Two More Pieces for Cello and Piano
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2008
- Duration
- 12'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished, printed by CMC), RSN 58947
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About this piece
Jean Anderson-Wuensch wrote these companion pieces to her Two Pieces for Cello and Piano in 2008, again commissioned by Brenda Muller and dedicated to Muller and Catherine Maguire, and numbered them 3 and 4 to follow the first pair. 'The Gentle Sea' rocks in 6/8 over rippling piano chords, moves into a cantabile Andante in six flats and builds to a fortissimo Maestoso close. 'My Cat, Portia' is a portrait of a pet: glissandi marked 'cat stretching' open it, a leisurely 'Cat's Lullaby' forms the middle, and a later passage is marked 'cat purring'.
Technical overview
The Gentle Sea (about 7 minutes 40 seconds) is in 6/8 with long slurred phrases, tenor clef and key signatures of four sharps and six flats, and its climaxes call for marcato accents up to fff. My Cat, Portia (about 4 minutes) opens Con brio at quarter note = 84 with glissandi and sudden ff accents, slows for an espressivo middle section in 3/4, and ends with a glissando to a held note.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dynamics
- Glissando
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Marcato
- Meter Changes
- Shifting
- Tempo Changes
- Tenor Clef