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Aaron Minsky
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Concerto for Cello
Conductor's score and parts on hire
978-0-19-362441-2
02 August 1979
Price: Available on request
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This is not a consciously brilliant, virtuoso, "display" concerto and has no cadenza. Instead it concentrates on two 'natural' attributes of the cello - the impassioned Elegy, and the rather dry Scherzo. The three movements are arranged so that the two characteristic moods overlap and are both present in each movement. Forces or CategorySolo cello & full orchestraDuration25 minutesDifficultyModerately difficult to
DifficultOrchestrationvc solo, 2 fl (both+picc), 2 ob (II+ca), 2 cl (II+bcl), 2 bn, hn, 2 tpt, 2 tbn, timp, 3 perc (vib, mba, glock, sus cym, tam, small gong, bell or bell plate, tri, tamb, Chinese w blk, 2 bongos, conga, MD, TD), hp, cel, pn, strProgramme NotesThis Concerto is In Memoriam Luigi Dallapiccola and was written for Rohan de Saram. The personalities of both these great musicians have influenced the piece. It is not a consciously brilliant, virtuoso, display concerto (few cello concertos ever are!) and has no cadenza. Instead it concentrates on two natural attributes of the cello the
impassioned Elegy, and the rather dry Scherzo. However, the three movements are arranged so that the two characteristic moods overlap and are both present in each movement:
Movement I Elegy 1, leading to Scherzo 1
Movement II Scherzo 1 continued, leading to Elegy 2
Movement III Elegy 2 continued, leading to Scherzo 2, leading to Coda.
The five sections of the Elegy, Scherzo and Coda are, in effect, a continuous argument broken by two pauses for breath. (The idea is far from original and I had in mind Elliot Carters First String Quartet.) Since the beginning of the second and third movements are, in each case, a continuation and repeat of the end of the previous movement, I have made each more distinctive by the addition of several features of which the
instrumentation is the most audible. The trumpets and trombones do not play until the second movement, and the horn (there is only one in the orchestra) does not play until the third.
At the start of the concerto there is a clear distinction between the diatonic and chromatic modes. The orchestral part of the whole of Elegy 1 is entirely without any accidentals but gradually the chromaticism of the cello part invades all the music in the second and third movements. All the themes and motives of the music eventually make plain their common origin in the twelvetone set of Dallapiccolas Piccola Musica Notturna but with only the central section of the third movement is truly serial using a modified, more symmetrical form of the set. Elsewhere the set influences the music either
through the motives derived from it, or by its feature of being divided into two partitions of unequal length (7 + 5). At the opening, for example, the orchestra and cello alternate in bars of seven and five beats.
There is only one real tutti in the piece shortly after the start of the second movement and only one true climax, near the end of the whole concerto. After this climax the Coda seems to return to the sounds of the opening, but it is brushed aside by a very brief and quiet scherzo.
The Concerto was commissioned (with funds from the Arts Council of Great Britain) and was composed between January 1978 and March 1979.
© Gordon Crosse, 1979
Reproduced with permission of Oxford University Press.
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Gordon Crosse (b.1937) Gordon Crosse was born in 1937 in Bury, Lancashire. He studied at Oxford University and since 1964 has held various appointments at the Universities of Birmingham and Essex, and was for two years Composer-in-Residence at King's College, Cambridge.
Much of Crosse's work reflects his interest in the dramatic and literary arts, including his four operas and several ballets. Since the late 1980s, Crosse has moved away from composition, developing instead an interest in the uses of music technology.
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"The cello role here is excellently idiomatic, telling and varied...A fascinating and immensely skilful work." - David Muarray, Financial Times
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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