# Transcribing from viola to violin/



## Nevohteeb

In the Mozart Piano trio in Eb+. K498, for piano, clarinet & viola. Would it be o.k. to transcribe it for violin. Or does it need to be transcribed? Can a violinist, just play the notes in the lower registers of the violin?


----------



## Lunasong




----------



## Marisol

Nevohteeb said:


> In the Mozart Piano trio in Eb+. K498, for piano, clarinet & viola. Would it be o.k. to transcribe it for violin. Or does it need to be transcribed? Can a violinist, just play the notes in the lower registers of the violin?


It is public domain so in principle you can do with it what ever your heart desires.
And it is easy to do, just import the score in something like Sibelius and make some changes.
You can even copyright your changes and offer copies for sale and every time someone plays your 'arrangement' you can make money from it.

However should you do it? 
Is it doing justice to the composer and/or the work to make your own arrangement or change the instrumentation? 
Is it ethical to make money from it?

These are all questions you should answer for yourself.


----------



## hreichgott

Violinists usually don't learn to read alto clef, so you'd want to at least put it in treble clef. As well as rearrange any passages with notes lower than the violin can reach, of course. (see Lunasong's chart)

As far as the ethics of transcription go (@Marisol), the classical period is one in which there were very many rearrangements being done to start with. And then we're talking about a string instrument here; string instruments are always playing each other's pieces. I cannot begin to tell you the hours I spent trying to track down a Vivaldi Cello Concerto in D only to discover at long last that it was a violin concerto. Not to mention the array of pieces that violists normally play as their solo literature. So I think you're on solid ground here.

By the way, there is a violin/clarinet/piano arrangement here under a Creative Commons BY license:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Trio_in_E-flat_major,_K.498_%28Mozart,_Wolfgang_Amadeus%29
Haven't looked at it and can't judge quality, but hey, you are allowed to use it without having to make your own  as long as you credit the arranger.


----------



## Nevohteeb

Firstly: absolutely no money for anyone in this effort. It is strictly pro bono. My sister, and I, and friends, get, together, and play at senior residences, about four times a year. Secondly: We can't find a violist, to save our lives, so we thought that, although we can scrounge up a clarinet musician, (if I beg a lot), and I'm at the piano, and my sister, on violin, that we could transcribe the viola part for violin. I know that it won't sound like it should, but most of the seniors don't know the work, or have forgotten it, if they did, so we figured, why not give it a try. P.S. We live in a very small town, where access to orchestra players, is not an option. We take what we can get.


----------



## Nevohteeb

Thank you, thank you., thank you, Heather.


----------

