The Morning Inside Us
by John Kennedy
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1998
- Duration
- 6'
- Publisher
- SFNM Editions (composer's imprint)
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About this piece
The Morning Inside Us (1998) is a six-minute piece for unaccompanied cello by the American conductor and composer John Kennedy. It began as a cello interlude in his chamber cantata One Body, where it leads into his setting of Joy Harjo's 'Eagle Poem', which is printed in the score. Marked 'Very free, with ardor', it is built mostly from continuous arpeggiated figures in irregular groupings over open-string pedals, with a calmer rubato episode and a passage of harmonics before a final build. In a note in the score, Kennedy asks cellists to take the kind of liberties with tempo and phrasing they would take in Bach.
Technical overview
Continuous arpeggiated sixteenth- and thirty-second-note figures in quintuplets, sextuplets and septuplets call for fluent string crossings over open-string pedals, mostly in the lower positions (up to about fourth position; no thumb position or tenor clef). A short passage of artificial harmonics with glissandi and free, rubato pacing are the other main demands.
Technical focus
- String Crossings
- Harmonics
- Shifting
- Rubato
- Rhythm
- Meter Changes
- Tempo Changes
- Dynamics