Shade

About this piece

Shade is a duo for cello and vibraphone, composed in 1998 for Winnipeg's GroundSwell series with support from the Manitoba Arts Council and premiered in February 1999 by Arkadiusz Tesarczyk (cello) and Rob Gardner (vibraphone). It lasts about nine and a half minutes. The cello opens alone in a rhythmically free cadenza written without barlines. The vibraphone joins hesitantly and builds into an equal partner, then switches to hard mallets for a bell-like middle section. In the last section the cello climbs steadily higher while the vibraphone keeps falling. In Morlock's programme note the title draws on several meanings of 'shade', from shelter from sunlight to a ghost or the underworld.

Technical overview

The cello reads bass, tenor and treble clef. It plays unmetered cadenza-like lines, low double stops and sustained octaves, leaping eighth-note figures across the strings, and a closing climb in thumb position that ends on a held B-flat5 at fff. The cellist also cues the vibraphonist and sets the pacing of the free sections (about 16 seconds per line).

Technical focus

• Thumb Position
• Double Stops
• String Crossings
• Meter Changes
• Tempo Changes
• Dynamics
• Legato
• Ensemble Skills