Romance No. 1 (from Two Romances)
by Elfrida Andrée · arranged by Kathy Blackwell and David Blackwell
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Duration
- 2'14''
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press, Solo Time for Cello, Book 2 (2022), arranged by Kathy and David Blackwell; reproduced by ABRSM in Cello Exam Pieces from 2024, Grade 5, List B no. 1 (AB 4108); also sold as a single digital download
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About this piece
Elfrida Andrée became the first woman cathedral organist in Scandinavia when she took the post at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867, and she was also the first Swedish woman to conduct a symphony orchestra. She wrote this Romance, the first of a pair, for violin and piano. Kathy and David Blackwell arranged it for cello in Solo Time for Cello, Book 2 (Oxford University Press, 2022), and ABRSM set it for Grade 5. The Larghetto melody in D major keeps returning to the upper A string, darkens through flattened notes in the middle section, and after the repeat fades to a pianissimo low D.
Technical overview
D major, 4/4, Larghetto at quarter note = 72, marked p espressivo. A sustained legato line with long slurs, extensions and shifts up to the G above middle C on the A string, slurred staccato pairs, chromatic flats in the middle section, a repeated section with first and second endings, rit. and a tempo, and a pianissimo ending in first position.
Technical focus
- 4 Note Slurs
- Accidentals
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dynamics
- Extensions
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Legato
- Portato
- Shifting
- Tempo Changes