Performer Guides

Use this guide to find resources for music performance, including LC call number browsing ranges for repertoire, books, and journals..

Can't find what you are looking for?

Email Kate Linton the Music Librarian for Instruction and Outreach for research assistance and searching strategies.

Library Search

Check out the Library Search which finds print and electronic items, including journal and newspaper articles, book chapters, books, reviews, legal documents, and much more. Note: Due to licensing restrictions, some content is only available to current students, faculty, and staff.

Search help: https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/searchhelp/

Finding Repertoire for the Viola:

If you're looking for new repertoire to perform, it is often helpful to browse the Music Library's scores. The following call number ranges are for viola music; individual works within these numbers are arranged alphabetically by composer or arranger:

M45-M49, Viola alone
M224-M228, Viola and piano
M351, String trios
M452, String quartets
M1014, Viola with orchestra (full score)
M1015, Viola with orchestra (piano reduction)
M1114, Viola with string orchestra (full score)
M1115, Viola with string orchestra (piano reduction)

Excerpts, etudes, and instructional materials are classified in the MT range and housed in the same location as books:

MT280, General works
MT282, Systems and methods
MT285, Studies and exercises
MT286, Orchestral studies (excerpts)

Selected Books on the Viola and Violists

A Notebook for Viola Players

Notes for Violists: A Guide to the Repertoire

Cover of The Violin and Viola with color picture of a violin or viola.

The Violin and Viola

Pale lavender cover of The Early Violin and Viola with drawing of a performer in Baroque costume with wig playing a violin or viola.

The Early Violin and Viola

Cover of Lionel Tertis with color photograph of Tertis playing the viola.

Lionel Tertis

Dark green cover of Playing and Teaching Viola with a close up color photograph of a bow on the strings above the bridge of the instrument.

Playing and Teaching the Viola: A Comprehensive Guide to the Central Clef Instrument and Its Music

Cover of Music for Silenced Voices with a black and white photograph of Shostakovich and two other people.

Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets

The Standard Viola

Plain blue book cover used as placeholder when no other cover image available.

Works for the Viola by Pulitzer Prize Winning Composers

Plain burgundy cover of A Bibliographical Guide to Spanish Music with text in gold.

A Bibliographical Guide to Spanish Music for the Violin and Viola, 1900-1997

Plain blue book cover used as placeholder when no additional cover image available.

Walk on the North Side: Memoirs of a Violist

Cover of String Syllabus v. 1 with a picture of a musical score against a dark green background.

String Syllabus, Vol 1

Cover of the String Instrument Owner's Handbook with a painting of a luthier crafting a string instrument.

The String Instrument Owner's Handbook

The Baroque Violin and Viola: A Fifty Lesson Course

Beethoven for a Later Age: Living with the String Quartets

Last Updated: Sep 5, 2025 9:56 AM
URL: https://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/performer_guides
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Subjects: Music

Tags: brass, guitar, harp, piano, plucked strings, singing, strings, woodwinds

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