Prayer and Dance of Praise
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1996
- Duration
- 10'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre
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About this piece
A ten-minute concert piece for cello and piano. The Eckhardt-Gramatté National Competition for the Performance of Canadian Music commissioned it as a test piece, with help from the Saskatchewan Arts Board. The competition winner premiered it in Brandon, Manitoba, in May 1997 and then took it on a national tour. The 'Prayer' starts with a long, free-flowing solo for the cello before the piano comes in, and the score notes that its articulations are suggestions rather than rules. The 'Dance of Praise' moves through quickly changing meters and builds to a grand ending. Raum also made versions for violin and for viola.
Technical overview
The cellist opens with an unaccompanied, freely timed cadenza that includes fast arpeggio figures in tenor clef and chords. The later sections stay high in tenor clef, with double stops in thirds and sixths, staccato passages, and frequent changes between 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 3/4 and 4/4.
Technical focus
- Rubato
- Thumb Position
- Double Stops
- Meter Changes
- Tempo Changes
- Articulation