Summertime
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2001
- Publisher
- Palliser Music Publishing
Purchase or download
About this piece
Summertime is a five-movement suite of teaching pieces for cello and piano by the Victoria-based composer Sylvia Rickard: "My Faithful Dog," "Playing Fair," "Dragonflies," "On the High Seas" and "My Grouchy Cat." The movements were written at different times: Rickard's catalogue dates "My Faithful Dog," "On the High Seas" and "Playing Fair" to 1986 as teaching pieces, "My Grouchy Cat" to 1998 (premiered by cellist Christopher Ross-Ewart at the Collage Festival, Dunbar United Church, Vancouver, 27 November 1998) and "Dragonflies/Libellules" to 2001. Palliser Music notes that the dragonfly's "rapidly fluttering" wings appear in the piano part, and that in "My Grouchy Cat" the pianist plays some keys "not with fingers, but elbows." Earlier performances of the 1986 pieces include a 1995 student chamber performance at the Victoria Performing Arts Festival and a 2003 Contemporary Showcase performance in Langley, B.C. by students of Ian Hampton. The Royal Conservatory of Music (2016 Cello Syllabus) sets "Playing Fair" at the Preparatory level (List A) and "My Grouchy Cat" at Grade 5 (List C). Palliser Music Publishing sells the suite with score and cello part.
Technical overview
Five short character pieces (My Faithful Dog; Playing Fair; Dragonflies; On the High Seas; My Grouchy Cat) ranging from RCM Preparatory ('Playing Fair', a List A legato piece) to RCM Grade 5 ('My Grouchy Cat', about 3 minutes); 'Dragonflies' lasts about 1 minute 30 seconds. No score pages were available to confirm specific technical demands.