hope and grief (solo cello)

About this piece

hope and grief started as a piece for cello quintet. Kaitlyn Raitz wrote and recorded it herself and dedicated it 'in memory of my father, Rhys Raitz'. She released it as a single with a film in March 2024, and it was later included on her album In Spite of Everything (Tone Tree Music, January 2026). Raitz then arranged it for solo cello, and her website describes that version as 'a solo cello arrangement of one of the standout pieces' from the album. The solo version opens with soft pizzicato chords in G major and then becomes a bowed two-voice texture: a singing upper line with syncopated semiquaver figures and grace notes over a moving bass, before it modulates to D major. The music is tonal and song-like, close to the Americana and folk idioms that run through her work. Raitz offers the solo arrangement as a free download from her online sheet-music store, and also sells the quintet score and parts there.

Technical overview

A single movement of about 4½ minutes (quintet recording 4:39–4:48). It opens with three- and four-note pizzicato chords, then moves to arco two-voice writing with continuous double stops, slurred semiquaver and dotted figures, and grace notes. The bass reaches down to low C, and there are dynamics from p to mf and a key change from G to D major.

Technical focus

• Pizzicato
• Double Stops
• Legato
• String Crossings
• 2 Note Slurs
• Dotted Rhythms
• Rhythm
• C String Notes
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics