I've searched. Oh, how I've searched. And all in vain: there are no proper viola ensemble pieces, anywhere. It could be a duet, a trio, a quartet, all the way up to an octet - nothing. This is where you come in:
Do you, by any chance, know or have any viola ensemble pieces that are nice to play? I guess they shouldn't be over-the-edge hard, but my friends and I are pretty advanced. Please please tell me about it if you know any nice pieces!
It's a bit of a long shot, but have you checked out WIMA? This is a site for free (and legal) score downloads – mainly baroque and classical era. I can't imagine there'd be many (any?) viola ensemble pieces, but scores often have Finale (etc) source files attached, meaning you'd be able to download/adjust/print things for violas. Eg: Bach 2-Part Inventions; Telemann canons (originally for 2 flutes); etc.
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ps – you're in luck! Here's a PDF of the Telemann Canons in alto clef!
Hey, thanks for the link, I've tried WIMA before, but viola ensembles are close to non-existent. The Telemann piece is quite intriguing, I had to research it a bit before understanding how it's played. It's practically the two violas playing the same thing, just with a measure between them.
Thank you again! I'll look into this one a bit more.
No worries! Re the Telemann – it's exactly the two violas playing the same thing: the second viola comes in when the first viola gets to the sign.
Eg – in Sonata I, it just happens to be that each of the movements is a canon with the violas one bar apart. In Sonata II, the two violas are, in the three movements, 4 bars, 2 bars and (again) 2 bars apart respectively. Etc, etc ...
Brainwave #2 – there's a fair bit of music around for cello duets, trios, etc. Transposed an octave higher, some of this music would work for violas. (I'd guess the main problem would be cello thumb position stratospherics. Still, probably worth a try.)
There are huge amounts of Viola Ensemble pieces out there, I'm doing a project and compiling a list of viola ensemble repertoire from 2-20 violas and my list is already 3 pages long...still not done. Try searching for the Penn State Viola Ensemble and check out their list of repertoire, it is quite extensive. Ot look at the BYU library website, you may be able to ask your college or a college near you to interlibrary loan it.
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