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Cello Repertoire Initiative

A Canadian Boat Song

by Maurice Arnold · arranged by Samuel Araya

Instrumentation
Cello, Piano
Duration
1'17''
Publisher
Samuel Araya (self-published on IMSLP, 2024); original song in The Laurel Song Book (Boston: C.C. Birchard, 1901)
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About this piece

Samuel Araya's cello-and-piano arrangement of Maurice Arnold's choral setting of Thomas Moore's 'A Canadian Boat Song', first published in The Laurel Song Book (Boston, 1901). Arnold, born Maurice Arnold Strothotte in St. Louis in 1865, was a violinist, conductor and composer, and one of Antonín Dvořák's African-American students at the National Conservatory in New York. He is best known for his American Plantation Dances.

Technical overview

A short, lyrical song arrangement in B-flat major for cello and piano.

Level rubric

Late Beginner

Left Hand

  • Mostly 1st position with small extensions.
  • Early shifting to 2nd/3rd positions.
  • Controlled vibrato on sustained notes.

Right Hand

  • Expanded bow technique for faster passages & wider dynamics.
  • Longer slurs (3–4 notes).
  • Hooked bowing for dotted rhythms.
  • Practice basic martelé accents.
  • Increase speed in string crossings with minimal arm movement.

Bow Strokes

  • Standard détaché; add staccato, martelé, short slurs, hooked strokes.

Rhythm & Musicality

  • Incorporate dotted figures, compound meters (6/8), triplets & syncopation.
  • Develop subdivision sense; introduce rubato in small measures.
  • Slightly longer phrases.
  • Introduce basic dynamic shading.

Levels are approximate guides, not strict requirements.

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