Romance
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1918
- Publisher
- Musica Brasilis (free edition from the manuscript at the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro; edited by Thadeu de Moraes Almeida, revised by Marcílio Lopes; CC BY-SA; ISMN 979-0-802319-10-3)
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About this piece
Homero de Sá Barreto dated this Romance 23 December 1918, six years before his death at 40. His manuscript, scanned from the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, is for violin or cello with piano, and Musica Brasilis edited the cello version. Over steady repeated chords in the piano, the cello opens with a singing tune in its tenor register, then wanders through sharp-key, chromatic harmony far from home before the first melody returns and settles on a long held A-flat.
Technical overview
Andante expressivo in common time with a four-flat key signature. About half of the cello part is in treble clef, rising to the F-sharp on the top line, and long chromatic stretches full of sharps, naturals and a double sharp need careful intonation in the upper positions. The line moves mostly in quarters and eighths under long slurs, with dotted figures, triplets and a closing held note.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dotted Rhythms
- Legato
- Shifting
- Thumb Position
- Treble Clef
- Triplets