Romance et tarantella
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1889
- Duration
- 8'
- Publisher
- Public Domain
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About this piece
Alberto Nepomuceno's two cello pieces are a Romance (1889) and a Tarantella in C minor (1899). IMSLP gives the dedication as 'a son ami M. B. Niederberger' and records a first performance of the versions with piano at the Clube dos Diários in Petrópolis in 1902. Sampaio Araújo published the pair. Nepomuceno later scored both for cello and orchestra: the Tarantella in 1899, and the Romance in 1908 for cello and string orchestra, a version premiered during the 1908 National Exhibition in Rio according to Musica Brasilis. The original piano part was lost. IMSLP has the composer's own manuscript of the Tarantella, from the Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, noting that he 'restored the accompaniment, the original having gone astray' for Carmen Braga on 20 June 1917. Cellist Adriana Holtz and pianist Karin Fernandes have released what Fernandes calls the 'world first recording' of the pair with piano. Musica Brasilis offers a free typeset edition of the Romance in its string-orchestra version, with score and parts.
Technical overview
Two pieces, about 8 minutes together in the Holtz/Fernandes recording. The Romance (Andante, 3/4, about 80 bars) is a lyrical solo line. In the Musica Brasilis solo part it moves between tenor and treble clef, with triplet figures and a stretch of running sixteenths, and it ends on harmonics and a held high A in treble clef, so secure thumb position is needed. The Tarantella in C minor is a fast dance piece; I did not see its music pages.