Lullaby of Birdland

Posting this for Jacinta as LC practical option. We are using the Huw Edwards Fiddler Series with violin accompaniment part.

This piece hass a lazy swing feel to it . It is not unlike Polka Dots and Moonbeams posted earlier

Carmen Habanera

The Habanera  which opens this medley from Carmen is on Grade 5 syllabus of CCSM 

30910 Rachel Podger Bach Violin Concerti

Violin Vibrato, Introduction Part 2

Ivan Galamian Masterclass - Joshua Bell 1980

Romanian Folk Dances: Grade 8 CCSM

Grade 6 CCSM A. Vivaldi: Op. 3 n. 12 - Concerto for violin, strings & b.c. in E major...

Compare this performance of Vivaldi E major Concerto with that of Perlman . The tempos are brisker and it is lighter in texture

Grade 6 CCSM Vivaldi - Concerto for Violin in E major - Op. 3 no. 12

Tempos are much slower in Perlman's version and the playing style is 'heavier'

Reiding Concerto A minor Grade 4 CCSM

Gavotte from Mignon Grade 3 CCSM

Melodie Gluck (Kreisler ) Grade 6 CCSM

Kreisler Liebesleid Grade 6

The original and some say the best - Kreisler plays Kreisler

Hubay Bolero Grade 6

Preliminary Grade

Simple, yet lovely. Goes to show a simple tune played well can be just as entertaining as more difficult repertoire .

Grade 3 Reiding B Minor concerto

Traumerei Schumann Grade 4 CCSM

Rose is playing this one . Originally a piano piece , keep the tempo moving , concentrate on keeping a sustained tone throughout.

Oriental Cui Grade 4 CCSM

Handel Bouree , Suzuki Book 2 , Grade 3

These are very good practice tempos .

La Cumparsita Grade 4

This is a great piece.  I am posting this one for Bronwyn who is presenting it for Leaving Cert practical. It is not very hard to play and appeared on the ABRSM Grade 3  syllabus in recent years. Compare these two versions. It needs to be played with lots of attack. Keep the bows heavy but short. In the second part,  you can play around with the bowing  varying between playing legato or heavy detached bowing. It is a dance and the tempo needs to be steady and marked .  The silence between the notes is as important as the notes here.
Look out for tangos by  Argentinian composers, Gardel and Piazzola

Vivaldi A minor Concerto

Perlman takes a very steady tempo here.

Locatelli Violin Sonata in G minor 1 Grade 7

Locatelli Violin Sonata in G minor 11 Grade 7

Apres un Reve Faure :Grade 6

Minuet Boccherini Grade 3

This piece comes from a string quintet. In this video, it is played twice, the second time at a slower tempo for practice purposes.

Meditation Grade 7

This one is for Nicola.



Grade 7

Lots of shifts .

Practice with guide notes in until you are sure of the intervals.

Scumann Traumerei Violin Piano Grade 4 CCSM

Good bow control needed as you need to use every bit of it in this piece. It is very often played on cello .

Traumerei literally dreamy!

Arioso Bach Grade 4 Repertoire CCSM

Eta Cohen Book 4

Grade 5 .

A very popular piece and often requested for weddings

Originally from a Bach harpsichord concerto, I am posting an recording by legendary performer, Glen Gould. The slow movement is about 4 mins in.

I suggest you avoid using too much vibrato and go for relaxed tempo and smooth sustained tone.

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Bronwyn brought this one to my attention today. I have chosen this version as it is fairly straight version of the Jimmy Heusen tune.

Russian Fantasia , Portnoff Violin Grade 4 CCSM

This not actually the Portnoff Fantasy on the syllabus but I could not find a suitable version so until I do I am putting up this one as  guide to the style .

Salut d'Amour Grade 5 CCSM Violin

Yes I know this is a cello version, but I liked it better than any of the violin versions I looked at.

The tempo is very brisk and he uses a lot of bow .

La Cinquantaine Gabriel Marie Grade 3 repertoire CCSM

This player takes a very steady tempo and makes a lot of the ralls. There are a lot of cello versions on youtube including one of Kreisler and his brother.


Born in Paris on 8th January 1852, Gabriel-Marie, to use the hyphenated form of his name he adopted professionally, studied at the Paris Conservatoire and achieved a prominent position in Parisian musical life in the late-nineteenth century. He was timpanist and then chorus master of the Lamoureux Concerts from 1881 to 1887, and conducted the orchestral concerts of the societe Nationale de Musique from 1887 to 1894. A keen Wagnerian, Gabriel-Marie was among the early French visitors to Bayreuth and was chorus master for the production of Lohengrin given by Charles Lamoureux in Paris in 1887. He also conducted the concerts of Sainte-Cecile in Bordeaux, and then from 1902 settled in Marseille, conducting there during the winter months and at the Casino at Vichy during the summer until his retirement in 1912.

Besides dances, he also composed music for theatres in Paris and Marseille and wrote music criticism. He died suddenly at Puigcerda in Spain on 29th August 1928 while travelling in the Pyrenees. His son Jean Gabriel-Marie was also a composer, whose works included music for Mireio, based on the same Provencal poem as Gounod's opera Mireille, and who was director of the Institut Gabriel-Marie in Marseille for many years until his death in 1970. He is mostly know as a French light music composer. His fame rests largely on his 'air dans le style ancien' La Cinquantaine (1884), but his other dance compositions are also well worth rediscovering, judging by the refreshing charm of his waltz Sous les firnes (Under the Ash Trees, 1884) and the rhythmic ingenuity of the polka Frais minois

Haydn Violin Concerto Gmajor Grade 7 CoCorkSM

 Work in small sections, a couple of bars at a time . Work out the rhythm. There is quite a range of note values in some bars ,quavers, semis, triplets and hemi demis, crotchets   Count in quavers  without vibrato or ornaments working on the outline of the piece. Look at fingering after you have sorted the rhythm.

Classical period. First movement or Sonata Form
Exposition, Development, Recapitulation

Accolay Violin Concerto A minor no1

Grade 6

Dvorak Romantic Piece No 1 Grade 4

Lots of you have this on your list. There are a couple of recordings to choose from. This one is a bit faster than most of the others.

Rieding Violin Concertino in G

Grade 5    also in Barber Vol 2

Use lots of bow, not just the upper half  and don't be afraid to make a lot of the ralls.
Triplets , bring out first in each group.

Juliette,