Elegia

About this piece

Henrique Oswald wrote the Elegia in F-sharp minor for cello and piano while he was living in Florence. The booklet notes to Naxos's recording of the orchestral version (by Susana Cecilia Igayara-Souza) say it was 'originally conceived for cello and piano, as a form of encouragement for his son Carlos, who had just started learning' the cello. The piece is dedicated to the memory of his friend Enrico Mariotti. The cello-and-piano manuscript is undated. Oswald's orchestral version dates from 1896, and Francisco Braga conducted its premiere in Rio de Janeiro in 1915. E. Bevilacqua & Cia. of Rio de Janeiro published the cello version around 1898. Reviewing the orchestral version for MusicWeb International, David Barker called it 'gently lyrical and yearning' and said it 'seems to foreshadow the famous melody from Rachmaninov's Second Symphony'. Lars Hoefs and Nathália Kato played it at the Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival in Los Angeles in 2018. There are three free editions: a scan of the Bevilacqua print and a 2026 CC0 typeset edition by Higo Rodrigues on IMSLP, and a CC BY-SA edition from Musica Brasilis, all with a separate cello part.

Technical overview

One movement (Andante, 3/4, 82 bars, about 4–5 minutes). It is a long-breathed cantabile line that moves between bass and tenor clef. It climbs through a sempre cresc. molto to a held B4 at fff in tenor clef, which needs secure upper-neck shifting, then returns to the opening theme and ends on a held high A at ppp. The writing is mostly slurred eighths with hairpins and several rit./a tempo changes; there are no double stops or fast passagework.

Technical focus

• Legato
• Shifting
• 2 Note Slurs
• 4 Note Slurs
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Rubato
• Dotted Rhythms