Voices of the Cello: Speak, Sing, Play; An Aesthetic Examination of Style Periods in the Cello Repertoire and How They Relate to the Viability of Transcription
Voices of the Cello: Speak, Sing, Play; An Aesthetic Examination of Style Periods in the Cello Repertoire and How They Relate to the Viability of Transcription
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Date
2019
Authors
Singer, Daniel Pecos
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Abstract
This dissertation was produced in conjunction with three cello recitals as part
of a Performance Dissertation Project. Each recital focuses on music from style
periods ranging from the Baroque to the twenty-first century and seeks to demonstrate
how the aesthetic language of a composer or style period affects the viability of
transcription. The recitals also highlight the unique qualities of the cello, both when
playing music originally for another instrument and when performing music
specifically written for it.
The first recital includes music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Schubert.
Bach’s Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012—performed on a five-string Baroque
cello—shows how the spoken quality of the Baroque idiom in Bach’s music allows
for transcription between instruments. The Sonata in A minor for Arpeggione and
Piano, D. 821 by Schubert offers an opportunity to expose the vocal quality of the ello while exploring the limitations of transcription in this aesthetic language so
inspired by song.
The second recital focuses on transcriptions within the violin family of
instruments by including a transcription of the Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op.
78 by Johannes Brahms, as well as César Franck’s Sonata in A major for Violin and
Piano. While the Franck only needs minor adjustments for the cello version (the piano
part is untouched), the Brahms is transposed from G major to D major in order to be
suitable for the cello.
The final recital completes the arc by culminating in music written
specifically for the cello—music that would be impossible to imagine on any other
instrument. First the Sonata for Solo Cello, Op.8 by Zoltán Kodály develops the
unique sound of scordatura by lowering the pitch of two lower strings by one half
step (from C and G to B and F-sharp). Similarly, the Sonata for Solo Cello by György
Ligeti is so cellistic in its conception that it is essentially unviable on any other
instrument. Finally, Crest, Clutter, Clamor by Bradley S. Green was designed
specifically for the physical characteristics of the cello, thus making it a quintessential
example of cello specific writing.
The first recital was performed on November 26, 2018, with Ruth Bright on
the piano in Ulrich Recital Hall. The second recital took place on March 6, 2019 in
the Gildenhorn Recital Hall with Andrew Welch and Alexei Ulitin on the piano. The
final recital was completed on May 5, 2019 in Ulrich Recital Hall.