Song of the Birds
by Traditional · arranged by Sally Beamish
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1998
- Duration
- 4'
- Publisher
- Scottish Music Centre (download)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Beamish's arrangement for unaccompanied cello of the Catalan folk song 'El cant dels ocells' (The Song of the Birds), the melody Pablo Casals made his signature encore. Written for Steven Isserlis (the score is headed 'For Steven'), it sets the slow tune over rich three- and four-note chords, moves a later phrase into high artificial harmonics, and returns to full chords. Isserlis recorded it as a tribute to Casals at the end of his 2007 Hyperion set of the Bach Cello Suites. It lasts about three to four minutes.
Technical overview
A slow melody voiced in sustained three- and four-note chords, with bowed tremolo, frequent clef changes (bass, tenor, treble) and a passage of artificial harmonics high on the fingerboard; it calls for balanced chord voicing and careful bow distribution at soft dynamics rather than speed.
Technical focus
- Double Stops
- Harmonics
- Bow Control
- Sustain
- Meter Changes
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Dynamics