Less than two months for Halloween 2024, and here we come with new repertoire options for your students concert! First of all, we would like to make a special mention to the work and life of Peter Martin, (1956-2021, West Yorkshire , UK):

Peter Martin studied both violin and viola with Suzanne Rozsa and Nannie Jamieson at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which he graduated in 1978. In 1986 he was appointed Head of Strings for a LEA music service in Greater Manchester. He wrote and arranged a great deal of educational music, much of which has been published. His pieces regularly appear on the A.B.R.S.M string examinations syllabus. Peter sadly passed away from a rapid, unexpected illness in September 2021. At his request, Mainly4Strings is now a free resource with all scores available to download at no cost. 

You can visit www.mainly4strings.co.uk to check, download for free and be amazed by all his compositions and arrangements. One of them are his Halloweenies: three short and spooky pieces (1.Creepy!, 2.Valse Macabre, 3.Chasing Ghouls!) for open strings and piano that we have  arranged for multi-level Violin and Viola ensemble:

  • Part 1: Grade 5/6+ standard. Main tune with double stops, higher positions, shifts, chromatics, harmonics and more.
  • Part 2: Grade 3/4 sandard. Also lots of technical tricks, can be played in just 1st position.
  • Part 3: Grade1/2 standard. Only simple first position but with exciting harmonics, left hand pizz., sul ponticello and more.
  • Part 4: Beginners, only open strings. Our students would be very excited to explore and try some spooky tremolo, col legno, sul ponticello and harmonics sounds to it too :)
  • Part 4 simplified: for younger beginners, only some sections in letters: Halloweenies letters.pdf
  • Optional piano part and mp3 backing tracks available here.

It can work for just violins ensemble or only violas but also combined as we have kept the same key. Download on the following links, previews below. 

Halloweenies for multilevel Violin ensemble.pdf

Halloweenies for multilevel Viola ensemble.pdf

We hope you have fun teaching this and sharing the story of Peter Martin with your students!