Soliloquy for Solo Cello

This was originally intended for a competition, the last of a suite of movements. Each movement had to contain music that was somehow amalgamated in the last movement. Thus it was written first to be able to choose motifs from it for the other movements.

A few phrases are deliberately written "sul pont" and others "sul tasto". The suite as a whole was never completed. 

The date on the MP3 refers to the day I rendered it.

Any comments would be most gratefully received - and thank you for listening. 

Interesting, beatiful from the beginning to the end.

Thank you for your kind words. Most appreciated. 

Very complex and enigmatic. I love the large jumps at the beginning and the runs up interesting chords.

Many thanks for your comment. Encouraging me to finish the suite after all.

Don't I just love the versatility of the cello. Thankfully I have an acquaintance who's given me much guidance on writing for it. This piece was through-composed though some motifs recur for reasons I said in the o/p. 

Just as an aside, I'm still blown over by Villa-Lobos' Fantasia-Concertante for Orchestra of Cellos - 32 of them! 

Thank you for uploading this. I would love to see the score to see exactly what is going on. However, from what I hear, this is an impressive work which deserves your finishing touches. Thanks again.

Hi Markus,

Thank you for your comment and for listening. Sorry I haven't got back sooner but the site was down.

I can post the score but it’s a tarted up version drawn from the DAW which is too literal for its own good! So it comes with problems like it doesn’t allow clef changes within a bar; it doesn’t deal with tuplets at all well so when I don’t comply with the grid it gives all kinds of small-value notes. And it can’t seem to get dotted notes exactly right (here and there).

I have a printed, marked copy aided by a cellist friend but I’d have to photograph that and have no easy way of forming a pdf.

However it should be possible to see what’s going on…I hope it's good enough. [Edit] With a piece like this I'd grant the performer scope for interpretation so not every nuance is marked in.

Thanks Quinn. That certainly helps!

I suppose you might be a cellist, given you have composed for this instrument. This is a entirely different style of music from which I am used to. Though it is fascinating to not only listen to but also to see how it looks on a stave.

I am curious how you go about you work... do you approach the piece with a particularity structure in mind, or do you allow the music to take you on a journey (i.e. continued improvisation)?

Alas, no cellist. I play the viola (badly – about grade 6). But I absolutely love the cello - it is SO expressive an instrument - and have had a couple of lesser demanding pieces played by the person who commented on the score. I still write my finished scores by hand so maybe it's time I got some notation software.

How I work? Closer to your second notion though I’d call it through-composed. It starts with ideas and motifs sometimes in my head but anyway I use pencil and paper to jot ideas and try them at the piano. I’m fairly hopeless at melody and look on solos to try to get better. My efforts with structure (as in Sonata form) rarely work.  I'll watch out for some of your work.

Again, thank you for listening.

I love cello!! Its great, thank you for sharing this. Could be used for a film/tv track. Suspenseful, curious, creeping, alarming... discovery

Thank you for your kind comment, Jim. Good that it made sense to you. I've thought of it choreographed in a modern way. Never wondered about film!

Thanks for listening.

:)