”Designed for the beginner this collection of pieces provides stimulating performing material at the easiest possible level. The accompaniments (piano or CD) provide a good solid backing and will inspire the soloist to play with energy and enthusiasm. I have made much deliberate use of the repetition of phrases as I feel that this is the best way for pupils to absorb new rhythms.” James Rae• Performing pieces for the beginner in a variety of styles including Swing Funk Reggae Blues and Latin• Each piece is recorded with a professional soloist for listening and learning. The following track provides the accompaniment minus the solo forplaying along• The versions available for other instruments can all be played together and used as elementary ensemble material• Ideal for group tuition• Pieces from Play it Cool Viola have been set on the new Trinity Guildhall Examination Syllabus 2007 for Viola Grades 1 and 2

According to Elgar the concert overture came to him in a single moment of inspiration while visiting Italy with his family in the winter of 1904. It was given its premiere by the Hallé Orchestra in March of that year with the central Viola serenade winning particular acclaim. Elgar then adapted the work as a song then for Viola and Piano and then for other instruments.At the time this piece was written Elgar had achieved universal renown with his Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius and was established not only as a composer at the peak of British music of that time but also as a major Romantic composer. The Italianate rendering of the work is a nod to thepiece?s beginnings on the Adriatic coast. The work is full of the unrequited yearning of Elgar?s lyric work and a very effective sonatina for performance.

Commissioned by the Wigmore Hall for the composer's 60th birthday with funds from ACNI.'viola:piano is one of a set of 6 pieces which I wrote in 2008 and 2009. Two of the others violin:piano and cello:piano requirethe instrumentalists to play at different tempi from each other throughout. In this piece the players are playing together but their material is for the most part quite different and for the first 12 minutes the two partshave little in common. It is only after this that they begin a more conventional contrapuntal relationship. This is the first of these pieces to be premiered. It was commissioned by the Wigmore Hall with funding from the ArtsCouncil of Ireland. The piece is dedicated to Mary R?rich.'????????????- Kevin Volans

I first heard Walton's Viola Concerto in my youth and the mixture of haunting sadness and exuberance won me over immediately. Although other composers have written works for the instrument they are seldom played and the viola remains under regarded and unappreciated as do viola players! Having recently composed a number of cello pieces culminating in my 'Umbrian Variations' for eight cellos I decided to try my hand at something else the result:- this Sonatina for Viola and Piano. Last year (2009) at Ian Christians' Dordogne Chateau the Quator Wihan gave a concert and I was very struck by the viola playing of Jiri Zigmund - hence the dedication.

In addition to the numerous violin pieces in H. Wieniawski's compositional output there is only one piee for viola and piano ''Reverie'' which is without opus number. The ''Dream'' ost probably comes from that period when Wieniawski stayed in London (1858-1859) and apart from his regular concert activities took part in chamber concerts which were very popular at that time. During one of the Beethoven-Quartett-Society concerts a quartet of four outstanding virtuosos (Ernst Joachim Wieniawski and Piatti the cellist) performed together. Wieniawski who played the viola on that occasion presumably concluded that there were too few original compositions for thisbeautiful instrument and decided to write a short viola piece himself. He endowed it with a lyrical character and the stamp of fervour characteristic of his other compositions. (S. Kamasa)

French composer and teacher Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) was a prolific composer of the 20th Century as a member of 'Les Six'. His compositions remain highly regarded Four Faces being no exception. Milhaud's compositions are influenced by jazz and polytonality as exemplified in Four Faces. The fourth of Four Faces The Parisian Woman is an alternative exciting piece for advanced violists. Composed in 1943 Milhaud makes use of harmonics complex rhythms ornamentation altering time signatures and clefs double stops variation in dynamics and a wide tessitura among other aspects.Milhaud's Four Faces is essential to all aspiring violists.

Robert Schumann was the first to transport the lyrical character piece for piano to the domain of chamber music. He drew upon the form stamped by Schubert Mendelssohn himself and many others since about 1820 to create a series of cycles in duo combinations. With his Märchenbilder Schumann created in 1851 the first important and path-breaking composition for viola and piano that was not written in sonata or variation form.

Per Viola E Pianoforte. Par CALLIGARIS SERGIO. Sergio Calligaris was born in Rosario (1941), Argentina. He is one of the last musicians to incarnate the traditional 19th century figure of pianist, teacher and composer, inaugurated at the beginning of the 19th century by Muzio Clementi and carriedon after that by a sequence of famous names that the history of music has handed down to us. As a pianist, he began to give public performances at the age of 13, making his debut in his home town Rosario. Following this success, he embarked upon an extremely busy career as a soloist, giving numerous recitals in Buenos Aires and other citiesin Argentina. He continued to take advanced lessons with eminent exponents of the most prestigious international piano schools. In 1974 he became an Italian citizen and settled in Rome, teaching piano as principal instrument at the S. Pietro a Majella StateConservatory in Naples, the Luisa DAnnunzio Conservatory in Pescara and the Alfredo Casella Conservatory in Aquila. As a composer, he began - at just 9 years of age - to study in the rigorous school of Paul Hindemith, under the guidance of Father Luis Machado, from whom he inherited a love of counterpoint and a strong taste for harmony. He took a diploma incomposition, counterpoint and fugue at the age of 16 at the Amigos del Arte Society in Rosario, going on in 1964 to do an advanced course in 12-tone counterpoint at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The catalogue of his compositions, which has nowreached Op. 55, encompasses a huge range of instrumental/vocal chamber music and symphonic works: a vast and articulated catalogue, in which Sergio Calligaris’s composition expresses its inspiration through the dramatic development of a dialecticalcontrast between the two natures of the composer’s personality - the elegiac and the dithyrambic - which confront and interact with each other giving rise to artistic outcomes of a deeply moving nature. / Niveau : Intermédiaire / Date parution : 1905-06-19/ Répertoire / Alto et Piano

A third book of 21 pieces for beginner Instrumentation : viola and piano Number of Pages : 36 Series : Easy String Music Fast Forward, part of the Colledge's highly regarded Easy String Series, has long been the repertoire choice of string teachers. The pieces help reinforce basic elements of technique, rhythm and fingering patterns ranging from pieces for beginners - intermediate players. The edition is part of the Trinity syllabus 2007 (grade 2) Contenu - At Harvest Time - Boogie-Woogie - Clever Clogs! - Drifting - Fast Forward - Hallowe'en - Hornpipe - Hustle, bustle - Lazy-bones - Once Upon a Time - Polly's Polka - Singapore Sunset - Snake Charmer - Something or Other! - Sweet Dreams - The Ceilidh - Weeping Willow - What's the Time? - Windmills - Winter's Night - Wondering