Earth Music, Nos. 4-6

About this piece

Earth's Clear Waters, Earth's Sorrow and Earth's Stormy Weather are the last three of the six graded teaching pieces in Jean Coulthard's Earth Music for cello and piano (1986). The RCM Cello Syllabus (2013 edition) sets Earth's Clear Waters and Earth's Sorrow at Grade 4 and Earth's Stormy Weather at Grade 6. Earth's Sorrow is subtitled 'Threnody' and marked 'Lento (as a Lament)', and Earth's Stormy Weather is marked 'Allegro with Fire'. The set is unpublished; the Canadian Music Centre sells and lends it as a copy of the composer's manuscript. The first three pieces of the set are a separate beginner record.

Technical overview

Earth's Clear Waters ('Gently Flowing', 2/2, 43 bars) is a lyrical line over rippling piano semiquavers. It has fingerings that leave first position, poco rit. and a tempo markings, and a slower, dolce close. Earth's Sorrow (3/4 and 4/4, 18 bars) is a lament with frequent changes of metre, dotted rhythms, slurred pairs, fingered shifts, marked bowings, pause marks, poco ritardando, a tempo and 'slower' markings, and cello dynamics from pp to mf. Earth's Stormy Weather ('Allegro with Fire', 4/4, 33 bars) is the hardest piece. It has semiquaver figures that cross between strings, accented glissandi, alternating pizzicato and arco, an optional passage in double notes, crescendos to f and a ritardando before a subito p pizzicato ending.

Technical focus

• Shifting
• String Crossings
• Pizzicato
• Meter Changes
• Dotted Rhythms
• 2 Note Slurs
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Accidentals
• Articulation
• Tempo Changes
• Collaboration with Piano