Julie-O
by Mark Summer
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 1988
- Duration
- 4'
- Publisher
- Shar Products Co., in Contemporary Originals for Solo Cello with Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming (item 7354 150; also as a digital download)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Julie-O is the best-known piece by the American cellist Mark Summer, a founding member of the Turtle Island String Quartet. He wrote it in 1988, starting with a melody at the piano and then working it out on the cello, and it gathers up the jazz, rock, fiddle and blues techniques he had developed for improvising: plucked chords ringing into harmonics, 'slap bass' effects, left-hand pizzicato and ghost-bowed notes that keep the groove moving like a rhythm guitar. Summer has said it takes classical technique to play well, and it has become a favourite recital and encore piece for students and professionals alike. The printed edition pairs it with Summer's arrangement of Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. Summer has since written concert etudes, starting with Pattern Language, that work on the techniques Julie-O uses, and simplified and two-cello arrangements also exist.
Technical overview
In D major at a fast tempo. Plucked opening chords with harmonics give way to driving bowed sixteenth-note grooves full of syncopation, accents, double stops and chords, with sul ponticello passages and wide dynamic swells.
Technical focus
- Chords
- Double Stops
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Harmonics
- Pizzicato
- Rhythm
- Sul Ponticello
- Syncopation