Viola Music Portal - PDF Sheet music for viola, violin and cello

♫ Viola sheet music ♫ Viola studies ♫ Violin sheet music ♫ Cello sheet music

Welcome to Viola music portal! At our music library, you will always find viola sheet music, exercises, etudes, viola scales, orchestra excerpts. Our PDF database also contains more than 350 viola pieces, more than 860 cello pieces and more than 1200 violin works of different composers. You can find different caprices and etudes compilations, scales and exercises, and, of course, different Viola sheet music. All sheet music is in PDF format to ensure the high quality you can print.

If you’re looking for a specific sheet music, available in our catalogue, you can browse around the site throughout the four sections: Viola sheet music, Viola studies, Violin sheet music, and Cello sheet music. In each section you’ll find an alphabetical list of the composers.

Latest library updates:

12.06.2021:

Two viola pieces by Frank Bridge were added to the library

• Bridge - Two pieces for viola and piano

Collection of different solos from opera and ballet for cello was added:

• Cello solos from opera and ballet

An interesting book about making a violin:

• How To Make A Violin - John Broadhouse

24.05.2021:

An interesting piece in viola transcription by Daniel Valle - Jasha Heifetz was added to the library:

• Valle - Heifetz - By the bonfire for viola and piano

08.05.2021:

Violin part of Shostakovich violin sonata op.134 was added to the library:

• Shostakovich - Violin Sonata op.134 (1968)

23.03.2021

Some cello pieces were added to the sheet music library:

• Krenek - Suite for violoncello solo op.84
• Malipiero - Sonatina for cello and piano

01.03.2021:

An unusual cello composition was added to the sheet music library:

• Honegger - Paduana for cello solo (1945)

Violin sheet music section was also updated:

• Moszkovsky - Violin concerto Op.30

Viola studies by Maurice Vieux were updated:

• Vieux - Viola etudes No.3 - 4

09.02.2021:

Some viola studies by Maurice Vieux were added to the viola etudes and studies section:

• Vieux - Viola etudes No.5 - No.8

29.01.2021:

Now you can easily log-in the library in the mobile site version. Use the "Log in" button at the top area. Also, you can see your membership status and its days left (Just click the "Account details" link above the "Logout" button in the full version or click "Log in" button in the mobile version).

26.01.2021:

Violin transcription of Mother's Prayer by Ole Bull was added to the violin sheet music section:

• Bull Ole - Mother's Prayer for violin and piano

21.01.2021

Old Russian-monodic style viola sonata by the Soviet composer Y.Butsko was added to the viola sheet music section:

• Butsko - Viola sonata (1976)

18.01.2021

Famous piece by Jacques Offenbach in cello transcription was added to the library:

• Offenbach - Les Larmes de Jacqueline (Jacqueline's Tears) for cello

Also, an interesting violin arrangement of Clair de Lune by C.Debussy was added to the violin sheet music section:

• Debussy - Clair de Lune for violin and piano

01.01.2021

Cello piece by Jacques Ibert was added to the cello sheet music section:

• Ibert - Piece for cello and piano

15.12.2020

Some violists know an outstanding Brazilian composer - Brenno Blauth. Now we have Viola sonata by Brenno Blauth in our library:

• Blauth Brenno - Viola sonata

04.12.2020

Some cello and violin pieces were found and added to our library:

• Bartok - Romanian dances for cello and piano
• Saariaho - Spins and spells for cello
• Rostropovich - Humoresque for cello and piano
• Lutoslawski - Grave for cello and piano
• Ellerton - Tarantella for violin
• Shaverzashvili - Violin concerto
• Denisov - Sonata for violin solo
• Denisov - Violin sonata
• Drigo - Valse-bluette for violin

Also, we have small addition to the viola sheet music section:

• Clarke - Morpheus for viola and piano

23.11.2020

An outstanding composer, Efrem Zimbalist, wrote an interesting and helpful book of exercises for violin. Now, you can find this book in the violin sheet music section:

• Zimbalist - Daily exercises for the violin

Also, you can find very useful book for each cellist is in our library now:

• Orchestral excerpts from the symphonic repertoire for cello

Some additions to the viola sheet music sections, including Maurice Vieux etudes:

• Sevcik - Preparatory studies in double-stopping for viola op.6
• Vieux - Viola etudes No. 1 - No. 2
• Vieuxtemps - Etude for viola and piano

21.11.2020

Interesting Viola sonata by the famous mexican composer Pablo Moncayo was added to the sheet music library:

• Moncayo - Viola sonata

12.11.2020

Good news! We've automated the membership buying procedure. So, now you can register and use your login and password immediately after payment. No more waiting for hours. Discover our special membership offer and feel free to become a member!

