Tchaikovsky Seasons Transcribed for Viola and Piano

You can find the music here on the Groth Music Company's website, or you can order it directly from the International Music Company via their new issues page.

Transcription: Bach French Suite BWV 813 for two violins and cello

You can find the music here, and on this page of the IMSLP.

Film Noir for Alto Flute (or Viola), Bassoon, and Piano

You can listen here, and find the music via the transcription tab on this page of the IMSLP.

Transcription: To A Wild Rose for Solo Mandolin, Solo Violin, or Solo Viola

You can find a PDF on this page of the IMSLP, where you will also find an arrangement I made for string quartet.

Transcription: Florence Price Adoration for Flute and String Trio or for String Quartet

You can find the score and parts here and on this page of the IMSLP.

You can listen here.

Transcription: Tchaikovsky Barcarolle (June) from "The Seasons" for cello and piano

You can order the music here.

Transcription: Marion Bauer's Elegie for Violin and Piano or Flute and Piano

PDF files for the score and parts for both versions are available on this page of the IMSLP. You can listen to the violin version here, and the flute version here.

Transcription: Schubert's Nachtviolen for four violas

You can find the score and parts on this page of the IMSLP.

Transcription: Lili Boulanger Nocturne and Cortege for Viola and Piano

Published by International Music Company and available through this link.

Transcription: Massenet's Méditation from Thaïs for viola and piano

I think that the best known musical meditation is the one from Jules Massenet's 1894 Opera Thaïs. The action that accompanies this piece happens offstage, when Thäis leaves her life as a pleasure-seeking courtesan, and enters religious life. After the Méditation, the monk Athanaël, who had persuaded Thäis to convert, realizes that he is in love with her.

The Méditation is set for solo violin, two harps, winds, and a chorus of closed-mouth singers. For my transcription for viola and piano I transposed the piece into G major (a fifth lower), and rewrote the piano part to better reflect the colors, pitches, and motion of the original score.

Martin Pierre Marsik's piano reduction of the Méditation was published by Heugel in 1894, and I imagine it was approved by Massenet. But Marsik's piano reduction doesn't sound very good transposed a fifth lower, and a need for a setting of the piece for viola and piano wasn't on anybody's radar during Massenet's lifetime.

Just for a lark, after making my viola and piano edition, I made a personal copy transposed back into the original key, and when I played it on the violin with a pianist friend, it felt better to play with than the Marsik piano reduction. But I guess I am a bit biased.

My edition is now available from the International Music Company (and will be among the new issues on this page soon), and I am very grateful that they respected my choice to rewrite the piano part.

Transcription: Telemann Tafelmusik Sonata à 4 for String Orchestra

I have loved this piece since I first played it as a flutist nearly fifty years ago. I think that it is one of Telemann's best pieces, and I am very proud to share it as a string piece (a fifth lower than the two flute and recorder original). You can listen to a recording here.

And you can find the music on this page of the IMSLP.

Transcription: Mozart Piano Sonata K545 for String Quintet or String Orchestra

[Transposed into D major]

You can find the music on this page of the IMSLP (via the transcription tab).

Transcription: Ysaye Reve d'enfant for viola and piano

This transcription is available from the International Music Company.

Transcription: Frederic Hymen Cowen January Lullaby for the New Year for String Quartet

[December 29, 2021]

You can listen here. You can find the music here and on this page of the IMSLP.

Transcription: Haydn Fugue Hob. XIX: 16 for String Orchestra

The score and parts are available on this page of the IMSLP.

I'm very pleased with the way that our Charleston Summer Strings orchestra played it.

Transcription: Florence Price's Thumbnail Sketches of a Day in the Life of a Washerwoman for String Quartet

The score and parts are available on this page of the IMSLP, and you can listen to a computer-generated recording here.

Weights and Measures for two violas and for two violins (or violin and another melody instrument)

[May 2, 2021]

[May 3, 2021]

These have the same scale-based parts for the upper voice as "Weights and Measures" for solo recorder, but the articulations and dynamics here are more suited to strings.

The second voice in the first (above) version is a dedicated violin part, which could also be played on the viola (as a violin and viola duet, or as a recorder--or flute and violin or viola duet), and the version for two violas is set a fifth lower, with both parts in the alto clef. The second voice in the two-viola version can be paired with the solo alto recorder version of the original. Everything can be mixed and matched.

Single-page (for tablet use) and duplex (for double-sided printing) PDFs are available on this page of the IMSLP.

Transcription: Tchaikovsky November Troika, October Autumn Song, and April Snowdrops (from The Seasons) for Three Violas

March 20, 2021

March 21, 2021

March 23, 2021

You can find the score and parts for November here, the score and parts for April here, and the score and parts for October here. The arrangements are on this page of the IMSLP (individually under the transcription tab).

You can listen to them as a suite (April, October, November) here.

Transcription: The Swing and Foreign Lands from "A Cellist's Garden of Verses" for solo oboe or solo flute

UPDATE: The flute version has been expanded to five pieces, with some of them for alto flute and bass flute. You can find PDF files on this page of the IMSLP, where you will find the original set for cello, as well as versions for for violin, for viola, and for double bass.

Transcription: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 Finale for String Sextet

March 29, 2020
[click for a larger view]

A friend in Italy who lost his father to the Coronavirus asked me to arrange the last movement of the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, his father's favorite piece, for string sextet.

The score and parts are available on this page of the IMSLP, and I have also made a PDF available here.

You can listen to a computer-generated recording here.