The purpose of this post is to share a recording of new composition of mine for solo cello.
Whenever I get to play around with a cello or think about writing for it, I instinctively seem to see it as some sort of ‘orchestral’ version of the bass guitar – an instrument that I am more familiar with. As such, this music was composed to represent the exploratory, experimental ‘bass-like’ mentality I naturally have when thinking about the instrument.
When performed, this piece should sound like someone ‘discovering’ the cello through the lens of their own experience of playing the bass guitar. The performer should convey a sense of naïve, experimental investigation throughout, and should feel free to hesitate, become frustrated, and embrace any issues associated with exploring an alien, yet strangely familiar instrument.
The score can be downloaded here.
The following is a recording of the track (with animated score), performed by Edinburgh-based, Polish cellist Justyna Jablonska.
Dr Zack Moir
Dr Zack Moir is a Lecturer in Popular Music at Edinburgh Napier University. He has a strong research interest in popular music pedagogy, music in higher education, musical improvisation and popular music composition. Zack is also an active musician and composer performing in ensembles and as a soloist, internationally. Zack is one of the editors of the 'Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education', and the 'Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Education: Perspectives and Practices'.
I really like this, though I wouldn’t have been able to follow it without the animated score. I wonder whether listeners who do not know anything about the bass guitar would understand it without your explanation. The use of glissandi and striking effects lend smooth and piquant textures. The use of the fermata effectively suggests a tentative, halting unfamiliarity with the cello, an unfamiliarity which becomes partially resolved. There is almost a kind of triumph intermingled with frustration in those final bars!