Air
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Cello
- Publisher
- Musica Brasilis (free download; rights held by the composer and licensed to the Instituto Musica Brasilis)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Eduardo Martinelli built Air from melodic fragments of J. S. Bach and of Agripino, the Pantanal master of the viola de cocho, and dedicated it to the Duo Santoro. Marked Doloroso, it opens with both cellos plucking: cello 1 sings a turning sixteenth-and-eighth figure while cello 2 strikes three-note chords beneath it. The players then take up their bows at pianissimo for a darker middle section coloured by A-flats and E-flats, before the opening tune comes back and slows to a held final chord. At 21 bars it is the shortest of Martinelli's three Agripino duets for the Duo Santoro, alongside Cor de canela and Marrequinha.
Technical overview
A slow C major piece in 4/4 at quarter = 60, in bass clef throughout. Both parts begin pizzicato, with cello 2 plucking three-note chords and cello 1 a melody that climbs to fourth position on the A string. After the change to arco, cello 1 has chromatic lines and a bar of slurred sixteenths that cross down to the open G string, while cello 2 bows double stops over the open C; two rallentandos and a closing fermata ask the pair to shape the tempo together.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Chords
- Double Stops
- Ensemble Skills
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Pizzicato
- Shifting
- String Crossings
- Tempo Changes