Rondo for Cello and Piano B-flat-Major

Happy new year to all!I am posting a rondo for Cello and piano in B-flat-Major, its about 5 minutes long, I hope, you will like it.Nice GreetingsP.

Rondo for Cello and Piano B-flat-Major

Wow, that was... odd.

I will just give you my honest thoughts at every part:

* The opening was incredibly! corny, I almost stopped listening after that. But then, in measures 5-9 you shot me right in the head with a bazooka and not in a very satisfying way (can't imagine that ever being satisfying though). I didn't like this part.

* Part m10-18 was not very convincing to me, but that was also to blame on the theme from m1-4.

* Then, the m19-25 part worked very well for me, not in the context of the entire piece but just those measures on their own; I liked them very much! It made me wonder where this writing ability you do seem to possess has gone in the other parts?

* m28-31 dropped the flow of the previous part quite harshly imo. It's m29 that's doing that. Maybe you could smoothen things out? m29 after m28 there is fine as far as I am concerned, but it feels awkward when I hear the measures before m28 and then the m28-29 transition. I personally would have loved for that part (m19-27) to 'die out', more or less withering away. Once it has you can more effectively introduce m28-29 there.

* m30-53 reruns the themes, ofcourse for rondo formality.

* m54 made me raise my eyebrow. Why was that there? I don't see the added value.

* m57 Ouch! Made my brain flinch for a second. What was that about? And what about the progression in the followup measure? (m57-58 and m63-64). You might want to take another look into that. It doesnt seem quite right, especially when considering the rest of the piece those harmonies seem out of style.

As for the notation:

* Piano: Most seems fine to me. Lot of runs though, a LOT of runs hehe.

* Cello: You would want to write the cello part in the C-clef (not the G-clef) when it goes into the higher registers. The measures where you should definitely do that are m5 (2nd half), m6, m17 (last 2 notes), m18, m37, m39 (last 3 notes), m44-50 (or even starting from m42 for consitency), m51-53, m55-56 (btw, are those doublestops feasible?), m61-62, m64-75.

I am not sure if you would ever want to write in G-clef for cello, maybe someone here who plays the cello could help?

I hope you don't feel I am just bashing your head on the curb here, but after listening to a piece for too long you might not be able to see its flaws as well as you ought to. I know I have the same problem at times, and others do too.

Thanks for sharing!

I don't play cello.

But I do know cello only goes into tenor clef. That's C clef (with C second line, I believe).

I don't play cello.

But I do know cello only goes into tenor clef. That's C clef (with C second line, I believe).

I asked a Cellist about this and he said anything to avoid excessive ledger lines is preferred. The Cello's range extends above the the treble clef so it makes sense to use it for really high register sections but obviously for any notes from middle C to the B or C above it, it is preferrable to use tenor clef as this is more familiar to your average cellist. The cellist in question is a professional though so is used to adapting to these kinds of situations. Your average cellist may not be able to read treble clef well or even at all.

I meant "cello's don't read higher than tenor clef"

Asked of several university colleagues. They seemed to indicate that it was very much standard to NOT write in treble clef. I'd imagine you go into tenor clef and then just add "8va"

-

Good point. I guess this is one of those "How professional/good a group are you writing for" questions.

There are a lot of things I'd say to not do for my area of professional performance expertise (brass), things I myself may be able to do or people in the TOP of their field can do and currently do. Are you writing for them, or a standard competent amateur?

-Pete

[edit]

Well, in the case of this piece, it's moot. Tenor clef without any 8va markings should suffice perfectly.

I agree with you Peter. In most instances, we aren't lucky enough to get our work played by top players so accessibility becomes huge in the compositional process. I think my argument stems from the fact I've just written a work in which the cello part is in treble clef for some sections because it is to be played by said cellist so I know it will pose no problems to him and in his own words he would prefer it to be written that way but if I didn't know who the cellist was going to be I would almost certainly use the tenor clef with 8va markings.

I feel I should discuss the piece a bit after all this and I have to say I almost entirely agree with Roy. There is a blandness about the chord progression used which makes the piece sound corny in places and although you have listed it as a contemporary piece, it doesn't have a very contemporary sound to my ears. Then when you do attempt to change things, it feels as if it is too soon. You need to prepare the listener for new material by slowly buiding it in while slowly stripping down the previous material to give a smooth transition.