MAH (listen)
- Instrumentation
- Cello, SATB
- Composed
- 2025
- Duration
- 7'35''
- Publisher
- Cypress Choral Music (CP 2572; SATB a cappella with cello)
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About this piece
Andrew Balfour, a Cree composer based in Winnipeg, wrote MAH (listen) for chamber choir and cello. It was premiered at the International Cello Festival of Canada in October 2025 by cellist Leanne Zacharias with Balfour's choir Dead of Winter. The choir sings a chain of Cree words (listen, greeting, hidden, first thing, it is this, respect as a way of life, to give thanks, making music, let it be). The cello opens the piece alone and carries much of the melodic material, so the part suits a cellist who wants experience leading a choir.
Technical overview
The cello part is in bass clef, uses first to fourth positions (up to E above middle C), and moves from D minor to A major. It has accented triplet figures, staccato sixteenths, a long eighth-note ostinato, bowed tremolo double stops, and a passage of free high harmonics. The cellist plays alone at the opening and has to lead the choir through fermatas and tempo changes.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Double Stops
- Ensemble Skills
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Harmonics
- Shifting
- Staccato
- Tempo Changes
- Triplets