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Christmas Party Music

By gifts for string music lovers, intermediate and advanced cello duet sheet music, intermediate and advanced violin and cello duets, sheet music sales No Comments

What sort of Christmas party music would you choose to play for violin and cello duet? If you’re not sure we have a selection of sheet music in our online shop which would be fun for any occasion.

christmas party musicWhat is the programme?

Tambourin, Coppelia Waltz, Dance to Your Daddy, Pick Yourself Up, Exsultate Jubilate, Charpentier’s Te Deum,  and   Lilliburlero  are all lively and relaxed. These pieces are in major keys and project energy and joy. Christmas Variations   is also ideal. And if you add some straightforward carols to this you have a lovely programme.

Free arrangements!

This is a good time to browse through our sheet music because if you buy four arrangements from our online shop you get a fifth arrangement free.

And we can arrange carols for you…

Yes, although we don’t sell carol arrangements we can arrange them for you at quite short notice. For more information click here  or email us direct at info@fedorastrings.com

christmas party music

Christmas Duets

By cello duet sheet music, commissioning string music for an occasion, gifts for classical music lovers, sheet music sales No Comments

Christmas duets may not be our specialist area, but we do sell a newly composed piece called Christmas Variations which is available for cello and piano, for cello duet and as a violin and cello duet.

What is the music like?

The music is based on the carol Ding Dong Merrily on High and has three variations. It lasts around three minutes and the standard of music is around Grade 6.
Christmas duets

And remember we can arrange music for you

Remember – if you would like a Christmas carol arrangement of your own, for your own ensemble or as a gift for a friend, we can compose one for you at a reasonable price Click here to find out more or email us direct at info@fedorastrings.com

Cello Duets Reviewed

By intermediate and advanced cello duet sheet music, sheet music sales No Comments

Cello Duets Reviewed

Some of the cello duet arrangements that we sell on our website have just been reviewed by the September 2019 edition of Music Teacher Magazine. The duets that have been reviewed are: Four Famous Opera Arias arranged for Two Cellos. They can be bought individually on our site, or all four can be purchased together at SJ Music – who publish the duets.
cello duets reveiwed

What is the review like?

The review is excellent. It covers all the duets – Toreador Song, Habanera, Your Tiny Hand is Frozen and Non Piu Andrai . Some of this  detail has been quoted on our website. The review’s summary is:

“arranged with creative flair and an excellent knowledge of the instrument…a very worthwhile addition to the cello duet repertoire”

But apart from the review…

These are amazing arias and a great chance for cellists to play wonderful operatic tunes instead of accompanying them in an orchestra. Browse our cello duet repertoire HERE!

Toreador Song Cello Duet

Latest Cello and Piano Sheet Music

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The latest cello and piano sheet music we have for sale in our online shop is an arrangement of Lilliburlero . The cello part is around Grade 5 in standard – so considerably easier than our original violin and cello duet version.
But it still retains the liveliness and vitality of the original and works very effectively as a cello and piano duo.

About Lilliburlero

Lilliburlero became a popular folk tune in 1688 and some of the words have a political meaning. It was also used in The Beggars’ Opera which was written by John Gay in 1728. But there is absolutely no political meaning  to our arrangement –  it is simply a fun, happy tune!
Lilliburlero Cello Duet

New Cello and Piano Sheet Music

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We now have four new cello and piano sheet music pieces for sale at our online shop. These are: Scarborough Fair, Morning Prelude, Christmas Variations and Highland Meeting. The standard of the music is between Grades 6 and 7 and each piece is three to four minutes long.

Our latest piece

Highland Meeting was composed last month and is inspired by folk music. There’s ongoing dialogue between cello and piano throughout and the title is deliberately evocative.

New Cello and Piano Sheet Music

Music with narrative

I love playing short pieces with imaginative titles. If you play the piano you may have come across  Bergmuller’s Easy and Progressive Piano Studies . Each short study is a little jewel, with a title that brings the music to life. Listen to the fun performance of La Chasse below and you’ll see what I mean:

More information

Moving back to cello and piano, please feel free to email us at info@fedorastrings.com if you’d like more details about any of the music that we sell.

 

Building a repertoire of violin and cello duets for weddings

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Building a repertoire of violin and cello duets for weddings

If you are forming a professional violin and cello duo which will play at weddings you may be struggling to find repertoire. Violin and cello duets are an unusual combination.

So… welcome to Fedora Strings!  Our website specialises in  violin and cello duet sheet music which is imaginative and effective.  Our two  wedding collection albums are likely to contain almost all the music you’ll need to start with. And the pdf format they are sold in can be printed not just once, but as many times as you want. This makes  them excellent value for money.

