The violinist had been a long-standing leader of the Collegium Musicum Zurich, the orchestra established and conducted by Paul Sacher, and was subsequently also the leader of the Basel Chamber Orchestra [Basler Kammerorchester].He additionally held a violin class at the Music Academy in Basel for a substantial period of his career. Interestingly enough, this piece is not composed for the violinist's instrument, but instead for solo viola. The work was given its first performance on 15 July 1993 by Jurg Dahler, one of the two viola players of the Chamber Musicians of Zurich [KammermusikerZurich]. This ensemble had been formed by Langbein in 1962: it frequently included compositions by Henze in its programmes and had given the premiere of Henze's music for Volker Schlondorffs Film Der junge Torless in its transformation as the Fantasia of the same name for string sextet (1967) in 1968. Langbein was the soloist in the first performance of Henze's Violin Concerto No. 2 in 1972 which had been commissioned by Paul Sacher. Henze had already made acquaintance with Langbein during the 1960s.

Charles Dancla (1817-1907) is considered to be the last great representative of the French Violin School. He was a composer, solo violinist at the Paris Opera and professor at the Paris Conservatoire and wrote numerous educational works for violin, including his well-known three-volume work Little School of Melody'. He knew, in a unique way, how to implement the principle 'no music without technique, no technique without music' in his teaching material. This is the case in his easy melodic studies Op. 84 which are available here in an arrangement for viola for the first time. These studies are perfectly suited for young beginners after the second year, but also for adult players, false beginners or those switching instruments. Most of them can be effectively used as little performance pieces, providing an excellent foundation for every advanced etude or concert piece.
Each study is preceded by new or revised exercises which either deal with specific problems relating to the playing technique, like change of string, spiccato, martele, chromaticism, change of position, octaves, or double stops, or present the tonal material of the respective study in a condensed, playful form.
Those who prefer Dancla's somewhat easier original preliminary exercises will find them in the appendix.
A little dictionary of the musical and technical terms in this volume shall make their meaning accessible to young players in particular.

In My Life by the Beatles, was released on the 1965 album, Rubber Soul. It was chiefly written and sung by John Lennon, who claimed it was his first serious attempt at personal song-writing. The song features a baroque style piano solo by George Martin. The tempo was too fast for him to perform it, so he played it at half tempo and layer doubled the tape speed. The resulting tinny sound gave rise to a host of copycat harpsichord solos on contemporary pop songs.

This version of In My Life is arranged in a suitable key and range for solo Viola. Piano/Guitar chords are included above the stave.

Musicians at an early intermediate level will find In My Life ideal for formal and informal concert performance. Most of the solo is straightforward, although the transcribed piano solo is at a higher level of difficulty; these eight bars can be skipped without affecting the overall structure of the song. The overall performance time is around two and a half minutes.

Teachers will enjoy using this arrangement as a fun way to help with syncopated rhythms.

Volume 3 in the Pure Viola series has 30 classic Christmas carols that both you and your audience are sure to love. This is over 40 minutes of non-stop Christmas carols, specially arranged for solo viola.

These holiday favorites are a special arrangement for solo viola. This is not just another copy of the same old melody lines. Each carol is expanded with double stops to add a rich harmony for solo performance. Many of the carols are entirely in first position, and nothing goes beyond fourth position. Each carol is in its original key, so it is easy to combine these with your own choir or piano/organ parts.

Volume 3 contains the following:
1. Angels from the Realms of Glory
2. Angels We Have Heard on High
3. Auld Lang Syne
4. Away in a Manger (Cradle Song)
5. Away in a Manger (Mueller)
6. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella
7. Coventry Carol
8. Deck the Halls
9. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
10. Good Christian Men Rejoice (In Dulci Jubilo)
11. Good King Wenceslas
12. Hark! The Herald Angles Sing
13. Here We Come A-Caroling (Wassail Song)
14. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
15. I Saw Three Ships
16. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
17. Joy to the World
18. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
19. O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)
20. O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
21. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
22. O Holy Night
23. O Little Town of Bethlehem (Forest Green)
24. O Little Town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
25. Silent Night
26. The First Noel
27. The Holly and the Ivy
28. We Three Kings
29. What Child is This (Greensleeves)
30. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

After playing hundreds of events throughout the years I have finally put some of my personal arrangements down on paper. This version of the Star-Spangled Banner is both fun to play and enjoyable to listen to. There is a balance of jazzy chords without losing the character of the piece. This is both a challenging work to practice a multitude of finger patterns and a great performance piece.

For those who are still working on chords and double-stops, the three-note chords can be altered to just playing the top two bringing the difficulty down.

Seven short, performable etudes for advanced violists, appropriate for encores, study and technical challenge, addressing techniques like pentatonic double stops, bariolage, whole tone scales, fast playing, finger substitutions, smooth string changes and left hand pizzicato.

ISBN 9781619112643. Great performers have proven that the viola can be successfully used for playing not only classic music, but also symphonic or chamber music from the classical, romantic or modern 36 period just as well as any other musical instrument. No longer is the contemporary repertoire considered unfit for the viola. This collection contains music which has been adapted and arranged especially for the viola. Ideal for the beginning player, it focuses on simple, well known melodies which are both easy and enjoyable. The arranger has carefully chosen the best keys for viola and therefore many songs are not in the keys in which they were originally written. A number of other adaptations have also been introduced to make the music more suitable for performance on the viola. The structure of the music has not been altered. The selections in the beginning of this book use more the treble clef than alto clef, making them easier for beginners and violinists transferring to viola. The piano accompaniment is available as a free download.

ISBN 9781609742379. This collection of viola pieces is derived from Beethoven's incidental works. Titles include: Contredance; Duet; Ecossaise; Fur Elise; Romanze; and Trinklied. The piano parts frequently double the viola to aid in performance. Books in this series feature a viola part with essential bowings and fingerings.