Night
by Florence Beatrice Price · arranged by Jennifer Carpenter
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 1946
- Duration
- 1'53''
- Publisher
- Self-published digital edition, transcribed and edited by Jennifer Carpenter (Hal Leonard ArrangeMe); song (c) 1946 Edward B. Marks Company, used by permission. Holds two cello versions. Piano part is Price's original, from the song edition
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About this piece
Florence Price set Louise C. Wallace's poem Night for voice and piano, and Edward B. Marks published the song in 1946 [1]. Jennifer Carpenter's transcription keeps the original key and Price's own expression marks and slurs, adds bowings, fingerings and string indications, and comes in two versions, one at the song's pitch and one an octave lower, both meant for Price's piano part [2]. At pitch the cello sits high on the A string, opening with a slow rise from middle C to G and passing through A flat, E flat and B flat before a pianissimo close on a long E [2]. Laura van der Heijden and Jâms Coleman recorded a separate cello and piano version, arranged by Tom Poster, on their album Path to the Moon [3].
Technical overview
4/4, Andante, no key signature. The version at pitch is in treble clef throughout, from middle C to the F on the top line, played on the A string with printed fingerings, so the left hand must place wide shifts accurately in slow, exposed notes. Dotted rhythms, long ties, flats and a sharp in the melody, one natural harmonic, rit. and a tempo, and dynamics from p to f with a pp ending. The octave-lower version keeps the same music in a lower register for a student not yet playing high on the A string.
Technical focus
- Accidentals
- Bow Control
- Collaboration with Piano
- Dotted Rhythms
- Dynamics
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Harmonics
- Shifting
- Tempo Changes
- Treble Clef