Ballad and Dance
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2001
- Duration
- 6'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre
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About this piece
A two-movement student piece for cello and piano. The Canadian Music Centre commissioned it in 2001 for its New Music for Young Musicians series in the Prairie Region. It is dedicated to Brendan and Nathan Jacklin. The Ballad is a gentle, singing D-major melody (Moderato amabile) with two short pizzicato passages. The Dance, marked Allegretto giocoso and in G major, is lively, with running sixteenth notes and crisp staccato figures. The Canadian Music Centre grades the Ballad at RCM Grade 5 and the Dance at Grade 6.
Technical overview
The cello part stays in bass clef, mostly in the lower positions, with shifts up to about fourth position on the A string. The Ballad needs a sustained legato line, pizzicato and a few bars of 2/4. The Dance needs quick slurred sixteenth-note runs, dotted rhythms and staccato eighth notes that cross between strings.
Technical focus
- Shifting
- Pizzicato
- Meter Changes
- String Crossings
- Dotted Rhythms
- Slurs
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Collaboration with Piano