Yizkor (Remember)

About this piece

Yizkor (Hebrew for "Remember") is a three-movement work for unaccompanied cello. Asherov, who was living in New York at the time, wrote the first movement in 2001 after the September 11 attacks and added two more movements in 2009; in her note she calls the piece a prayer for the public remembrance of a bereaved community. A slow, singing first movement is followed by an agitated fast movement built on a two-sixteenth-note figure at the start of every bar and a slow closing movement whose falling line mirrors the rising line of the opening. Her Navona Records biography notes that it has also been performed at Holocaust commemorations in the United States and Israel.

Technical overview

The first movement is a slow, lyrical line that moves across bass, tenor and treble clefs up to G5, with frequent double stops (open fifths and stopped sixths), changing meters, triplet and dotted figures, and accelerandos across a pp–ff dynamic range.

Technical focus

• Double Stops
• Shifting
• Legato
• Meter Changes
• Tempo Changes
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics
• Rhythm
• Accidentals