Compatible Quartets for Strings

Description

Viola 1, Viola 2, Viola 3, Viola 4 — In our experience as instrumental music teachers, we have found that having studentsplay in small chamber-music groups was a very beneficial exercise to improve the student’soverall musicianship. A simple form of chamber music is a quartet. It is an opportunity forthe student to play with other students of similar abilities. Aspects of playing such as tonequality, intonation, technique and ensemble skills can be developed during the process ofstudying quartets.These quartets are different in that they have many different performance options since allof the books in this series are compatible. During our experience as school music teachers,we have had students that wanted to come to the music room during lunch or after schooland they just wanted to play with their friends. However, that was not possible since thereis very little material available that is compatible with all of the string instruments. This booktakes care of that. A student can now grab a couple of their friends no matter what stringinstrument they play and have hours of fun playing quartets together. Most important theywill learn something in the process.The quartets have been generally placed in the book in order of difficulty and cover a rangeof keys that are appropriate for this ability level. Special care has been given to makingsure that all parts were on a similar level of ability. Also, most of the musical markings areattached to all systems, and the point size of the music was considered for ease of reading.It is our hope that this collection will help to stimulate and enhance the musicianship of theperformers. It was our pleasure to have the opportunity to put together this collection. Wehope it is a useful tool for you for years to come. The Compatible Ensemble Series allows chamber groups to play together, no matter the instrumentation or who wants to play melody, harmony, or bass. This collection contains 21 quartets for string instruments in a variety of styles from classical, to folk, to original compositions. Players get the opportunity to mix-and-match instrumentation and line played, making the instrumentation combinations almost limitless. The flexibility of these quartets makes them a must have for any string player.