Air Varié de Vive Henry IV by Julia Piston

Air varié de Vive Henry IV by Julia Piston (c.1800-1842) for classical guitar. Also called Variations sur L’air Vive Henri IV. PDF Sheet Music for classical guitar. Includes both notation-only edition and tab edition. Late-Intermediate to Early-Advanced depending on tempos, Grade 8-9.

My PDF Sheet Music Edition

Air Varié de Vive Henry IV by Piston on Werner Guitar Editions

The theme presents an old French song followed by five variations. The majority of the work is intermediate but there are a few tricky passages in variation three and five. Fingering is editorial as the original has none except for some position marks. Also, much of this work was written in one voice so my edition is partially editorial in the lower voice in regards to sustain since I write it in a modern multi-voice texture. Above is my YouTube video.

Big thanks to Canadian guitarist Emma Rush for introducing me to this work. Check out her excellent video of this piece on her YouTube and her recording on the album Wake the Sigh.

Bradford Werner

Bradford Werner is a classical guitarist and music publisher from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He originally created this site for his students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music but now shares content worldwide. Curating guitar content helps students absorb the culture, musical ideas, and technique of the classical guitar. Bradford also has a YouTube channel with over 94,000 subscribers and 13 million views. He taught classical guitar at the Victoria Conservatory of Music for 16 years and freelanced in Greater Victoria for 20 years and now dedicates much of his time curating content online and helping connect the classical guitar community. See more at his personal website.