Choro para dois cellos
by Francis Hime
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Cello
- Composed
- 2020
- Publisher
- Musica Brasilis (free download; rights held by the composer and licensed to the Instituto Musica Brasilis)
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About this piece
Francis Hime, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1939, began studying at the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música at six and has written film and theatre scores alongside a large body of popular song and concert music. He dated this Choro 2020 and dedicated it to the twin cellists Paulo and Ricardo Santoro, who gave the world premiere as the Duo Santoro at an 'O compositor é vivo!' concert in Araruama on 19 March 2021, streamed on YouTube without an audience. Both cellos move in almost unbroken slurred eighth notes that wind chromatically like a choro melody, handing the line back and forth; two Meno mosso passages relax the pace before a closing string of held chords.
Technical overview
4/4 at quarter = 120, with Meno mosso sections at quarter = 80 and returns to Tempo primo. Both parts switch between bass and tenor clef every few bars and sustain long chains of slurred, chromatic eighth notes, so clean shifting, intonation and string crossing at speed are the main demands. Short passages of double stops appear in each part, and the piece ends with sustained double and triple stops building to a forte chord.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Chords
- Double Stops
- Ensemble Skills
- Legato
- Shifting
- String Crossings
- Tempo Changes
- Tenor Clef