First Solos【 for the Viola Player】in First Position

【FOREWORD】

To students and teachers of the viola, it has been apparent that there is a need for a collection of pieces geared to the requirements of the beginning player. Most available pieces for such players are either too difficult technically or too superficial musically. In this collection, therefore, I have sought to put the player who is still limited to the first position, into direct contact with music with a wide range of content and styles, going from the treasures of our national folk songs and household melodies to the great classic tradition, to a nineteenth century master like Tchaikowsky, up to a contemporary composition written especially for this class of performer.

I use the word "performer" rather than "beginner" in this context for it is in this way that I should like the first position student to view himself when he is using this book. It is for this reason that I have included viola duos so that the indispens-able experience of chamber music playing shall be available on a high musical level even to students taking their first musical steps.

These pieces, intended to give full musical pleasure to player and listener, can easily be utilized for the study of many technical subtleties—staccato, spiccato, detaché, string-crossing, bow-division, dynamic expressiveness, and so on, up to and including, if the teacher desires, shifting into higher positions through revised finger-ings. Throughout, as in my previously published "Solos for the Viola Player", the strong singing tone of the viola is to be constantly sought for.

I express my thanks to Milton Halpern who has collaborated with me at every phase of this enterprise, helping both to originate and to realize it, and to Dr. Mildred Johnson, whose flair for writing fine piano realizations of classical and other music I utilized for the greater part of the compositions contained in this collection.

PAUL DOKTOR