Dragonflies
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2000
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished, printed by CMC), RSN 26479; also the third movement of the suite Summertime, Palliser Music Publishing
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About this piece
Dragonflies (Libellules) is the third of five short movements in Sylvia Rickard's suite Summertime for cello and piano, and the Canadian Music Centre also holds it as a separate piece, dated 2000. Rickard, born in Toronto in 1937, studied composition chiefly with Jean Coulthard. Here the piano's tremolos and quick runs suggest fluttering wings, as the suite's publisher points out, while the cello answers with short detached notes, quick slides and a brief cantabile phrase. The movement is only twelve bars of 5/4 long and ends with a single forte note from the cello.
Technical overview
In 5/4 and bass clef throughout, the part moves between pizzicato and arco, with staccato quarter notes, several glissandi and a short legato Cantabile phrase. It runs from low C up to about middle C, all within first position, but the accidentals (B-flat, D-flat, A-flat) and the irregular piano rhythms around it (tremolos, quintuplets, sextuplets) make careful counting and intonation the main work.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- C String Notes
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dynamics
- Glissando
- Legato
- Pizzicato
- Rhythm
- Staccato