Since the viola attained soloist status in the early to mid 20 th Century, violists have been faced with the never-ending task of matching the performance standards of their more agile violin brethren. Much of the violinist's technical facility comes from their study of pre-twentieth century musical offerings; yet, the development of the viola student is handicapped by the lack of original viola repertoire from that time. More repertoire of this ilk needs to be made available as transcriptions to violists. Moreover, violists should be the ones creating these transcriptions because they know best the intricacies of the instrument. This may seem a daunting task since not all violists are experienced in composing or transcribing. Further, no standard transcribing process exists in print.

The aim of this document is to purpose a set of general guidelines for transcribing music from the violin to the viola, while isolating the various problems that can occur during that process. The Two Sonatas for Violin and Piano, as well as the Three Solo Sonatas for Violin of German composer, August Halm (1869--1929), will serve as the case study from which to build this method. While Halm is admittedly a Modern era composer, his compositional style leans more heavily on Bach, Beethoven, and Bruckner than his contemporaries. A secondary aim of this document is to inform the reader of Halm's pedagogical and theoretical opinions, and to demonstrate how they remain relevant for today's performers and students.