Cello Suite
Prelude
Allemande
Aria
Courante
Gigue
Epilogue (all played without pause)
May 19, 2011, Sam Ou, cellist, Paul Cienniwa, harpsichordist, Brown Hall at New England Conservatory
Since the summer of 2009, I have written a number of pieces for harpsichord that were inspired by the playing of my friend Paul Cienniwa. In the spring of 2010 Paul asked if I would create a piece for harpsichord written entirely in the thoroughbass technique that was common in the Baroque era. (Then, only the bass line was written out. The harmony was implied by a set of numbers and figures.) Not content to write a solo harpsichord piece in this manner, I refashioned an earlier solo viola piece, Dark Orange Partita, for solo ‘cello. Then I added the harpsichord, written in figured bass, as an obbligato accompaniment. The cellist Sam Ou and harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa are the dedicatees of this piece.
The form and order of movements also follows Baroque practice: Prelude, Allemande, Aria (a kind of Sarabande), Courante, and Gigue. The last section, Epilogue, is flashback to the opening Prelude with a momentary recall of the Aria.
More Chamber Music Works
String Quartet no. 4, Epiphany, Opus 196 1
Clearing the Clouds from Our Minds, Opus 157 3
Serenade No. 4, Walk That Lonesome Valley, Opus 112 9
Serenade No. 2 for alto recorder, cello, and harpsichord, Opus 98 11
Poems for Trumpet and Piano, Opus 85 13
Two Encores: 1, Canon; 2, Lament, Opus 78 no. 2 15
Two Encores: 1, Canon; 2, Lament, Opus 78 No. 1 16
String Quartet no. 3 (Homage to Beethoven), Opus 71 18
Harmonium: Eight Poems for Brass Quintet after Wallace Stevens, Opus 48 22
Mahler in Blue Light, Opus 43 23
Four Pieces in Familiar Style, Opus 41 24
What Goes Around Comes Around, Opus 38 26
Concerto for Oboe and Five Instruments, Opus 32 28
The Book of Moonlight, Opus 31 29
“Sleep Song” a children’s piece for violin and piano, Opus 18 31
Fantasia on an Imaginary Hymn, Opus 17 32
String Quartet No. 2, Opus 16 33
String Quartet No. 1, Opus 6 34