Hiraeth (version for cello and piano)
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2020
- Duration
- 6'30''
- 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 83756)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Hiraeth takes its title from a Welsh word for homesickness and longing for a place or time that cannot be revisited. Cait Nishimura wrote it in 2020 while moving away from Toronto, her home for eleven years, and calls it her musical goodbye to the city and to the green ravines where she found solace. The original, for baritone saxophone and piano, was commissioned and premiered by Carter Vernon at Purdue University Fort Wayne; she later arranged it for cello and other solo instruments. Five dollars from every sale goes to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Technical overview
A slow piano chorale, 'wistful and reflective' at quarter = 52, opens the piece before the cello enters in 12/8; later sections move to 3/4 at quarter = 120 and to 4/4 at 72 and 88. Written in bass clef with no key signature, the cello line stays mostly in the lower positions, with some fingerings marked, long slurred phrases, ties across the bar and dynamics from pp to f. The composer asks both players to take their time at the recurring piano chord transitions, so the cellist must feel free tempo and rests with the pianist.
Technical focus
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Meter Changes
- Rubato
- Tempo Changes