for 2 Violins Viola Basso and 2 Horns-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's A Musical Joke is filled with intentional mistakes by the composer who inserted odd notes into this amusing and mischievous piece in order to take an angry side-swipe atdilettante composer-colleagues of his time whose lack of imagination and artless compositional technique are here mercilessly demonstrated - the piece was not intended to parody musicians who play wrong notes as its later title?Village Musicians? suggests. A musical and intellectual delight for today?s performers and audiences alike this piece is now performable for the first time using a genuine Urtext quality edition based onthe autograph in Berlin. A Musical Joke is scored for 2 Violins Viola Basso and 2 Horns in F.

Easy String Quartets Book 3 is the third volume in this highly popular collection of classics. Each piece has been easily arranged for String Quartet by Watson Forbes and is designed to givedeveloping string players the chance to rehearse and perform in ensemble as early as possible. Each work is well known and relatively straightforward enabling the musicians to obtain a sense of achievement and maximum enjoymentfrom their playing.Watson Forbes (1909-1997) was a British Viola player arranger and broadcaster. He studied both Violin and Viola at the Royal Academy of Music before specialising on the Viola with Sevcik. Heplayed with many famous string ensembles during his performing career before becoming Head of Music for BBC Scotland in 1964. His is best remembered for his extensive series of educational arrangements of classical music forvarious string instruments both solo and in ensemble.

'Il est donc tout à fait tort de placer les joueurs juste mécaniques ou médiocre à l'alto', a averti Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart en 1784/85 dans son 'Ideen zu einer der Ästhetik Tonkunst'. Un certain mépris pour l'instrument existe encore aujourd'hui, si vous pensez que le grand nombre de blagues alto. Mais sérieusement, l'alto a bien sûr s'émanciper et a bien sûr eu sa place dans l'orchestre, comme instrument soliste ou en musique de chambre, même si, il est vrai, le répertoire est plus faible que pour le violon ou le violoncelle. Wolfgang Birtel a étendu le répertoire en ajoutant six quatuors alto, arrangements allant de titres classiques tels que le fameux air de Bach, une mazurka de Chopin, 'Salut d'amour' d'Elgar à des titres plus divertissants: de la mélodie entraînante de la Gavotte par Gossec à Martini 'Plaisir d'amour', qui n'est pas moins résistant à l'oreille, et enfin de la musique de salon avec Noack 'Heinzelmännchens Wachparade '- tous très divertissant, à la fois pour la lecture et l'écoute! / 4 Altos