Viola Sheet Music

Where to find it?

Need viola sheet music? There is much more viola music than most people expect, very often it's just a bit difficult to find it! Here are some ideas of where to look for it.

Most publishers publish viola music as part of their catalogue, but there are some who specialize in some way: some publish viola sheet music transcriptions, others publish original, unknown viola works, others publish facsimiles.

In some cases you won't be able to find works by these publishers in shops either online or offline, so you'll find here a link to their own website.

Some of the links below are to pages on this website related to composers and subjects mentioned.

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Find viola sheet music on this website

Here are some pages on this website that list of viola sheet music from various publishers:

• List of published Viola concertos from Angerer to Zelter
• List of viola orchestral-parts
• Some music publishers, their history and the viola music they publish: Baerenreiter, Schirmer
• Free viola sheet music to download

Viola sheet music on external websites

Here you'll read about some specialized viola music websites and others with rare, interesting viola music.

Viola World Publications The name says it all. It is a well established American company, specialized in viola sheet music, their own transcriptions studies and repertoire works for solo viola and viola ensembles. It's a shame it's not possible to preview the first page of the works.

Gems music publications This is another publisher specialized only in viola sheet music, founded by Kenneth Martinson, viola professor at the University of Florida. Here too, their name says what they do: they publish "gems", works available only as a manuscript in music libraries around the world. It is especially interesting as they publish most of Alessandro Rolla's viola music (those works not already published by others): duos, sonatas and concertos (some with score and parts). Also several Stamitz and Telemann works, plus more. You can preview the first page of each work, although I find some of them too small to read.

Musedita A small Italian publisher specialized in ancient music. They also have a series, called Viola and labora, of viola sheet music titles that includes viola works of the 17th and 18th century: original viola studies by Bruni, Hoffmeister, some sonatas, 18th century transcriptions. Very interesting and you can preview the first page of each work. They ship to anywhere, but unfortunately some pages with ordering etc. instructions are not translated, so if you get confused there, you can find their viola sheet music also on this American online store

Anne Fuzeau is a French publisher originally specialized in facsimiles. Now they publish also other, but they have some viola music facsimiles, either of manuscripts or first editions, like Stamitz viola concerto as well as a very comprehensive book on the history of the viola, for those who can read French and a collection of viola treatises (for "alto") in four volumes. I personally find a bit difficult to navigate their website and find viola sheet music, even through their advanced search. So I recommend my favourite online music store, I even found more of Fuzeau's viola titles there.

Amadeus Verlag is a Swiss publisher with a lot of viola sheet music. Beautifully printed, with nice pictures on the covers, sometimes with some facsimiles. It's not possible to preview the works. Here too, if you prefer to deal with only one online shop, here's where you can find Amadeus viola music Amadeus viola music

Kunzelmann Verlag is another Swiss publisher with some interesting viola music not published by anyone else, Hummel Fantasia and Pout Pourri, including score and parts for Hoffmeister Viola Concerto viola. They don't sell online, their website in German is only their distributors list and their catalogue (useful anyway, check the string chamber music section, with ragtimes and other light music for quartet). After you consult their catalogue, you can buy their viola sheet music online here.

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Visit the page on this website about Alessandro Rolla, a very important composer for the viola (as well as violin), that every viola player should at least have heard of.
More Rolla's viola sheet music

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10 Lovely Melodies for Solo Viola, Viola Duo or a Bunch of Violas!

Now, here you can find some exclusive viola sheet music, my own transcriptions for viola of some folk tunes and a very famous classical piece. You can listen to them as well.

I decided to publish this collection of viola music because several times some people asked me where they could find the notes for the music I was playing.

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So here above were for you a few folk tunes and songs and one very famous classical music piece. Why together? Well, in the past most “classical” (as we now call them) composers knew, took inspiration and used folk music, it was part of their work. For example, just to name a few, Bach wrote Gigues (Jigs) and other folk dances, Mozart wrote Ländler or German Dances (one of which must have inspired Michael Turner’s Waltz) and Beethoven worked for over ten years for the Scottish publisher George Thomson of Edinburgh, arranging for piano trio collections of folk tunes from different European countries. I think it’s good for both classical and folk players to play different types of music.

Bach’s Choral needs no presentation. It is such a wonderful piece and on the viola it sound really gorgeous. You need to be aware that you will be playing both the orchestra and the choir part, so play it accordingly.

As to folk music, the basic structure of folk tunes is composed of two phrases, A B with repeats, that is A A B B; the songs are A B without repeats. When you’ve played this once, you can repeat the whole tune or song a few times (I suggest three times all together), adding your own variations.

In this collection you’ll see that tunes and songs are written in different ways, so as to be played by a solo viola, a viola duo or a group of violas. These are just suggestions for your performance, each of them can be played in either way, as you prefer.

In most cases, repeats are written out, with variations.

I recommend you to play them by heart, getting rid of the “dots” as soon as you can. It’s a good practice and you’ll enjoy them more. Also, being free from that piece of paper, you can focus on giving the music to your listeners and making them, too, enjoy it more, which is the most important thing.

Finally, love your listeners and they’ll love you and your viola!

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Go from Viola Sheet Music to Viola Concertos

or to Viola Solos - Wedding Sheet Music - Viola Orchestral Parts

- Music Minus One (play along)

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Tweets by @MonicaCuneViola

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