Educational Repertoire for Junior String Groups

About the repertoire.

Arrangements and repertoire for young string players.

My experience in working with ensembles doesn’t go back too far. I started my carieer as a violin teacher, working with young talented children both privately and at the junior department of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. This wonderful and broadly oriented profession did bring me to various interesting institutes, including Chetham's School of Music in Manchester and the Instituto Laredo in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

You might have heard of the first institute mentioned. The second one, the Laredo institute in Bolivia, did change my attitude and ideas about teaching and coaching of young violin students in some essential ways. At the conservatory one mostly is involved with students who want to become professional musicians in the future. In Bolivia I experienced anew what it is to work with children who just have the intention to enjoy music and to play the violin just for fun. No matter wat the standard was, they all got the maximum out of their lessons during the three weeks workshop I gave at their school.

The fact that I since then wanted to work with both (more or less) talented children and amateur players who just wanted to enjoy their instruments, eventually brought me to the Music- and Dance School in Amstelveen in The Netherlands, a school with a very good reputation in string playing and a quite well organized ensemble program

The string department has a well-known and longstanding reputation. To start at a very young age is one of its main pillars. Over twenty years ago, violin professor Anneke Schilt developed a program called Preparing Violin, in which she starts with very young children, getting them familiar with the instrument through little games and children’s songs which they know well. Also, they learn to read notes from an early age on. Today, teachers of other instruments follow the same kind of program from the very beginning. Although most of the pupils start at an early age, it is always possible to enter school when a child is already eight ore nine years old.

An other important element in the school is having the young musicians play together, also from the very beginning. For each group of instruments there are ensembles and orchestras in different age groups and levels. Our young string players have the possibility to participate in four different string orchestras. The First string orchestra is meant for the very young ones who have had just one or two years of violin instruction. When they are quite familiar with the first, and are about to start with the third position, children can enroll in Second string orchestra. For the subsequent ensemble, called Serenata Strings, second and third positions are required. Eventually only a selection of our string players will be able to join Camerata 2/3, our fourth and final string ensemble.

Usually each year around 35 young string players join the 2nd string orchestra. The age bracket is between approximately eight and eleven years old. They all join the orchestra for at least two years, sometimes three, depending on their initial age and on their standard of playing the first two years. The 2nd String Orchestra is meant entirely to instill in children the feeling of how wonderful it is to play together in an orchestra. Children with varying standards join together in playing, with more talented pupils being able to learn more quickly, while the real amateur players are able to play for the fun of it. A successful mixture which makes playing in the orchestra really enjoyable.

My ideas about ensemble playing for this age bracket consist of two basic but essential points:

1. If you want to take your orchestra members serious, you have to look around for good and serious music which is both nice to play while being understandable for children and with which you are able to develop ensemble playing and sound in a natural way. From the very beginning, when the young players go through the piece for the first time, they more or less should be able to feel where it is going about.
2. All parts (first and second as well as third violins and the cello parts) should be interesting to play and should give every child the feeling that he or she really participates in the piece

All my compositions and arrangements for this orchestra are scored as follows:
first, second and third violin, cello, double bass and piano. The piano part functions as an accompaniment and is there to give the ensemble a more orchestral sound. The use of a piano is also practical when there is no double bass available. Most of the time when, when going over arrangements for junior string orchestra, I saw the melody in the first violin part, accompaniment figures in the second and a third violin part with just open strings or something like that. In my own compositions and arrangements the melody line can be heard in all parts, including that for the cello.

The first piece I ever wrote for junior string orchestra is (appropriately) called “Overture”. It is always a useful piece to start with at the beginning of a new season, especially when you are working with a entirely new group. All three violin parts are in first position. The first and second part are about on the same level. The third part in general is of a more elementary standard. The piece consists of three main tunes. A playful introduction introduces all the four different parts one by one, then leads directly to the first theme. The structure of the rhythm is quite simple which makes it easy to get the ensemble in balance. For example, there is a short pizzicato section where the whole orchestra plays the same rhythm introduced by the piano. As mentioned, because of the supporting piano part the different melodies can be heard through all parts.

The 'Zonnestein' Symphony is written in a pure symphonic form in one movement. Again, the first and second violin part are about the same level of difficulty. The only difference is that the first violin part sometimes goes into the third position. The third part again is of a more elementary level. The first theme, in G major, is introduced by the first violins, while the melodic second theme, in D major, is first played by the cello group. From the development onwards the two different themes do appear in all the different parts.

'Scales and Arpeggios' is a kind of playful study written in a rhapsodic form. A slow introduction introduces the main tune, which is in fact the G major scale. After the first scale section the first and second violins play G and D major arpeggios, while the third violins perform their own tune. After that the music turns into the e minor scale, followed by a short climax which brings us to the recapitulation. This all about the left hand. For the right hand, Scales and Arpeggios offers a lot of semiquaver detaché bowing technique which is really helpfull for the development of sound.

Last year, during my continuous search for good music that is suitable for performance by string instruments, I came across the enormous richness of Rumanian folk music. When touring the country and listening to different groups in Transylvania and Moldavia, I selected a number of songs which could be of use to the 2nd. String Orchestra.

Mocirita cu trifoi and Hategana are two traditional folk melodies from Transylvania.
The beginning of the first song sounds wonderful, particularly when it is played on a cello. Later on, the melody line moves through the other sections.
Hategana, which means song of the Hatec region, starts out as a happy dance tune, played by the entire violin section. As is usual in Rumanian folk music, the tempo then moves to Piú Presto. From that point, I created an easier counter melody which goes with the harmonies for the third violins.