Canção para Radamés
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2006
- Duration
- 6'
- Publisher
- Musica Brasilis (free score and part, licensed by the composer, Rio de Janeiro, 2017)
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About this piece
Mario Ferraro, a pianist, choral conductor and composer from Franca, São Paulo, wrote Canção para Radamés (Song for Radamés) in Rio de Janeiro in 2006 as a tribute to the Brazilian composer and arranger Radamés Gnattali (1906-1988). Ferraro has written that Gnattali's work with popular music shaped the bossa nova, and that bossa nova also shaped the melody and harmony of this piece. In about six minutes it runs through nine lettered sections, from a Molto espressivo song in 6/8 to an Energico with sffz chords, a Cantabile with pizzicato, a Delicato, two Scherzando passages and a fff final chord. A revised version was first played at City University, London, on 24 February 2009 by the cellist Stjepan Hauser and the pianist Yoko Misumi.
Technical overview
Bass and treble clef, with frequent changes of metre (6/8, 4/4, 5/4, 3/4, 2/4) and tempo, from a rubato dotted quarter = 52 to quarter = 172. The cello climbs in the treble clef to G and, once, to the C two octaves above middle C, so secure thumb position is needed. It also plays accented three-note chords at sffz, a glissando, mordents, long tied notes and repeated pizzicato double stops against offbeat piano chords.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Chords
- Collaboration with Piano
- Double Stops
- Glissando
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Meter Changes
- Pizzicato
- Rubato
- Shifting
- Tempo Changes
- Thumb Position
- Treble Clef
- Triplets