Virtuoso Concert Pieces for Solo Cello

The intentions of these albums are quite simple: to produce extremely ‘useful pieces’ for the solo violoncello in a wide variety of twentieth century styles. It should be emphasised that the front title deliberately advocates that these are all concert and recital pieces and that is to be again endorsed now in these notes, but seeing that unfortunately the twentieth century as a whole produced a dearth of cello literature in the form of studies of different twentieth-century styles which could make worthy study for intermediate-advanced, music college and certainly professional levels also, these pieces are being considered as valuable contributions to contemporary cello playing and teaching, and all have received public performances by quite different kinds of cellists.

Each volume is a collection of five works in a quite consistent format. The first pieces in each volume are in twentieth-century classical styles but nearly always set within a traditional musical notation. The second and third pieces are in much more contemporary classical moods, and are rather more technically inventive allowing a more personal interpretation by the cellist with numerous contemporary musical effects, other notions of time and tempo, and frequent graphics present. The last two in each set are more popular works but always, it is hoped, with elegance and good taste. The fourth pieces are of lighter classical veins that include folk and ‘nationalistic’ elements, and the last work is where, above all, the popular-lighter music feeling shows itself most and where jazz swing rhythms are called for in varying degrees. So there are some fifteen works in all.

There are various reasons for which the composer was fully aware, in the compilation of these works, of the consequences that these contemporary volumes could produce. Firstly, one has to bear in mind that, in classical music, the solo unaccompanied cello repertoire notably suffered after the composition of the wonderful suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was almost 200 years before composers like Kodaly, Hindemith and Cassadò took the solo cello in concert seriously again - even generously allowing for changing styles and musical periods that has certainly been a cause of grave misfortune to the repertoire of this noble instrument, and where it still remains difficult to programme a solo cello recital but relatively easy to promote a piano recital. In addition, almost all of the standard cello ‘etudes’ date from the 18th and 19th centuries, and whilst it may be often unfair, they are regularly viewed as out-of-date and not relevant to contemporary musical styles by many of today’s younger generation. However many of the recent works that have been written especially for the solo cello by non-cellist composers in the last decades are either physically almost impossible for the majority of even ‘decent’ cellists or simply require so hours of study and cello practice (for usually only one or two performances) as not to be feasible. It is for these reasons, then, that these nice possible-to-play modern pieces could make an important impact. Whilst it should always be stated that they are concert pieces first and foremost, the cellists who have almost entirely relied on classical and romantic period studies to ‘form’ themselves as technicians may relish these new creations and seize upon them as contributing something absolutely positive to contemporary cello playing.

It should be obvious therefore that this publication should not be seen as a tutor or method book on cello playing, and neither is there any suggested order to master and perform these pieces, although it could well be sensible to group together several ‘like-minded ones’ in performance according to the type of musical concert being offered. All of the pieces are dedicated to cellists of well-varying nationalities (see the individual piece notes), but is hoped that there will not merely be ‘something for everybody’, but ‘much for all’!