Mirage for solo 'cello

Listened to it and read the score.

I must say that this is a fine piece of music. Being a cellist of moderate ability and having an affection for more contemporary approaches to music, this piece is quite attractive for me.

Some negative feedback; the violoncello writing, isn't quite good. Your using a lot of open strings messes with the tone a lot. And I feel that a nice (not-open-string) tone might be necessary for such a piece. And the violoncello doesn't seem to sing in this piece.

Cheers!

I assume you're referring in part to vibrato? I happen to like sections of non-vibrato, as well as with vibrato in my music, but I realise lots of people aren't used to this. (open strings of course mean non vib.)

Thanks for listening though. It's up to the player to make the piece sing! Although yes, the piece *could* do more in the way of lyrical melodies. GPO in this case certainly doesn't let the violoncello sing.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Daniel

I assume you're referring in part to vibrato? I happen to like sections of non-vibrato, as well as with vibrato in my music, but I realise lots of people aren't used to this. (open strings of course mean non vib.)

Thanks for listening though. It's up to the player to make the piece sing! Although yes, the piece *could* do more in the way of lyrical melodies. GPO in this case certainly doesn't let the violoncello sing.

Thanks.

I'm referring in part to vibrato. But it's not just vibrato. Open strings just sustain their sound a lot (and they simply tend to sound awful), whereas you have much better control when you finger a string. Furthermore, non-vibrato in fingered strings can be achieved with the intruction 'senza vibrato', as you already know.

Would it be okay if I transcribe this for viola and play it?

I might make some edits to the senza vibrato sections... or if a note is stopped or open though.

I can record it for you Daniel...

Originally Posted by Corbin The Violist

Would it be okay if I transcribe this for viola and play it?

I might make some edits to the senza vibrato sections... or if a note is stopped or open though.

I can record it for you Daniel...

Yeah, sure, that'd be really cool!
In fact, I could re-do it slightly, for solo viola; there are a few bits I want to edit anyway. (And I can certainly alter any senza vib./open string bits according to what you want.)

For some reason, I can't load the mp3. Do you have a link to your soundclick page?

OK, now I was able to listen to it. There are a few spots where it might be helpful to put in some cautionary accidentals - like in bar 53 with the e natural. Also, you might tweak with the score to fit it neatly on four pages, since the last page only takes up two systems - you could even resize the music slightly or something. I've always hated the GPO single string sounds.. although regular midi is even worse! I do agree with you that this needs a live performance - since it can be quite dissonant in a few pages, melodically at least, it needs a performer who can give the phrases the breath they need to sound convincing - I do think that many of the leaps and phrases in here sound awkward only because a real person isn't playing them.
So I am confidant in saying that you should definitely have this performed so you can hear it as I'm sure you imagined it! Writing for a single string instrument is a challenge, one I have not attempted, but I think you did a good job here.