Through the Low Hills
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1995
- Duration
- 8'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (manuscript, printed by CMC), RSN 50623
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About this piece
Linda Catlin Smith wrote Through the Low Hills in 1995 for the cellist Andrew Smith, who gave the premiere with pianist Antonio Artese at the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall in Santa Barbara, California, in May 1995. At quarter note = 56, the cello sings in its upper register while the piano answers with low, spare chords, and the metre changes almost every bar. In the later pages the cello moves to slow, sustained double stops over a steadier pulse in the piano, and the music eases to a slightly slower tempo near the end. Anton Lukoszevieze and Kerry Yong recorded it for Another Timbre on the album Ballad (2021).
Technical overview
Written by hand in bass clef, the cello line stays high on the A string, from around middle C into the octave above, while the metre shifts among 5/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 3/8 and 6/8. The second half is built on long double stops that need an even bow and careful intonation at quiet dynamics, mostly between p and mf.
Technical focus
- Bow Control
- Collaboration with Piano
- Double Stops
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Meter Changes
- Shifting