First remark: basso continuo is no real instrument.
In history it was often played by one of harpsichord, chamber organ, dulcian/basson, viola da gamba/violoncello or lute/theorbo, but harp would also be viable.
If not explicitly set for piano-like instrument one may encountered a figured bass, which consists of a single note and a number denoting the harmony.
Expanding the number to chords, arpeggios or other ornamentation is an advanced technique, so you may restrict to the given notes.
The suggested euphonium is likely to cover (in the sense of being louder than) the violins, even if the range matches and so is unlikely to blend.
This disadvantage is shared in my opinion by the sax family and other brass instruments in that configuration.
The viola is somewhat hard to substitute, since it is notated in the alto clef, which is very seldom for other instruments.
So that part had to be adjusted to a different clef, possibly also involving transposition, one choice would be a second violoncello playing in the higher positions.
The viola part is probably intended to fill the gap between melody and bass instruments, so it definitely should be less prominent than your melody instruments.
Since "Queen of Sheba" is quite popular, you may find ready-made settings for different ensembles easily, so you don't have to work it out yourself.
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As you can see in the following chart
There isn't any instrument that has the exact range of the Viola .
This means that if you replace a viola with another instrument, you won't be able to play all the notes.
This doesn't mean that you cannot replace it.
See the score you want and look at the highest and the lowest note of the viola part and find an instrument in the chart that can play them.
That could be a violin, a flute, a hard or something.
For the bass continuo you could try a Bassoon, a Baritone Sax or a Harpsichord.
Again, look at the range of the bass score and you'll be able to figure out which instrument to use
music.stackexchange.com/users/7356/Shevliaskovic
The lowest note of a Bb clarinet is a D, just a tone above the low C string of a viola.
This would probably be the best replacement, of the options you suggest, particularly as the warm, rounded tone of the clarinet will blend well with the other instruments.
As for the basso continuo part, a number of low instruments would be well suited to playing this part (your suggestion of Euphonium seems like it should have an appropriate range).
But, be aware, a basso continuo part is usually played on a chordal instrument too, for instance harpsichord, expanding upon the bass line using figured bass notation.
music.stackexchange.com/users/9198/Bob Broadley
Lots of good suggestions here.
I agree with Bob about the clarinet being a decent replacement for the viola.
Another possibility, not previously mentioned, would be the "English Horn" (or Cor Anglais), which would blend well with the oboes.
Depending on how high the part goes, you might get by playing it on a bassoon (though, if you have a bassoonist, they should by all means play the continuo part!).
A French Horn would fit the range, but would probably be too overpowering, like the Euphonium.
A less-ideal solution -- but possibly worth considering if all else fails -- is to just drop the viola part (with apologies to violists!).
You would certainly miss the full texture, but unless there's a viola obbligato part in this particular piece, it's probably just filling out the full tutti texture in the orchestral sections.
Certainly an important (if thankless) job, but if you have a decent chordal instrument on the continuo (e.g harpsichord, piano, organ, guitar, etc...)
then they're hopefully filling in these chords as well.
EDIT: I just read through the score, while listening, and I noticed that the viola part never goes below G, so it technically falls within the range of a third violin, if you have one available.
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Basso continuo is not the name of a certain instrument.
It is a designation for a musical part that you can assign to one of several instruments in a kind of Baroque "rhythm section", comprised of one or more instruments that play chords, together with one or more instruments that play a bass line.
But the sheet music for the basso continuo part is always one staff of music with a bass line represented by notes, together with tiny chord symbols beneath the notes written in a type of notation called figured bass.
For continuo , you need either a keyboard-family instrument or a guitar-family instrument, and a musician who knows how to read the chord notation and improvise a chordal accompaniment.
One euphonium can only play the bass line, not the chords, so that will not be sufficient.
A Baroque ensemble might easily have four or five musicians playing the basso continuo part: for example, a harpsichord and theorbo playing the continuo chords together with a cello, upright bass and a bassoon playing the bass line in unison.
At the very least you need at least one keyboard playing the chords and the bass line together.
To that you can add a euphonium or some other bass instrument doubling the bass line in the keyboardist's left hand.
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I want to perform "Queen of Sheba" with some friends of mine. In my score I need two oboes, two violins, one viola and a basso continuo. Unfortunately I do not have neither a viola nor a basso continuo. Which instruments are suited for replacing them? I already was thinking about an euphonium for the basso continuo, is this ok? Which instrument is then well suited for replacing a viola? Clarinet, Trumpet?
Replacing Viola and Basso continuo
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To play Baroque music, you can substitute the Viola with a Clarinet. The basso continuo could be replaced by a Bassoon, a Baritone Sax or a Harpsichord. There is no instrument with the exact range of the viola, but the clarinet might be a suitable replacement. Meanwhil, for the basso continuo, you might want to try a bassoon, a harpsichord or several low instruments.
There is no instrument with the exact range of the viola, but the clarinet might be a suitable replacement. For the basso continuo, you might want to try a bassoon, a harpsichord or several low instruments.