Resonance: A Multicultural Cello Method, Book 1
by Hilary Glen, Jennifer Carpenter, Bianca d'Avila do Prado, Angelique Montes and Laura Usiskin
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2024
- Publisher
- Songburd Music (SC.500015; ISBN 9781952680229); piano accompaniment SC.500016, Cello Ensembles Book 1 SC.500021
Purchase or download
About this piece
A beginner cello method written by five cellist-teachers: Hilary Glen (the project's founder), Jennifer Carpenter, Bianca d'Avila do Prado, Angelique Montes and Laura Usiskin. Its 13 pieces are folk and children's songs from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Puerto Rico, India, Haiti, Brazil, Iraq, Japan, China and Korea, plus the spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and a Chamamé by the Argentinian cellist-composer Fernando Manuel Dieguez. Each piece comes with a pronunciation guide and a short note on where the song comes from, along with preparation and drill exercises. The book includes access to video recordings. A piano accompaniment book and a Cello Ensembles book, with parts from beginner to advanced that work as duets, trios and quartets, are sold separately.
Technical overview
The book moves from call-and-response pieces to first-position songs on all four strings. By the later pieces, students use fingers 1 to 4 in pentatonic tunes such as Sakura (E-F-A-B-C), with low 2nd finger, short 2-note slurs, fingerings marked, and mf/mp contrasts. Each song is prepared with a short scale-pattern exercise and a 'drill spot' that isolates the hardest bar.
Technical focus
- 2 Note Slurs
- A String Notes
- C String Notes
- D String Notes
- Detaché
- Dynamics
- G String Notes