How Do You Find Good Fiddle Tunes for Viola?

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Viola Lovers

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A group to discuss and share info and music specific to the viola.

43 Members, Created 8/27/2011 -

Administrators: mudbug (owner)

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From paulinefiddle on 2/29/2012 1:48:45 PM

When I look for a (fiddle) tune that would send good on the viola, I usually look for something with a dark sound. For example, The Snow It Melts the Soonest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMXe0LvrCcw&feature=related) and The Wind That Shakes the Barley (http://www.thesession.org/tunes/index/search?name=the+wind+that+shakes+the+barley&type_id=&mode_id=), the latter played slowly, sound very good on the viola. The other day I was playing a bright, bouncy, Irish jig, The Butterfly (http://www.thesession.org/tunes/index/search?name=The+Butterfly&type_id=&mode_id=), on my violin, and I tried it on my viola. Wow! It was great. I even found it easier to play on the viola than on the fiddle. How do you find good (fiddle) tunes for the viola? Can you recommend specific tunes?

paulinefiddle

5 Comments
	TimK says: 3/1/2012 4:33:53 AM Check out Fiddling for Viola by Michael Hoffheimer. Traditional Irish and American fiddle tunes for viola.
	paulinefiddle says: 3/1/2012 1:15:27 PM Thanks, TimK. Maybe this will motivate me to learn to read alto clef.
	pilgrim says: 5/24/2012 2:27:24 PM Yes it is best if you read alto clef. you can then play many great fiddle tunes on viola. many Scottish tunes sound great on viola. For example: neil gow's lament for his second wife, sloket light and many more
	paulinefiddle says: 5/25/2012 10:29:44 PM Pilgrim, that is very inviting. I love Scottish fiddle music, and I believe that Neil Gow's Lament for His Second Wife and Da Slockit Light would sound wonderful on viola. One of Tom Anderson's students wrote a second fiddle part for Da Slockit Light, and I play the twin fiddle arrangement with my students. I bet that it would send really good with violin and viola. Thanks so much for your recommendation.
	transplant says: 8/13/2012 6:11:32 AM Every now and then I come across a fiddle tune that sits so well on the viola, in its usual key, that it seems like it grew there. Then, in a senior moment, I forget which one it was... I really need to start writing down the names of those. Visiting a friend yesterday, playing duets with my violin and his four-octave pan flute, I realized that the Dark Isle can stay in first position on viola in its own octave, or go an octave down without running out of room. Next time I go over there, the double case is coming with me, I want to hear how it sounds with the viola low and the flute high.
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