Variations sur quatre haïkus

About this piece

Four short pieces for solo cello, each headed by a haiku printed in French and English in the score: Buson's spring rain, Sodō's walk home after moon-viewing, Issa's meandering breeze and Bashō's skylark. Lacaze wrote the set in 2009 for cellist Florian Lauridon, who premiered it in January 2010 at a concert of the ensemble L'Itinéraire in Paris. The movements are miniatures of about 1½ to 4 minutes each, and each is built from one idea: a pizzicato pattern over a repeated note, a slow study in vibrato and bow colour, a fast sul ponticello flurry, and sustained double stops answered by left-hand pizzicato harmonics. That makes it a compact way into contemporary sound-colour writing for a student.

Technical overview

The cellist plays a pizzicato movement with plucked double stops, changes between senza vibrato, molto vibrato, sul ponticello and ordinario within single notes, and plays fast flautando chromatic runs high in treble clef. In the last movement sustained bowed double stops are combined with left-hand pizzicato and harmonics, notated on two staves.

Technical focus

• Pizzicato
• Double Stops
• Thumb Position
• Harmonics
• Vibrato
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Bow Control
• Accidentals