Mary Cohen's Bags of Style for Violin takes you on a fantastic musical journey through ten centuries of time, from the 12th to the 21st century. This is great material for concerts, or to liven up history or drama lessons and is suitable for players of grades 2-3 standard.
Mary Cohen's latest publication - Bags of Style For Violin has representative pieces from the 12th century through to the 21st century. Made up predominantly of dance forms, this music will ensure young violinists have fun while they learn the music from different centuries........the short pieces include techniques such as hooked bowing, staccato, slurring and some chromaticism. Students can also be rewarded with a number of 21st century music games such as creating unusual pieces via rolling a dice. Informative and rewarding, students can learn what elements make up the different styles of music throughout the centuries.
Stringendo, April 2010
Aimed at Grade 2-3 violinists, Mary Cohen has written all these pieces, which are pastiches of music from the various periods in history. 'The corn is ripe' (12th century) through to 'Head or tails?' (21st century), with its modern ideas of technique, interpretation and improvisation. Part of me would have preferred to have had a collection of original tunes from each period, but Cohen shows her usual incredible imagination and consolidates technique with what are essentially studies in disguise. Above all, this book is brilliant for developing a sense of period, which is useful for those sometimes-dreaded aural tests!
Music Teacher Magazine, October 2009