Requiem
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (1936)
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About this piece
A short elegy for cello and piano published by Oxford University Press in 1936, prefaced with Walter Savage Landor's passage 'Cicero Mourns Tullia' on grief for a lost daughter. It is one long, hymn-like melody over a chordal piano part that returns to its opening phrase at the end. OUP noted on the cover that 'extra copies of the Cello part, for massed playing' were sold separately, so it was meant for cello classes and groups as well as for soloists.
Technical overview
A single slow movement (Lento molto sostenuto) in 4/4 with one bar of 2/4, in C major/A minor with chromatic turns. The cello stays in bass clef in the lower positions apart from a four-bar tenor-clef phrase that climbs to the top of 4th position, so it needs secure shifting. Bowing is mostly two-note slurs and tenuto quarter notes in a sustained legato, with dynamics from pp to f shaped by frequent hairpins.
Technical focus
- Legato
- 2 Note Slurs
- Shifting
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics