Golden Hour (version for cello and piano)
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2020
- Duration
- 6'
- Publisher
- Cait Nishimura Music (self-published), first edition 2020, second edition 2025; printed copies via Just a Theory Press; also held by the Canadian Music Centre (RSN 83749)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Cait Nishimura, a Japanese Canadian composer and former high school music teacher known for nature-inspired music, wrote Golden Hour in 2020 for a consortium of horn players led by Matthew Anderson, then made versions for several other instruments, including cello. The music recalls a race up the mountain roads of Yosemite National Park to reach the Glacier Point overlook before sunset, past stretches of forest burned by recent wildfires. It moves from a gentle, expansive opening into a joyful dance in 3/4, through a 'dreamy and distant' passage and a 'triumphant' climax, and then fades away warmly. One dollar from every sale goes to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Technical overview
Written in bass clef, with key signatures of E-flat, A-flat and B-flat major and frequent metre changes among 4/4, 3/4, 7/8 and 12/8. The cello line is lyrical, built from long tied notes, slurred eighth-note pickups and wide dynamic swells from p to ff; the 'dreamy and distant' section climbs to the F above middle C, so it needs a secure shift to fourth position. Tempos run from half note = 80 to quarter note = 144, with ritardandos and an accelerando.
Technical focus
- A String Notes
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Meter Changes
- Shifting
- Tempo Changes