A great jazz ballard for introducing 2nd position, legato bowing and expressive playing, with an interesting key change in the middle.
The well known Minuet from the Anna Madgalena Notebook gives lots of practice playing up a D major scale using 1st and 3rd positions. It also provides opportunities to develop the Minuet down-up-up bowing and other simple bowing patterns within a 3/4 time signature.
This dance is really full of energy, in 3/8, with lots of ringing chords. The C minor middle section is contrasting and there is lots of useful 5th position work within a lovely tune. A violin arrangement by Mathieu Crickboom is included in this publication.
As the title might suggest, this piece is full of opportunities to show off contrasting dynamics. It is more a double viola quartet than an octet in that the original brass piece had two groups of players facing each other and playing both with and against each other. The first part goes up to 5th position.
There are 6 movements in this concerto gross and all parts gets the tune at some point. All parts shift out of first position and there is some use of 4th position.