Also, we 're preparing some new viola etudes by Henri Vieux. Expecting this week! 

11.10.2020:

Viola sheet music section was updated by the viola solo piece - added the "Senecio" by E.Denisov

• Denisov - Senecio for viola solo

28.08.2020:

Violin sheet music section was updated by the one interesting piece - the violin and piano transcription of N3 from the "Historie du tango". You can find it here:

• Piazzolla - Nightclub 1960 for violin and piano

Also, there is a cello piece transcription by Dmitri Shostakovich.

• Shostakovich - Fruhlingvalse (Spring valse) for cello and piano

23.08.2020:

Rare and wonderful Viola concerto by the Soviet composer R.Bunin was found and added to the viola music section:

• Bunin - Viola concerto

27.05.2020

New violin composition by famous composer Benjamin Britten was added:

• Britten - Suite for violin and piano op.6

03.04.2020

O canto do cisne negro (Song of the Black Swan) by Villa-Lobos was added to the violin music section:

• Villa-Lobos - Black Swan (O canto do cisne negro) for violin and piano

31.03.2020

Rare and interesting Viola concerto by David Gyula was added to the library. You can find it here:

• David Gyula - Viola concerto

>> LIBRARY NEWS ARCHIVE 2016 - 2020

Musicians in medieval times have understood this need and have started recording their work in parchment to preserve them in order to recreate them later when required. Later the manuscripts were written in paper and the hand written manuscripts were the major form of sheet music until mid 15th century when the printing press came into existence.

Viola sheet music too went through this process and finally has come on paper after 15th century. Before 18th century viola was under the shade of violin and didn’t get a prominent place in western music. Therefore viola sheet music was almost nonexistent until early 18th century when J. S. Batch rediscovered the value of viola in orchestras. He later went on to write a few composures on viola and the viola sheet music on them are still available. Brandenburg concerto 3 and Brandenburg concerto 6 are two of his notable works on viola and the viola sheet music of these are available for you even today. There is sheet music for viola written by many composers in the last three centuries for those who love classical music.

Like sheet music for all other instruments, viola sheet music also first appeared in parchment hand written by the composers. Finally, when the printing press was invented they went to the printed form. Due to certain constraints in printing, many composers kept on hand writing sheet music for viola until 18th century when the printing press developed into is able to record viola sheet music in the correct form. Later, written hard form of viola sheet music started to appear in the soft form using computer screens.

Sheet music for viola appeared in the soft form for the first time in 1991 when the scanning of the printed sheets of sheet music for viola started. Later digital technology developed to have them in digital form. Presently if you need to enjoy any composer’s music that is available in viola sheet music form it is just a click away. You have the possibility of downloading the sheet music for viola and playing the same looking at your computer screen.

It is the sheet music for viola that has helped the development of viola music. If not for this preserved written form of music, the great works of composers of the yester year could have been lost with time. But thanks to the efforts of those musicians of the era when classical music was developing we have their work in written form to enjoy and to pass on to the future generations. It is the viola sheet music that anchors the past to the present on viola music. It also will do the same to the future viola music.

Culture News:

• Association of Teachers of music schools of Serbia (Belgrade) invites you to participate students and musicians with no age limit in the IV International Music Competition Internet (INTERNET MUSIC COMPETITION) www.musiccompetition.eu (open website in Russian) . Competitive video recording, directly via the Internet evaluated by a jury from many countries of the world. Internet competition is convenient in the financial and organizational terms, as it passes completely through the Internet. Many teachers from the former Soviet Union participated in the competition helped to certify, as remain the international. Sincerely, Milomir Doychinovich - President of the Association

• The official site of the II International contest-festival of young performers in the RA. Full details of the competition is given on the website.