Not just for weddings!

While Wagner’s Bridal Chorus might be considered an unusual choice to play in a recital, most of our other music is not just for weddings but can be played anywhere! Almost all our arrangements and compositions are true chamber music. They have very equal parts and share the tunes between the instruments.  And at the moment we are offering five arrangements ( or compositions) for the price of four!

exsultate jubilate alleluia by mozart

 

 

What is Summer Music?

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What is summer music? Most people would probably think it’s music that’s calm, rural and relaxing. Delius’s Summer Evening ( below) is exactly that:

But for Vivaldi summer evoked different feelings. His ‘Summer’ in The Four Seasons is an early example of programmatic music. Vivaldi wrote his own sonnets in the score to explain what the music is describing. The first movement’s sonnet reads: ” Langour in the heat” . This is followed by:  ” …beneath the blazing sun’s relentless heat men and flocks are sweltering  and the cuckoo’s voice can be heard.”  

For Gershwin the season was even more complex. His aria Summertime  opens his opera Porgy and Bess which is set in a black tenement in South Carolina in the 1930s. The  themes of the opera are romance struggling against poverty, drug taking and violence. Our violin and cello duet version is below:

…and you can buy our violin and cello duet sheet music arrangement here

Cello and Piano Sheet Music

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This autumn we will be adding some cello and piano sheet music to our online shop. Some of the sheet music is a piano and cello reworking  of already existing pieces. These are Scarborough Fair, Christmas Variations and Morning Prelude. There will also be three new cello and piano sheet music compositions.

New Commissions

For more information email us at info@fedorastrings.com  And remember, you can commission us to arrange or compose a piece for you for any combination of strings.
cello and piano sheet music

 

How TV Themes Work

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This blog explores how tv themes work. Have you noticed how the best tv themes immediately take you into the world of the programme with no words needed? Ever wondered how they do that?  Here’s a very rough outline:
First – Hawaii 5 0.  The lively mood, off beat rhythms, energy, contemporary pop style, use of drums and minor key instantly evoke action, seriousness and America.

Compare this with Inspector Morse – a very different, definitely non American, detective:

This tune expresses darkness and sadness – ideally suited to the older, cultured and world weary  Inspector Morse!  The minor key, repeated rhythms and repeated descending bass line – in chaconne style – create a sense of inevitability. Vitali’s Chaconne  ( below)  with its famous repeated descending bass line, is in the same world  (but was written  300 years earlier.)

Changing the mood completely, the Pride and Prejudice theme projects lightness and happiness with its major key, scale patterns  and lively speed. The composer effectively captured the late classical /early romantic style of Jane Austen’s era .


Compare this with the Haydn Piano Concerto and John Field Nocturne  below. Both composers were contemporaries of Jane Austen.


Do we sell similar sheet music?

We don’t sell anything exactly like the above themes.  But all music creates its  effects in similar ways. The nearest we have to Hawaii 5 0 is Over the Hills and Far Away or Lilliburlero. Both are lively and energetic, but they don’t have the American feel and are not in a minor key. The closest we have to the Inspector Morse theme is probably Una Furtiva Lagrima or Scarborough Fair.There’s no repeated descending bass, but both are sad, beautiful minor tunes.For the classical style of Pride and Prejudice choose Exsultate Jubilate and Boccherini’s Minuet and Trio.

Finally, the Listen With Mother radio theme – from long, long,long  ago –  was simply Faure’s Berceuse – a  lullaby duet that was perfect for the programme.

Film Music Favourites

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What are your film music favourites? In this blog I am going to share some of my favourite film themes. I’m also going to explain how some film themes have influenced our sheet music arrangements.

Film Music Favourites

This is the first fab film theme that  springs into my mind, and I love its energy and excitement. If fact, I like this theme so much that I included a quote from the main tune in our arrangement of Long Ago and Far Away ( even though this song is entirely different in mood)

Next, who could fail to be impressed by use of Bach’s Air on a G String in the Hamlet Cigar adverts ? This particular arrangementy is more jazzy than our own, but certainly gets some of the sense of calm across!

The film extract below is by far my favourite  version of La Cumparsita – and some of the accordion playing influenced our arrangement.

The theme from Dances with Wolves – with its sense of openness  achieved by using the first and fifth degrees of the scale – had some  influence on Morning Prelude

While Gabriel’s Oboe from the  film The Mission is an excellent example of a beautiful melody:
Enjoy!