Music for two violins - Church service
My wife and I are both professional violinists that have exhausted our supply of good traditional duet music for service at our church. The only thing we can find are ridiculously easy duets. We aren't looking for cadenzas - just well written works for two fiddles. (Not praise band stuff either.) Any suggestions?
Replies (12)
Catherine McMichael has several hymn collections for 2 violins and piano that are very nice. They are published by Lynn Latham.
I have a couple volumes of Catherine McMichael's music - I didn't realize there were more out there! Thank you!
I appreciate it!
Chris
Max Reger wrote some very nice duets for 2 violins, some of them in 'the old style'. Also I would nevertheless recommend some of those 'ridiculously easy duets' like for instance Pleyel and Mazas duets. First of all, it is a lot of fun, when you don't need to struggle with technical matters. And second: don't forget: that some Kreisler pieces and Mozart themes also appear to be ridiculously easy.
Peters publishes four volumes of violin duos by "Mozart." Some of them are arrangements of quartets and some of them are unlikely to be by Mozart, but the music is attractive and not inane. Shar seems to carry three of the four volumes.
Spohr wrote a lot of violin duos--the three duos of his op. 67 are particularly appealing, but they are not easy.
Finally, Jean-Marie LeClair wrote violin duets that are worth taking a look at--his op. 3 is published by Heinrichshofen's Verlag and also available from Shar.
These works don't necessarily have a religious connection, though.
A colleague and I have just discovered some really nice duets by Boccherini for two violins - well written for duo, challenging and satisfying to play - but not fiendishly difficult either. Opus 5.
From the audience's point of view, they'll have heard of the composer, but it'll also appeal as a lesser known work which they may not have heard performed before.
Also, there are the Pleyels but they may be a bit easy and we haven't found them as rewarding - others might disagree.
With Spohr, there's op. 3, op. 9, op. 39, op. 67, op. 148, op. 150 and op. 153 - all for two violins - challenging but nowhere near as hard as some of his quartets.
Other composers who wrote for 2 violins are Mazas (again some of these might be a bit easy,) Stamitz did quite a few as did Wieniawski, There are Sonatas for 2 violins by Vivaldi, the Telemann Canonic Sonatas , pieces by Romberg, Viotti, Krommer, Haydn, Campagnoli, Giardini, Geminiani (some more of a study), Hoffmeister and all sorts of lesser known composers like Guillemain, Berwald, Tessarini.....
I'll bet there are lots of undiscovered gems out there- only available from specialist publishers.... there are heaps in the Merton catalogue which only cost a couple of quid each so I suppose you could try them all out without spending much money.
Hope that helps.
Check out the site below for free baroque music, many are duets. The site offers PDF files of many works, they are free download and there is usually a midi or MP3 file included so that you can hear the work, as well. God Bless You both in your work.
De Beriot wrote 3 gymnastic duets for violin.
Oh, there is a great list of lesser known works here:
http://www.classical.net/music/links/commercial/publisher/merton/pianocham.pdf
Each piece has a code after it which indicates the publisher - then the last page has the contact details for each publishing house if you want to order.
Best wishes, Vaughan
Thank you all very much for your contributions. I will research each of them and see if I can broaden our repertoire a bit more.
Thank you,
Chris and Mary Burndrett
Mozart composed several "church sonatas" for two violins and organ (plus viola, cello and bass ad lib.). They are from KV67-KV336, therefore you can imagine they are from very easy (technically) to very complicated pieces. Most of them are very fast and brilliant (for process during a mass I think). Some of them are slower. Very suitable for traditional churchs.
In responding to another thread, it occurred to me that there is a comprehensive listing of works for two violins (as well as sheet music for just about any other combination of instruments) on the Frank Music Company website:
Here is a link to the first page of the two violin listings:
http://www.frankmusiccompany.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=121127_121174_121165
If you have an adventurous congregation, you could try some of the Bartok duos. If you and the congregation are really adventurous, you could try Berio (the late Luciano--without the "de" or the "t").
If one of you can play viola, the two Mozart duos violin/viola duos might be worth trying--they are not particularly easy but very rewarding.
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November 2, 2008 at 08:46 PM · I don't know. How about the beautiful Bach double concerto. Maybe the 3 mvt is not appropriate. If it is a funeral, maybe the second because it is saoulfoul (slow) and less joyful than the two other ones. If I was in the coffin or someone I like,seriously, I would like this music (but I don't want to think about that!) I would play the first mvt in a very joyful event ex : Easter mass
Oh, maybe some Vivaldi for other joyful events...
maybe I'm totally wrong though since I do not know what is typical for church music!
Anne-Marie