Earth Music, Nos. 1-3

About this piece

Earth Music is a set of six graded teaching pieces for cello and piano that Jean Coulthard completed in 1986; the title page reads 'With thanks to James Hunter'. The set was never commercially published. The Canadian Music Centre sells and lends it as a copy of Coulthard's handwritten score, with a separate cello part. This record covers the first three pieces, Snails and Earthworms, Happy Little Creatures and This Beautiful Earth. The RCM Cello Syllabus (2013 edition) sets them at Preparatory, Grade 1 and Grade 2. The remaining three pieces are at RCM Grades 4 and 6 and are given as a separate record.

Technical overview

Snails and Earthworms ('Slow and Heavy', 2/2, 19 bars) moves in minims with tenuto and accent marks, mp and p dynamics and hairpins. Happy Little Creatures ('Quiet, Fast & Playfully', 2/4, 24 bars) is played pizzicato in staccato quavers after a four-bar piano introduction. A short arco passage marked morendo, ending on a fermata, comes before a final pizzicato a tempo. This Beautiful Earth ('Moderately & Simply', 4/4, 23 bars) is a legato melody marked 'very smoothly', with two-note slurs, a section marked 'gently like a cradle song' and a ritardando and a tempo. All three use sharps and flats and dynamics from pp to f. The piano parts are fuller than a simple accompaniment. The music is a photocopy of Coulthard's manuscript, which is harder to read than an engraved edition.

Technical focus

• Pizzicato
• Legato
• 2 Note Slurs
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Accidentals
• Articulation
• Tempo Changes
• Collaboration with Piano