trio wedding music

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Brons on September 9, 2009 at 4:08am

Lynn Latham's Music for Three Volumes [Last Resort Press] have practically become a wedding industry standard resource....

Ruth Brons
Inventor of Bow Hold Buddies[tm] Instant Bow Hold bow accessory for violin/viola, and
CelloPhant[tm] Instant Bow Hold bow accessory for cello
www.things4strings.com

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Permalink Reply by Karis Mills on September 15, 2009 at 12:44pm

Thanks, Ruth. I am familiar with the Latham books, but the trios leave a little to be desired. They serve the purpose well enough, but there isn't enough music there nor is it much fun to play over and over. I guess I was looking for more variety. I really appreciate your desire to help, though.

Karis

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Brons on September 15, 2009 at 6:04pm

Karis,

"Real" trio music, for violin, viola and cello, often tends to be not perfectly suited for weddings. Most gigging trios look for two violin and cello music, and also find that quite a lot of string quartet music actually works without the viola. Double violin concertos [like the Bach Double, or Vivaldi d minor] also work well with the cello playing the orchestra cello part. Baroque trio sonatas also work, without the keyboard. Also, most pop or religious sheet music works with the inner voice [violin or viola] finding its own line while the outer voices play the melody and bass lines -- and pieces can be lengthened by passing the melody to the cello fo rthe second verse and a violin doing 8va on the third verse. The Haydn London Trios also work well, even though originally for violin, flute and cello.

Good luck,

Ruth Brons
Inventor of Bow Hold Buddies[tm] Instant Bow Hold bow accessory for violin/viola, and
CelloPhant[tm] Instant Bow Hold bow accessory for cello
www.things4strings.com


Karis Mills said:

Thanks, Ruth. I am familiar with the Latham books, but the trios leave a little to be desired. They serve the purpose well enough, but there isn't enough music there nor is it much fun to play over and over. I guess I was looking for more variety. I really appreciate your desire to help, though.
Karis

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Permalink Reply by Karis Mills on September 16, 2009 at 1:36pm

Ruth, thanks for the advise. I'll look some stuff up and see what we can do. I can play the second violin parts, but I like viola better. :)

Karis

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Permalink Reply by Mark Schuster on September 28, 2009 at 5:13pm

Karis -

I've been working through some arrangements for trio with weddings in mind (seems to be a popular option the last few years since it saves paying one person). I've only published Bach/Gounod Ave Maria so far, but have a few others in the works. If there's anything in particular you're looking for, let me know and I'll be happy to work on something in particular.

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Permalink Reply by Karis Mills on September 30, 2009 at 2:58pm

Thanks for the information, Mark. My husband is also a composer, but I will let you know if I need anything that he doesn't have time to arrange. If you end up putting together enough stuff for a book, let me know.

Thanks,
Karis

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Permalink Reply by Alison MacGregor on December 23, 2009 at 3:32pm

Hi Karis, we have the same problem finding good trio music. So we play a lot of quartet music without either the viola or second violin part (or sometimes we have two violins and viola and have to make do without our cellist - which limits repertoire a bit more). The guests never seem to mind, even if they do notice.
I agree that the Haydn London Trios work well. Bach Air from Suite No 3 with viola jumping between violin II and viola line also always works for us. Eine Klien Nachtmusik without the 2nd violin or viola is OK too. One set of publications that we dig into regularly to add a lighter touch are the Ed Huws Jones series (celtic, tango, jigs, blues, and more) pub by Boosey and Hawkes. They have melody line (violin) and piano accomp (cello plays bass line) and an easy or hard violin accompaniment that works well on the viola (have to read treble cleff). They add some variety of styles to your list and are simple but effective at a reception.

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