Halcyon
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2003
- Duration
- 7'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished; printed by CMC)
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About this piece
Halcyon is a seven-minute piece for cello and piano, commissioned by and written for cellist Ian Hampton for Canada Music Week 2003. Hampton premiered it in November 2003 at the Langley Community Music School in British Columbia. The title refers to the Greek myth of Alcyone and Ceyx, who were turned into kingfishers. The calm 'halcyon days' around the winter solstice are named after their nesting season. The piano opens alone with shimmering grace-note figures, marked 'very freely, lots of pedal, hazy, impressionistic sound throughout'. The cello part is slow and songlike throughout, and the piece closes with quiet harmonics over a sustained piano texture. It is the title track of Centrediscs' 2017 portrait album of Morlock's music.
Technical overview
A slow, sustained cantabile line in bass and treble clef, reaching about A4 in fourth position, with frequent changes of metre and a free, flexible pulse. The middle section has double stops (fifths, thirds and seconds), and the ending is a passage of natural harmonics on the D string, with dynamics from ppp to fff.
Technical focus
- Sustain
- Double Stops
- Harmonics
- Meter Changes
- Tempo Changes
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Collaboration with Piano