Passacaglia (from Suíte para dois violoncelos)
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Cello
- Composed
- 2014
- Publisher
- Musica Brasilis (free score and parts of the third movement only, licensed by the composer)
Purchase or download
About this piece
Cyro Delvizio, a guitarist and composer born in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, in 1986, studied classical guitar with Turibio Santos at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He composed his Suíte para dois violoncelos in Rio de Janeiro in December 2014, revised it in May 2022 and dedicated it to the Duo Santoro; Musica Brasilis publishes only its third movement, this Passacaglia 'em ritmo de guarânia' (in guarânia rhythm). A six-bar ground in C minor, first plucked by the second cello, passes back and forth between the players while the other spins variations over it: slurred melodies, glissandos, offbeat triplets, a climb into the treble clef and long runs of repeated sextuplet sixteenths. Paulo and Ricardo Santoro recorded it as 'Passacaglia em Ritmo de Guarânia' on their 2022 album O Compositor É Vivo!.
Technical overview
Calmo at quarter note = 80, in C minor and mostly 3/4, with brief passages in 2/4, 4/4 and 6/4. The two parts are of similar difficulty and swap roles: each plays the ground bass, plucked and bowed, in first position, and each takes the melody higher, the first cello in the treble clef up to the E-flat at the top of the staff and the second in the tenor clef. Long passages of measured repeated notes in sixteenths and sextuplets, octaves over the open C string, glissandos and closing double stops call for steady bow distribution and close ensemble.
Technical focus
- Double Stops
- Ensemble Skills
- Glissando
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Meter Changes
- Octaves
- Pizzicato
- Shifting
- Tenor Clef
- Treble Clef
- Triplets