Gallery: Suite for Unaccompanied Cello
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1966
- Duration
- 9'30''
- Publisher
- G. Schirmer
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About this piece
Gallery is a suite of nine short movements for solo cello by Robert Muczynski. It was suggested by the paintings of the American watercolourist Charles Burchfield (1893–1967). A Burchfield Penney Art Center concert note (2011) says Muczynski wrote it 'at the behest of filmmaker Harry Atwood for his film about the American Realists, including Burchfield'. The same note compares it to Pictures at an Exhibition, saying it 'captures the private reverie that occurs when the viewer contemplates a painting'. The movements are Prelude, Rainy Night, Noonday Heat, Shanty, Winter Houses, Ice Glare, Black Iron, September Light and End of the Day. G. Schirmer publishes it in an edition by Gordon Epperson (© 1971/1990; Hal Leonard 50481314). The suite is also included in Schirmer's The Cello Collection (Intermediate to Advanced Level). Benjamin Whitcomb recorded it on Bloch, Muczynski and Reger: 20th Century Music for Solo Cello (2019). The RCM syllabus sets movements at both Grade 7 and Grade 10.
Technical overview
Nine brief character pieces lasting about nine to ten minutes in all: I. Prelude, II. Rainy Night, III. Noonday Heat, IV. Shanty, V. Winter Houses, VI. Ice Glare, VII. Black Iron, VIII. September Light, IX. End of the Day. Single movements last roughly 0:45 to 1:30, so they can be programmed separately. The RCM sets nos. 1–5 and 7 at Grade 7 and nos. 6, 8 and 9 at Grade 10, which suggests the last group is the most demanding.