Play and Sing: Nine Little Studies for Cello (and Voice)
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2008
- Duration
- 9'10''
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished, printed by CMC), RSN 59873, call no. MI 3113 B397pl; composer's manuscript, (c) 2008 John Beckwith, revised 2014
Purchase or download
About this piece
John Beckwith, the Toronto composer and former dean of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, wrote these nine short studies in 2008 for his granddaughter Juliet Braden Beckwith, and the notes of her name supply the motto printed at the front of the score [3][1]. In three of them the cellist also sings, for a medium voice [2]. One asks in its own words how to sing a song without words, another pairs a pizzicato bass line with the voice and announces that the result is double counterpoint, and a third walks the singer through zigzag intervals and enharmonic spellings [1]. The other studies each take one idea at a time: even staccato with no downbeat accents, slow double stops against open strings with harmonics, a chromatic legato line, quiet harmonics with left-hand pizzicato, and a loud closing study in accented double stops [1].
Technical overview
Unaccompanied, bass clef throughout and almost entirely in first position, with frequent sharps and flats and wide leaps across all four strings. The studies move through 6/8, 5/4, 3/4, cut time and 3/2 and ask for even staccato, sustained double stops with an open string, natural harmonics, left-hand pizzicato, quick alternation of pizzicato and arco, accelerando and ritardando, and sudden dynamic contrasts from pp to sfz. In three studies the player sings a separate line while playing, mostly over long held notes.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Double Stops
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Harmonics
- Left-Hand Pizzicato
- Legato
- Pizzicato
- Staccato
- String Crossings
- Tempo Changes