This Path We Walk
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2022
- Duration
- 6'
- Publisher
- Composer (self-published)
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About this piece
A six-minute piece for unaccompanied cello, written in 2022 as a wedding gift for two friends of the composer and premiered by cellist Minjin Chung in Somerville, Massachusetts, on 2 October 2022, the day of the couple's marriage. In his program note, Caplan says the melody grows from a musical anagram of the couple's initials, and that the title refers to the forest walks where they got to know each other. A tender E-major opening of flowing triplet arpeggios (crotchet = 72) frames a faster section marked 'Celebratory' in B major (crotchet = 160). The piece ends quietly with the opening music.
Technical overview
The outer sections are slurred triplet arpeggios across the strings in E major; the fast middle section uses staccato, accents and two-note slurs in B major. The cellist reads tenor clef, shifts up to C#5, plays some thirds, sixths and chords, and handles frequent changes between 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.
Technical focus
- String Crossings
- 3 Note Slurs
- 2 Note Slurs
- Shifting
- Double Stops
- Articulation
- Meter Changes
- Tempo Changes
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Rhythm
- Accidentals