Psalm
by Ina Boyle
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Orchestra
- Composed
- 1927
- Duration
- 9'
- Publisher
- Faber Music (on behalf of the Ina Boyle Society)
Purchase or download
About this piece
A nine-minute single-movement work for cello and orchestra, written in 1927 and revised in 1928. Like most of Boyle's music it went unplayed in her lifetime. It was first played ninety years later, in October 2017, when Nadège Rochat recorded it with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Ronald Corp for Dutton Epoch's first album of Boyle's orchestral music. The piece is a slow, song-like meditation that opens with a free, recitative-like solo entry. It moves through several contrasting tempos and ends quietly with a pizzicato chord. The Ina Boyle Society also lists an arrangement for cello, harp and string orchestra.
Technical overview
The solo part is sustained and lyrical rather than virtuosic. Long passages sit high in the treble clef, with wide leaps into the upper register and frequent changes of meter, tempo and flat-heavy key. The main demands are tone, intonation and phrasing high on the A string over a full orchestra.
Technical focus
- Thumb Position
- Shifting
- Sustain
- Rubato
- Meter Changes
- Tempo Changes
- Accidentals
- Dynamics
- Pizzicato