Courante in C major for Unaccompanied Cello

Hello everyone!

This is a courante in C major for solo cello. it is supposed to go together with the allemande I composed last month since I am trying to composer a whole suite.  It is in [:A:][:B:] binary form and 3/4 time. The first part is 16 measures long and modulates from the tonic, Cmaj, to the dominant Gmaj. Part B is 18 measures long and modulates once: Cmaj --> Dm --> Cmaj.

Any feedback, suggestion or comment is appreciated! Hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening!

I really enjoy your cello music, it captures the baroque feel and is really expressive. Looking at your score I notice some melodic intervals that may not be in the style but I could be wrong. A major 7th in bar one, a dim 5th in bar 2, a minor 7th that doesn't resolve downward but continues up in bar 3, another major 7th in bar 4. I thought of a solution to the awkward intervals which I've added here but its probably not the best solution possible. 

Nice Courante!  I'm looking forward to a Sarabande next?  Besides the remarks up above I would also mention some of my own nit-picks:  In m. 24 on the & of beat 3 you could change the G to an F to avoid a tritone with the C# in the next measure and it would also be a nice walk down to the E that's part of the chord structure in the next measure.  Likewise, on the & of beat 3 in m. 25 you could change the A to a Bb to make a stronger resolution to the A in the the next measure.  In the same vein, the Bb in m. 26, on the & of beat 3 could be an A to make a cool walk down from Bb to A to G in the next measure.  Of course you don't have to change these things as this is just my opinion.  This courante is fine as it is and you don't have to change anything.  It has the feel of a courante - only if it were up to me I would slow it down slightly to give it more the character of a dance (IMO).  Thanks for sharing!

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I really enjoy your cello music, it captures the baroque feel and is really expressive. Looking at your score I notice some melodic intervals that may not be in the style but I could be wrong. A major 7th in bar one, a dim 5th in bar 2, a minor 7th that doesn't resolve downward but continues up in bar 3, another major 7th in bar 4. I thought of a solution to the awkward intervals which I've added here but its probably not the best solution possible.

I am glad you enjoyed it DarrenEngland! 🙂 Regarding the intervals, I must say first that when I compose I rarely let many things guide me besides my ear. I leave most theoretical knowledge for the studying of others works or as a tool when some part sounds off. In spite of that, in this case, I think the intervals are common among baroque composers (at least, I believe Bach did use them in many of his pieces).

I think one of the reasons is that most of those rules are usually only applied in counterpoint and melodic exercises as a didactic method, but then they are often broken in non-didactic music (such as the augmented second, which is often found in pieces by Bach and others). However, in the case of one melodic line with such huge jumps, there is usually no need to justify the breaking of rules, since the melody can be considered to be composed of several lines. So, for example, the first jump from Do3 to Si3 would actually not be a jump, but rather a nothe in the bass (being Do3) and then a continuation of the main melody (the first Do4). The main melodic line would then be Do-Si-La-Re-Do-Si-La-Sol and both lower notes would be other voices.

However, as I said, I usually think like that only for justifying myself, since in the end most of it is done by ear (which, of course, will make my music wrong many times since my ears are not the best 😅). However, I think it is still useful to think in composite lines any time the melody line makes some high jumps. Your version of the beginning is also equally nice, by the way! But it is based in other motives which probably would make me have to change all the rest of the piece. Thank you for the comments and using them for creating a new version of the beginning! It made me check all the notes again and I found a few mistakes, actually, so I changed some bass notes.  

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Nice Courante!  I'm looking forward to a Sarabande next?  Besides the remarks up above I would also mention some of my own nit-picks:  In m. 24 on the & of beat 3 you could change the G to an F to avoid a tritone with the C# in the next measure and it would also be a nice walk down to the E that's part of the chord structure in the next measure.  Likewise, on the & of beat 3 in m. 25 you could change the A to a Bb to make a stronger resolution to the A in the the next measure.  In the same vein, the Bb in m. 26, on the & of beat 3 could be an A to make a cool walk down from Bb to A to G in the next measure.  Of course you don't have to change these things as this is just my opinion.  This courante is fine as it is and you don't have to change anything.  It has the feel of a courante - only if it were up to me I would slow it down slightly to give it more the character of a dance (IMO).  Thanks for sharing!

Thank you PaperComposer! I am glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 I will surely make the Sarabande, even though I am being quite busy lately so for a few months my composition speed will surely decrease, so I am not sure when will it be out. I am also afraid that the slow lyricism of the sarabande dance will clash with the robotic and mechanical computer sound library... so I do not expect the Sarabande to sound beautiful or lyrical I guess 😣.

Regarding the comments, as I said to DarrenEngland, I kinda use my ears to guide me (and, also, I am usually not afraid to use the tritone, and sometimes I find it beautiful). In this case I like the effect of the tritone and, even though I know the C# is creating a tension towards D which does not resolve until much later, I find this tension satisfying. Thanks to that tension, somehow, I feel all the measures between that C#3 until the next D3 as an extension of the dominant, and it creates an effect that I like. I tried out the other suggestion and that one sounded nice. However, it was making me change too many things afterwards so I left it as it was. Thank you for the suggestions!

10 hours ago, PaperComposer said:

This courante is fine as it is and you don't have to change anything.  It has the feel of a courante - only if it were up to me I would slow it down slightly to give it more the character of a dance (IMO).  Thanks for sharing!

Sorry, PaperComposer, I wanted to answer to that comment too and I totally forgot. I agree with you. It is true that in composing this suites I am not focusing on making them danceable since I am trying to give them more of a concert feeling. However, I also like it better at slow tempo, but when I slowed it down further I felt it kind of lost the characteristic fast running notes of the courantes. I think the danceable feeling could be given by letting the music breathe, which I could not accomplish with the notation software. As an example, check out this rendition of one of Bach courantes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T7s2toFVRM

This performer is my favourite for the Cello Suites by far. In this courante the tempo is actually quite fast, but the player kind of changes it freely and makes the music breathe which, in my opinion, makes the piece feel so much more alive and danceable (even though unconstant rhythm is actually a hinder for dancing anything 😅)

Really cool @JorgeDavid. I really enjoyed that. Keep on posting 😉.

2 minutes ago, Guillem82 said:

Really cool @JorgeDavid. I really enjoyed that. Keep on posting 😉.

I love the ritardando before the last statement. 

Thank you so much @Guillem82, really glad you liked it! 🙂 I am also glad you liked the ritardando because at first I had my doubts when I added it, but it seems it turned out to be quite effective!