Minuet and Trio in F major for unaccompanied Cello

Hello everyone!

This is a Minuet and Trio for Cello that I composed these days while studying the Minuet and Trio form. The Minuet is in F major and the Trio in F minor. Both of them follow the practice form of [:A:][:BA':] with 8 (A) + 16 measures (BA'). I decided to compose a Minuet for the Cello because of my admiration for Bach Cello Suites. I do not play Cello and it is my first composition for it, so any feedback related to playability or idiomatic composition is appreciated!

I tried to make sure all the double, triple and quadruple stops were possible to play (I used Piston's Orquestration book and a Cello fingering chart) but, since I have never played the Cello, there might be some mistakes or unidiomatic parts. I also tried to make the Noteperformer midi Cello sound as natural as possible since solo string midi libraries tend to sound too robotic, specially when playing chords.

Hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening!

Very nice!  Quite enjoyable!  There is just one thing that bothers me in measures 5 and 53 when you have the humongous quadruple stop on the weak beat.  I'm not a cellist but it seems like it should be playable to me - that's not the problem.  To me it just sounds like an unresolved accent on a weak beat.  That chord on beat 3 makes me expect another equally huge quadruple stop on the downbeat of the next measure (or an even greater one since it would be happening on a strong beat this time).  Other than that I like the contrasts you create in this piece.  The F minor trio is quite a bit heavier than the minuet.

33 minutes ago, JorgeDavid said:

c. 25: Triple stop with Ab2-C3-F3. I am not sure whether the hand can reach both the Ab2 in fourth string and the F3 from second string.

c. 28: Double stops with one sustained note while the other one changes.

As mentioned, I am not a cellist, but it does seem to me like these chords are totally within the realm of possibility on the cello.  In m. 25 the Ab would be played on the C string (I guess you're worried about the distance the cellist might need to reach here - I don't know about that), the C on the G string and the F on the D string.  Also, in m.28 you only have two lines and they are not moving at the same time which makes the players job easier.  The top line is played on the D string while the other is on the G string.

40 minutes ago, JorgeDavid said:

I did not mark bowing since I though it might do more harm than good. Any advice about when or how often should I mark it would be helpful too.

In the above mentioned measures I talked about the quadruple stops on the weak beat - usually the weak beats of the measure would be played as an up bow (as far as I know) in preparation for the downbeat which would be a down bow, but I am not sure how practical it is to play a quadruple stop as an up bow.

I enjoyed listening!  Thanks for the music!

Thank you so much for your comment PaperComposer! 🙂

You are right about that third beat quadruple stop chord. Not only was it stressed because of the quadruple stop, but also because it was a Vadd2 chord. Somehow I feel it sounded good but I was not sure how to handle it after its presentation. I tried several options and since none of them satisfied me I changed it into a single note melodic contourn. Thank you for the observation!

Thank you aswell for the comments about the playability of the Cello, I am glad those parts are playable and I do not need to change them! I had heard before about the up-bow/down-bow protocol for weak and strong beats but I had forgotten about it. since it is the standard way of bowing, I guess it is okay to leave those bowings unmarked.

Thank you so much and I am glad you liked it!

I can hear Bach's flavour there, very nice piece of music. Congratulations!

Un saludo desde Barcelona!

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I can hear Bach's flavour there, very nice piece of music. Congratulations!

Un saludo desde Barcelona!

Thank you so much for your comment Guillem82! Yes, Bach was an inspiration both for deciding to make a cello solo piece and for the piece structure in itself. I spent many hours analizing, listening and singing over the Bach Cello Suites and still I am not even close to inventing the melodies he makes 😅, but one step at a time!

Un saludo Guillem, y muchas gracias! 🙂

Bello! You took the simple minuet and trio form and made it so expressive! Its wonderful.

Wow! Good job. Solo cello has the potential to be really expressive, with the rich variety of timbres available from the different strings.

I preferred the Trio to the Minuet, because its drama held my interest better.

Technique wise, the last beat of bar 15 is awkward but playable. It won't sound so tight. Also, the triple stop in bar 16 is unplayable with standard tuning.

Good work!

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Bello! You took the simple minuet and trio form and made it so expressive! Its wonderful.

Thank you so much DarrenEngland! I am glad you liked it! I see you posted some new minuet over here right? I will check it out as soon as I can! 🙂

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Wow! Good job. Solo cello has the potential to be really expressive, with the rich variety of timbres available from the different strings.

I preferred the Trio to the Minuet, because its drama held my interest better.

Technique wise, the last beat of bar 15 is awkward but playable. It won't sound so tight. Also, the triple stop in bar 16 is unplayable with standard tuning.

You are right! I spotted some mistakes these days and that was one of them, but I have been quite busy and could not finish and upload the corrected version yet :S The first time I did not realize that the G open string was the same one needed for playing the C3. I will update with the corrected version as soon as I finish it making the changes! Thank you for pointing it out!

In bar 15 there is a mistake (I just realized), there is a E written but its actually a C3 (which, makes the bar even more ackward I believe...) I think it is still playable but I agree it is not really idiomatic for the Cello. I am thinking on how to modify it but, as always, once I compose something any change that I make to it sounds weird to my ears 😅 so I am still trying to modify it.

Thank you for commenting and I am glad you liked it! 🙂