Source Material
by Tristan Zaba
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2017
- Duration
- 1'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished, printed by CMC), RSN 77847, call no. MI 3113 Z12sou 2017
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About this piece
Tristan Zaba, a Toronto-based composer, producer, singer and poet, has written for groups from Quatuor Bozzini to university choirs and guitar ensembles [1]. Source Material, from 2017, is a one-minute solo marked Galloping, built almost entirely from rolling eighth-note arpeggios that climb from the open C string to the A string and fall back [2][3]. Each bar shifts the accented top note, the dynamics swing between ff and pp, and the piece ends on a rolled open-string chord at fff [2]. The Canadian Music Centre lists it at Beginner level [3].
Technical overview
12/8 at about dotted quarter = 100, bass clef, first position only. Continuous eighth-note string crossings over all four strings, mostly open strings with first-position notes on the D and A strings, slurred pairs across strings, accents on the top notes, long crescendos and diminuendos between ff and pp, a poco rit. and a final rolled open C-string chord.
Technical focus
- 2 Note Slurs
- A String Notes
- Bow Control
- C String Notes
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Rhythm
- String Crossings