Suite for Cello Solo

[Gabriele]

========== EDIT 2 ==========

Hi to all.

I'm actually enjoying composing for cello solo so I have chosen to gather all the pieces (including the one originally entitled "Entanglements" and whose link is posted below, in the "Edit 1" section) and turn the composition into a suite.

Here you'll find another movement, a tarantella:

https://gargoyle.bandcamp.com/track/suite-for-cello-solo-ii-tarantella

Thank you so much for listening and for any of your comment/advice.

Gabriele

========== EDIT 1 ==========

Well, after a very long time, here it is the revised version (with also a new title):

https://gargoyle.bandcamp.com/track/suite-for-cello-solo-i-largo

I did my best to elaborate all your precious advices.

As it's still incomparable to all the amazing music you post here everyday, please... have mercy :D

Thanks for listening.  So much.

Gab

======== ORIGINAL POST =====

Hi to all,

sorry for posting this short and meaningless composition of mine.

[old_link_removed]

Thanks to whoever will listen to it or not :)

Gab

[Dane Aubrun]

Crikey! Nothing to be sorry about. It brought out the very lyrical qualities of the cello. Nicely developed. Was this played by a 'cellist? Regardless the bowing sounded pretty appropriate, not obtrusive. 

A very nice if sad-sounding work. The double stops all sound feasible played a bit up the fingerboard and the intonation was immaculate. You'd need to be a Janos Starker to get it as good as that!

[Gabriele]

Thank you Dane for your time and your kind words :-)
Of course, it's not played but a cellist, since nobody plays my music.
Unfortunately, I have no idea of the skills required to play i(how I wish), I'm not a professional musician..
Thank you so much once again.

[michael diemer]

I would love to hear Yo Yo Ma play this, he would be perfect, he plays such expressive music so well. I wish I could comment on how difficult this would be to play. It has lots of double and triple stops, and maybe even a quadruple stop? I used to tune my guitar like a cello, to simulate that instrument and try to determine if what if I had written was playable. I only attempted one such work, a cello sonata (three mvs.). A guy did give it a reading, and said it was, but it had some very high notes. That would not be a problem with your piece, obviously. It "sounds" to me like it would be playable. The slow tempo would help in pulling off those stops. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in. Anyway, I liked it very much!

[Gabriele]

Thank you so much, Michael but I'd settle for even a much less famous cellist, eheheh.
You know, every composer's dream is listening to musicians playing his music.
A dream, in fact.

Yes, there are some triple stops (a ten of measures) but no quadruple stops.
To be honest, I hought about looking into cello technique before starting composing but since nobody plays my music, I just chooses to focus on the music itself.
Hope I managed to achieve my goal.

Thank you 1000 times for your words and your time.

[Stanley King]

Lovely but it is too short! Also maybe a little less reverb?

[Gabriele]

You're right, Stanley, too much reverb.
In the first release, I set a softer reverb, then I chose to increase it to make the music sounding little more poignant.. bad choice.

Regarding the length, I was afraid the piece could have gotten boring.. and you know, it's so hard catching people attention..

That's why I thank you a lot for your time!

[Gabriele]

By the way, according to this guide (https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-rules-for-writing-practical-doub...) all triple stops are played arpeggiated very fast, so I guess my composition is unplayable.

Other than that, I'm giving a quick look at the cello finger chart, just trying to figure out if some of my double stops are unplayable, as well.

That's what I love about this forum.. always inspiring, giving a reason to go into details and acquiring more knowledge.

Thank you all.

[michael diemer]

Get yourself an old guitar and tune it like a cello. Then you can pretty much make a good guess about those 2X stops etc. I have always found Piston's Orchestration book invaluable, it has all of that stuff, plus of course a wealth of other info and tips. It's an older book, but you may be able to find it. It's very easy to use. For me it has been like a bible.

BTW, I also thought it had too much reverb. But then, a cello alone, in a big hall, would, so it probably wasn't too excessive. just my opinion, for what it's worth.

[Gabriele]

Thank you, Michael, I'm going to look for it!!

[Colin Dougall]

Hi

This is a lovely piece, I enjoyed listening to it very much. It really needs to be at least twice the length it is. I was hearing an echo of Bach about 50 secs in.

Thanks, Colin

[Gabriele]

(discussion updated)

[Naoise David Sheridan]

Nice piece. Congrats.