Pacific Rain
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Publisher
- Clara Shandler (self-published; free PDF from sidewalkcellist.com)
Purchase or download
About this piece
The title piece of Pacific Rain, a 2024 album of original music by the Vancouver cellist, composer and teacher Clara Shandler, who performs as the Sidewalk Cellist. She offers it free in many versions, including cello and piano, string and wind ensembles, a lead sheet and symphony orchestra. In the cello-and-piano score, voices are invited to add wind and ocean sounds throughout. A slow opening leads to rippling triplet arpeggios, then a 'laid-back rock' section of strummed fifths, a driving Allegro over an open-D drone, and a free, slow ending.
Technical overview
Written in bass clef throughout, with chord symbols over the cello line. Long passages of slurred triplet arpeggios cross all four strings, the rock section uses two-note chords and repeated down-bows at fortissimo, and the Allegro sets a melody on the A string over an open-D drone that climbs above first position. The metre moves between 4/4, 2/2 and 2/4, the tempo changes several times, and there are pizzicato notes and a final rubato section.
Technical focus
- Bow Retakes
- C String Notes
- Double Stops
- Meter Changes
- Pizzicato
- Rubato
- Shifting
- String Crossings
- Tempo Changes
- Triplets