William Grant Still, Danzas de Panama are fun, short and effective.
Phil Green's String Boogie, if you like that sort of thing.
Eine Kleine Beatlemusic (known to be by the late Fritz Spiegel).
What you want is effectively the kind of things people assemble into a gig book, I think.
Considering starting with Leroy Anderson. The string orchestra arrangements can generally also be played by string quartet.
Last Resort Publishing has a "Music For Four" series with all sorts of well arranged and interesting pieces.
www.lastresortmusic.com
yup, my hard-core gigging friends rely a lot on Last Resort (which does have the Brandenburg 3 arrangement, I believe) and Latham Music:
How about the theme to Fawlty Towers by Dennis Wilson? There's sheet music for a suite for string quartet - the directions alone are worth the read.
Have you considered Kabalevsky, Opus 39. I think that #5, A Game, could be lots of fun. Piano music, but Dimity will not mind.
Gershwin's "Lullaby" is another fun one.
video
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW2ZeDpARN8/"> sheet music
Michael McLean's "Six Tangos for String Quartet" are a lot of fun!
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Hi Liz. If you're looking for contrast you could try a couple of Vitamin String Quartet arrangements. We recently picked up a couple, Wonderwall and Mr. Starlight -
http://www.vitaminstringquartet.com/sheet-music.html?limit=all
Wonderwall is good as it's so well known, but it's heavy on viola so make sure your violist can carry a tune :) Starlight is a really nice arrangement of that Muse tune (I really like Muse), so I'd suggest that one -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjFBUS3a27c
Haydn Op 76 no. 2 is really fun and interesting I think you ensemble would really enjoy it -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bua8BlrR06U
As it only takes two to tango, four should do it with ease. Or maybe you can do two tangos.
Whatever you do, don't drink the stuff - It's deadly on your teeth, though not as bad as coke/pepsi (I tell people whom I expect to know a bit of chemistry that to make a molar solution all they need to do is just carry on drinking that coke) and those other drinks that have phosphoric acid as an ingredient.
Hugo Wolf "Italian Serenade"
But it's all Wolf notes!
Tristesse- chopin
celebre reverie - Schumann
Depending on the audience and the level of the players.... Hindemith wrote at least two humourous pieces for quartet - Militarminimax (a suite of short movements) and 'Overture to the Flying Dutchman as played at sight by a second-rate orchestra ..... at 7am ....'. The latter is hilarious if you know the original, but I suspect it's very difficult.
I've heard an arrangement of Copland's Ho-Down which was very effective but I don't know if it's published.
Frank Bridge's "Miniatures" for piano trio are delightful. Playing them is kind of like picnicking on a perfect Spring day. I imagine listening to them is too.
Frank Bridge's "Miniatures" for piano trio are delightful. Playing them is kind of like picnicking on a perfect Spring day. I imagine listening to them is too.
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September 30, 2014 at 02:40 PM · Bill Thorpe here in London has done some great arrangements of fun themes, such as Tristan and Isolde. I've played a few with him a long time ago but can't remember who publishes them. (For string quartet).