Viola Music Graded for Difficulty
Introduction
Links to other sites
Annotated Index
This page lists viola music for learners, at successive levels of difficulty or 'grades' from early learner to preparation for music college.
This listing does not attempt to be a complete list of music for viola learners. It is just an unofficial compilation of the viola pieces set in recent years by the three Examining Boards which organise British nationwide music exams. So the list does not contain music for complete beginners, or many tutors, studies, or fun books such as Christmas albums and 'play along' recordings. Also most of the composers, arrangers, and publishers are European.
The three Examining Boards are :
Associated Board Of The Royal Schools Of Music, London (ABRSM).
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.
Trinity College London.
There are ten levels of exam, from Preliminary, through Grade One to Grade Eight, to a Recital/ Performer's Certificate, all pre- music college training. Sometimes the different Examining Boards disagree about the difficulty of a piece. In these cases the piece has been put at the lower level (on reflection, it would have been more encouraging to put them at the higher level!). In multi-movement works, different movements may be assigned to different grades.
The next level up, not included here, is a professional Performing / Teaching Licentiate. There are extensive lists of professional repertoire for violists in the main viola site resources.
The ABRSM also has exams for several instrumental ensembles. The current syllabus lists for viola and piano, and for string quartet, are given below.
Some of the items may be out of print.
Guildhall School of Music and Drama has a site which does not contain their syllabuses, but the syllabuses can be ordered from the site.
Similarly, the Trinity College London site gives some information about the special style of their exams, but not the full syllabuses, and publications can be ordered from the site.
Confusingly, the American and British grading schemes are different : UK Grades 1 to 8 cover roughly the same range of standards as ASTA Grades 1 to 5. Guides to equivalent ASTA levels are given below, based on the works which appear in both UK and ASTA listings, but no claims are made for the correctness of these equivalents !
Bristol
Music Shop (UK)
J W Pepper
Shar Music
Sheet Music
Plus
Sheet Music
Service
Southwest
Strings
Theodore
Front
The Looksmart search engine has a 'sheet music and books' category with many links.
EASY
Preliminary level players are able to play C, G, D one octave scales. This section is roughly equivalent to American ASTA Grades 1 and 2.
This section includes UK Grades :
Preliminary Grade
Grade One
Grade Two
Grade Three
INTERMEDIATE
Grade Four players are beginning to shift and play vibrato. This section is roughly equivalent to American ASTA Grade 3.
This section includes UK Grades :
Grade Four
Grade Five
Grade Six
ADVANCED
Most amateurs do not go to this level, which is roughly equivalent to American ASTA Grades 4 and 5 and to Donald McInnes' Viola Repertoire List Level I.
This section includes UK Grades :
Grade Seven
Grade Eight
Recital/Performers Certificate
ENSEMBLES AND TREBLE CLEF
This section includes :
Easy to Intermediate pieces for Violists
learning Treble Clef
Viola and piano - both parts at same
level of difficulty.
Easy to Intermediate Viola Duets -
includes a few multi-viola works.
String Quartets for learners.
Professional viola repertoire lists are given in the resources section of the main viola site.
Version 5 : May 1999