Mackerel Sky
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2007
- Duration
- 3'
- Publisher
- Reed Music (RM442)
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About this piece
Mackerel Sky is a short lyrical piece of about three minutes for cello and piano, composed and published in 2007 by Melbourne composer and flautist Johanna Selleck. Marked Cantabile in 6/8, it sets a long-breathed cello melody against a continuous rippling sixteenth-note figure in the piano. Reed Music grades it level C on its five-step A (easy) to E (advanced) scale, which suits an intermediate student looking for a contemporary Australian lyrical piece.
Technical overview
The cellist sustains long tied notes and slurred phrases in 6/8 at a moderate tempo, with fingerings that move into higher positions on the D and G strings, while shaping crescendos and diminuendos against a busy piano texture.
Technical focus
- Legato
- Sustain
- Dynamics
- Shifting
- Collaboration with Piano