Trois pièces pour violoncelle et piano
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1914
- Duration
- 8'
- Publisher
- Alphonse Leduc
Purchase or download
About this piece
A short cycle of three contrasting pieces composed in 1914 and published by Heugel in 1915: a serene first piece in E flat minor, a gently melancholy second in A minor, and a mischievous, quick-fire third in C sharp minor. The first two began life as organ pieces that Boulanger herself adapted for cello and piano; the third was written for cello. The cello-and-piano version brings out the music's kinship with Fauré's chamber music, and the whole set lasts about eight minutes. Leduc describes it as a cycle in which 'expressiveness, tenderness and virtuosity follow one another'.
Technical overview
Sources give no detailed technical description; the movements are marked Modéré, Sans vitesse et à l'aise, and Vite et nerveusement rythmé, so the set pairs two sustained, singing pieces with a fast, nervously rhythmic finale.