Guide to Bowed Strings

From Suzuki beginners to Stephane Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin hopefuls, there is plenty to inspire you in the State Library's collection for bowed string instruments, in particular orchestral strings.

See also

Mr Vaughan Hanly
West Australian violinist, 1950 [220201PD]

• Bowed String Internet Resources
• AMEB Syllabuses 
• Plucked Strings
• Music Education
• Competitions, Awards and Scholarships
• Borrowing

Scores for Loan

Our collection encompasses the full range of styles from Paganini caprices to Sevcík studies and exercises, Bach suites, orchestral excerpts, sonatas, concertos, tutors and methods. The collection includes and goes beyond the standard repertoire and original pieces. It also contains arrangements.

Violin music dominates but you will also find music for viola, cello, double bass, viol, viola da gamba and viola d’amore. We collect most works listed from Grade 4 and above in the Australian Music Examinations Board syllabus. Chamber music for strings is well represented with standard repertoire for string quartets through to more popular arrangements.

Reference Material

Our collection of books, journals and electronic resources includes material on instrument making, biographies of famous composers and significant performers, the history of stringed instruments, repertoire and bibliographies. 

Recordings

We hold a collection of CDs and LPs that can be listened to on-site. Recordings of different performances of standard works are collected in order to enhance the student's listening experience. You can also listen to tracks using the on-line database Naxos Music Library. There is a small classical loan collection of audio cassettes available.

Searching

All material can be found using the catalogue.

Scores and recordings are best found by using a composer search. You may search by title, but you may not find all copies of the work if you only use one translation of the title, such as The four seasons instead of Cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione. Please use our Guide to Searching for Classical Music Scores as a starting point. Note that if you are searching for cello, you will need to use the word violoncello to search the catalogue. All bowed string music can be found on the shelves at the classification S.

You may also search by subject. For arrangements, please add the term Arranged at the end of the subject. Useful subject searches are:

• Violin music
• Violin and piano music
• Concertos (Violin) - Solo with piano
• Sonatas (Violin)
• Sonatas (Violin and piano)

Use the same subject searches for the other orchestral string instruments.

• Viola music  (expanded as above)
• Violoncello music (expanded as above)
• Double bass music  (expanded as above)

Find information by using the keyword or subject option. Useful subject and keyword searches are:

• Violin
• Viola
• Violoncello
• Double Bass
• History
• Construction
• Performance
• Analysis