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About this piece
A five-minute piece for unaccompanied cello (the title means "rain"), commissioned by the Juilliard School for Juilliard415's Seven Last Words project, in which seven composers wrote interludes for Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ. Varsha follows straight on from Sonata V ("I thirst") and leads into Sonata VI ("It is finished"). Built on raags of the Malhaar family, traditionally sung to call the rain, it imagines rain gathering into a downpour that cannot quench Christ's deeper thirst. Madeleine Bouïssou premiered it on 16 April 2019 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and it has since become popular with young cellists.
Technical overview
Free, rubato sweeps in the manner of Hindustani ornamentation climb from the low C string into the tenor-clef register, with grace notes, glissandi and low chords. A recitative section sets a sustained upper line over a second voice, then alternates melody notes with arpeggiated figures that drop back to the open strings.
Technical focus
- Rubato
- Shifting
- Double Stops
- String Crossings
- Dynamics
- Tempo Changes