‘SCARY PIECES ’
The editors call their collections Scary Pieces (One World Publishing). Why? Well, consider an item from Volume 2: Hideki E. Kunugiyama’s “Monster’s March,” a good first-position exercise in dynamics, in G-flat and D-flat. It also requires a bit of actual marching. Another, called “Cold,” requires the players to sneeze.

“They’re all for beginning students,” says Horozaniecki. “They’re short, accessible, and extremely creative, and that’s very exciting.”

Horozaniecki is also taken with Lo I. Yin’s Six Duets for Violins. Explains Horozaniecki, “He was born in China in 1930, and came to the United States in 1949. He has degrees from Eastman and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan. He worked for NASA, but he also composed a lot of music.”

That includes a duet called "East-West." It’s written in 5/4 meter, contains artificial harmonics and double stops, and sends the left hand into sixth position. “The rhythmic idioms are extremely interesting,” says Horozaniecki, “and his uses of glissandi imitate what you would do on a Chinese instrument.”

For alternative styles closer to home, there’s Bill Thorp’s Fiddling Around (Broadbent & Dunn), which Hersh recommends for more advanced students. These are fiddle tunes from the British Isles arranged for general students, not necessarily in the manner a teacher of Celtic music might prefer. “There’s always a new twist every time the melody comes around,” says Hersh, “so it sounds like you’re jamming even though everything is written out.”

Fiddle tunes go back generations, and so does the more classical music that inspired Michael McLean’s The Well-Tempered Violin (Warner). As did Bach for the solo keyboard, McLean has written a violin duo in every key, but instead of the prelude-and-fugue format Bach employed, McLean takes on a Baroque dance form in each of his pieces.

“It’s great to find a little duo with seven sharps,” Hersh says, revealing a pedagogical sadistic streak, “but when McLean gets into something that complicated he uses a tune you might recognize, so you’ll know when you’re doing something wrong.”

Both Hersh and Horozaniecki have become especially devoted to the Easy Duets on Folk Themes (Theodore Presser) composed in the 1940s by noted Polish composer and violinist Grazyna Bacewicz.

Says Hersh, “They’re short, cute, easy, just what you would want for Level 4, not nearly as virtuosic as her solo works. These use nice eastern European dance rhythms; it’s not heavy, complex stuff, but it’s delightful.”

Horozaniecki is particularly fond of Bacewicz’s Nocturne. “If you’re looking for something slow rather than fast and cute, this develops the cantabile feeling,” she says. “It uses double stops but it’s accessible, it doesn’t go out of third position, and it’s absolutely beautiful.”

MORE 20TH-CENTURY STUDENT VIOLIN DUOS
Darius Milhaud: Duo for Two Violins (Theodore Presser)
Sandor Szokolay: Hungarian Children’s Songs (Editio Musica Budapest, through Boosey & Hawkes)
David Sackson (ed.): Everybody’s Favorite Violin Duos (AMSCO)
Luciano Berio: Duette per due violini, Volume 1 (Universal)
Renato Lemos (arr.): Folklore-Duette aus Südamerika (Heinrichshofen)