Vocal Forces: SATB with divisi
Separate Instruments: Cello
Difficulty Level: M/D
Description:
“Cello Songs” was commissioned by Doug Bella and David Hunt for the St. Charles Singers in memory of Doris J. Hunt.
On my living room wall, I have a letterpress broadside of the poem “Cello” by Dorianne Laux. Its central image is a dead tree, fallen into the arms of a living one. As years pass, it “…rubs its fallen body / against the living, building / its dead music / making its raw mark, / wearing the tough bough down / as it moans and bends, the deep / rosined bow sound of the living / shouldering the dead.”
Todd Boss, a frequent collaborator of mine, has created a new text inspired by Dorianne’s poem. Intended as love songs, "Cello Songs" uses the four seasons as a structure to examine how the cello's richness and complexity might mean very different things to us at different times in our lives. The work moves through the seasons, from the gentle breezes of summer, to the fiery colors of autumn, to a soulful melancholy in winter, and ending with a rousing, beebop jazz finale of raindrops in spring! Also, each movement focuses on a different playing technique of the cello: summer - long tones, autumn - spiccato, winter - glissando, spring - pizzicato.
Format: Octavo