Aquamarine Waltz, Op. 65
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1999
- Duration
- 5'
- Publisher
- Goodmusic Publishing (GM138)
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About this piece
A light-hearted waltz for cello and piano that Isabel Young commissioned in May 1999 for her 75th birthday; Judith Bailey wrote it the following month. According to Goodmusic's note, the title grew out of a Cornish house called The Haven and its sea view. The cello opens alone in a short quasi-recitative, and the waltz then passes through several keys, including a muted, slower Tranquillo middle section in 3/4, before a coda. It lasts about five minutes and was recorded by Catherine Wilmers and Nicola Grunberg on Bailey's 2008 Métier portrait CD.
Technical overview
Lyrical playing that moves between bass and tenor clef, with sustained high-register notes up to D5 on the A string (including a long trill in bars 94–96) and large leaps. The cellist must also manage frequent key changes and chromatic accidentals, a muted (con sordino) Tranquillo section, and flexible tempo changes against the piano.
Technical focus
- Shifting
- A String Notes
- Legato
- Slurs
- Sustain
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Articulation
- Accidentals
- Tempo Changes
- Meter Changes
- Rubato
- Collaboration with Piano