In viola sheet music section of our Site each violist always find different sheet music by foreign composers, both old and modern. Just to name a few: Bartok, whose concerts are playing by all viola players, Bach solo suites for viola and other compositions, Beethoven, Bloch, known Brahms viola sonatas, Bruch, Vitali, with his remarkable Chaconne, Grieg, Campagnoli with brilliant concert caprices. Corelli and Locatelli, Czech composer Martinu, Milhaud, well, and of course, Mozart. Many violists often play the brilliant sonatas of Honegger, Nardini, Hindemith, which can be found on our website. Also we collected a large number of works of Rolla, Sitt, Telemann, Schubert. There are so many composers who wrote the composition for viola. Of course there are such masterpieces as concerts by Frid, Forsite, Stamitz, Hoffmeister, Walton, Enescu. Of course, there are many Russian and Soviet composers. You can find viola sheet music by Prokofiev, and Glinka, Shostakovich, Slonimsky, Rachmaninov, Golovin. This is only a small part. Go to the section "Viola sheet music" and look how rich the viola repertoire is!

For junior violists (and not only for them) our music library opened a large section where you can find etudes for viola, a variety of exercises, scales, schools, also very rare collections. It's never too late to play the viola etudes! We also have rare caprices by Stanitsky and etudes by Dont, Rode, Palashko.

For those viola players and viola artists who are going to work in the orchestra, there will be useful to play some music from our collection. Many theaters or any philharmonic orchestras at the audition can give you some difficult pieces. It will be useful to pre-teach difficult places, and so easy to see how there are virtuoso the viola orchestral parts can be.

This is only a small part of what offers you alto our website. See all topics, we hope you will find them in the for yourself useful and interesting. In the nearest time we'll open the violin, cello sheet music and quartet sheet music section!

We are the part of violamusic.me project.

The proportions of the viola cannot be as nearly defined as those of the violin, which can be said to have a standard size within quite small limits of variation. It seems that every imaginable combination of measurements has been tried in the as yet unfinished evolutionary process, the goal of which is to achieve an instrumental design that will answer to a common ideal of the viola's sound and capabilities. This common ideal is being delayed in its crystallizing by an unusual divergence of opinion among performers, composers, and listeners, both as to what kind of tone the viola should produce and what kind of music it should be expected to play. The viola presents an especially marked example of the continuity of the evolutionary process, which we cannot assume to be completed in the case of any of our instruments.
Even the largest violas are not big enough in comparison with the violin to correspond to the pitch a perfect fifth lower, and this discrepancy is doubtless responsible in large part for the unique tone quality of the viola. The larger the instrument the more difficult it is to handle, especially when playing in upper positions.
The bow is somewhat thicker than the violin bow, and hence heavier.
The viola's heavier strings speak with more reluctance, and tone production requires a certain amount of "digging in." Light and airy types of bowing are therefore less natural to the viola than to the violin. They are not to be shunned, but one should realize that only skillful players with good instruments can make them sound effectively.
The two lower strings are wound with wire, the others being plain gut. Some players use wound strings for all four, and metal A-strings are also used.
The fingering system of the viola is identical with that of the violin. Playing the viola requires a large hand and strong fingers, particularly the fourth finger, which is held in a more extended position than on the violin. The extension of the left forearm in the first position proves tiring after long playing. Positions above the third are inconvenienced by the awkwardness of getting around the shoulder of the viola with the left hand.
The normal clef for the viola is the alto clef (middle C on the third line). The treble clef (G clef) is employed when the part lies substantially above the range of the alto clef for a length of time. Too many clef changes should be avoided. A violist is quite accustomed to reading two or three leger lines above the staff, and he would prefer to do so rather than change clef for just a few notes.
The situation of the viola in the middle of the pitch range of the strings seems to have made it the busiest member of the group. It is not only appropriate for melodies of its own, but it is constantly called upon to double violins at the octave or unison, or it may double the 'cellos or even the basses. The character and the sound of the viola are more suited to singing melody than to the performance of agile figuration.
In a modern orchestra there are usually twelve violas. In the period of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, the number was at most five, with six to ten first violins and six to ten second violins. Violas have a heavier tone than violins, and in classical scores there is good evidence that the divided violas were thought a sufficient balance for the combined first and second violins.