Hymn Favorites for Violin - Tapa blanda

11 Sacred Favorites scored for violin solo with keyboard accompaniment. The arrangements are intermediate in difficulty. A companion audio recording of the late Usher Abell playing each solo is available as a free internet download.

Usher Abell, (1915-2003) was a violinist and native of Paducah Kentucky, where he learned the jazz style at an early age. Born on his grandfather’s tobacco farm where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join, he first heard hymns in the rural churches of Western Kentucky. He began to play these hymns in church as a young boy, continuing for nearly 75 years. He continued to play violin-- classical, jazz and sacred-- while studying for his music degrees and while serving as a musician in the Navy in World War II. In 1946 he began to teach violin at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he eventually became Chairman of the Music Department. While there, he helped found what is now the National Music Museum and his wife, Barnes, who frequently accompanied him on piano, served as Chairman of the Board of the Museum for many years and helped with this compilation of hymns. After retiring from teaching violin at the University in 1976, he continued playing widely and began to write a series of books for Mel Bay: Jazz Violin Studies MB#93954 Jazz Violin Solos MB# 94821 Swing Fiddle Solos MB# 96198 Before his death in 2003, Usher Abell gave this collection of his favorite hymns to his son, Tom Abell, with the desire that they be published so that others might enjoy them as much as he had. Hymn Favorites for Violin by Usher Abell is dedicated to all of the students he was fortunate enough to have known and to everyone who love hymns played on the violin