1900-1949 Solo Cello & Technical Studies

Question 1

Name 6 works for solo cello ca.1900-1949.

Answer 1

1. Zoltán Kodály: Sonata for solo cello (1915)
2. Max Reger: Suite No.1 in G for solo cello (1915)
3. Paul Hindemith: Sonata for solo cello (1923)
4. Gaspar Cassadó: Suite for solo cello (1926)
5. George Perle: Hebrew Melodies for Unaccompanied Cello (1945)
6. Hans Werner Henze: Serenade for solo cello (1949)

Question 2

Piece: solo cello work by Kodály.

Answer 2

Zoltán Kodály: Sonata for solo cello (1915)

• It is among the most significant works for solo cello written since Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites. It contains influences of Debussy and Bartók, as well as the inflections and nuances of Hungarian folk music.
• The sonata was written in 1915 but its premiere was delayed due to World War I. It was premiered by Jenő Kerpely, the cellist of the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet, which had premiered the first four string quartets by Bartók.
• The piece wavers between B minor and B major, and Kodály adjusted the two lower strings down a semitone (scordatura) to better evoke these tonalities.
• In seeking his (B minor/major) goal, Kodály even has the lower two strings tuned down a semitone from normal (giving the configuration B-F sharp-D-A), notating them further as a transposing part.
• Inwardly, the three movements are tightly linked by recurring motifs and intervals. Outwardly, however, the impression is more random, a pageant of rhapsody and change, of sudden contrasts and pensive reflections, all exquisitely detailed in rhythm, phrasing, inflection and dynamics.
• Epic counterpoint and arresting gesture, recitatives, songs and dances, drones, shepherd pipes, zithers and cimbalons, veritably a whole gypsy orchestra, make up Kodály’s vibrant dreamland.

Question 3

Piece: solo cello work by Reger.

Answer 3

Max Reger: Suite No.1 in G for solo cello (1915)

• Reger embarked on a series of works for solo cello, a process of ‘musical chastity’, as he put it, designed to focus his resources. The three Solo Suites share a profound affinity with those of Bach but illustrate Reger’s concern for gravity and intensity rather than a preoccupation with dance patterns.
• the “cleansing” of his musically overabundant possibilities by limiting himself to one solo instrument. It is in this limitation that the master reveals himself. And what could have been more appropriate than to return to the “beginning and end of all music,” as Reger never tired of pointing out throughout his life - to Bach?
• Even the Prelude opening the Suite No.1 in G, while originating in Bach, soon transcends him. The movement proves to be a construct in free sonata-form, with a recapitulation and a compacting of motifs which, despite its apparent simplicity (double stops are only seldom necessary), is all Reger, not only in terms of modulation but also in the structuring of melody.
• The intimate, deeply earnest Adagio (distantly related to a sarabande) resembles in its form the first movement; accordingly strong cyclical elements are at work here as well.
• “Musically I cannot but think polyphonically”, Reger is said to have once remarked, and thus the fugue of the First Suite shows the master at work.
• Hugo Becker received the dedication for the first Cello Suite in G major

Question 4

Piece: solo cello work by Hindemith.

Answer 4

Paul Hindemith: Sonata for solo cello (1923)

• Maurits Frank gave the première of the Sonata for Solo Cello, dedicated to him.
• This is among the most demanding (whether for the performer or the listener) of Hindemith’s chamber works, for all that its indebtedness to the Cello Suites of Bach is never in doubt.
• The opening movement makes for a tense and even aggressive prelude, focusing on some highly intense and demanding passagework.
• There follows an intermezzo whose expressive restraint and lilting rhythm manage to evince a degree of humor
• then by a slow movement which forms the centerpiece of the work in every respect, its high-flown eloquence and questing culmination setting the music on an altogether more elevated plane.
• After this the briefest of scherzos provides a chattering and almost inane interlude
• the finale, with its stabbing accents and general air of sardonic humor, makes for a curt conclusion to a work which takes no hostages in its evoking of Baroque precedent.

Question 5

Piece: solo cello work by Cassadó.

Answer 5

Gaspar Cassadó: Suite for solo cello (1926)

• The Suite consists of three dance movements
  
  • Preludio-Fantasia - a Zarabanda: The first movement quotes Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, and the famous flute solo from Maurice Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé.
• Sardana: This movement is a traditional dance from Catalonia.
• Intermezzo e Danza Finale - a Jota.
• This Suite was popularized by the great cellist János Starker.

Question 6

Piece: solo cello work by Perle.

Answer 6

George Perle: Hebrew Melodies for Unaccompanied Cello (1945)
- Perle wrote: “The piece was composed in 1945 in Okazaki, Japan, where I was with the first American troops to occupy the country after the war. Because I didn’t have many qualifications other than being able to play the piano, I was given the job of chaplain’s assistant, and happened to be assigned to a rabbi who was a great lover of music. This rabbi, and the religious services in which I assisted him, provided the inspiration and source material for the Hebrew Melodies. Although I later studied the formal elements of Jewish liturgical composition, it was in Japan that I first became intrigued with the idea of incorporating ancient Hebrew melodic fragments within a totally chromatic, contemporary musical language. At the time, this was for me a completely new way of composing.”

Question 7

Name 4 technical studies ca.1900-1949.

Answer 7

• Otakar Ševčík: 40 Variations for solo cello, Op.3 (ca.1901)
• David Popper: High School of Cello Playing for solo cello (1901-1905)
• Alwin Schroeder: 170 Foundation Studies for Violoncello, Vol.1-3 (1906)
• Louis Feuillard: Daily Exercises for solo cello (ca.1920)

Question 8

Who was David Popper?

Answer 8

David Popper (1843–1913)

• His best known compositions are his Requiem for 3 Cellos and Orchestra (1891), High School of Cello Playing for solo cello (1901-1905), Elfentanz (Dance of the Elves) for cello and piano (ca.1890), and Spinnlied (Spinning Song) for cello and piano (ca.1890)
• Closely acquainted with Franz Liszt.
• Among his notable students were Adolf Schiffer (teacher of János Starker).
• He and Jenő Hubay performed chamber music on more than one occasion with Johannes Brahms, including the premiere of Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 3 in 1886.

Question 9

Name 1 American composer of works for solo cello ca.1900-1949.

Answer 9

George Perle

• Hebrew Melodies for Unaccompanied Cello (1945)
• Cello Sonata for solo cello (1947)

Question 10

Name 1 Hungarian composer of works for solo cello ca.1900-1949.

Answer 10

Zoltán Kodály: Sonata for solo cello (1915)

Question 11

Name 3 German composers of works for solo cello ca.1900-1949.

Answer 11

• Max Reger: Suite No.1 in G for solo cello (1915)
• Paul Hindemith: Sonata for solo cello (1923)
• Hans Werner Henze: Serenade for solo cello (1949)

Question 12

Name 1 Spanish composer of works for solo cello ca.1900-1949.

Answer 12

Gaspar Cassadó: Suite for solo cello (1926)

Question 13

Piece: work for solo cello by Henze.

Answer 13

Hans Werner Henze: Serenade for solo cello (1949)

• Henze’s music incorporates neo-classicism, jazz, the twelve-tone technique, serialism, and some rock or popular music. Henze made an international reputation as a composer for the theatre, contriving to renew the genre in ways which are often as startlingly innovative as they are disarmingly simple. He is prolific in the extreme, uniquely so for a contemporary composer, in a variety of genres.
• The Serenade for solo cello is an early work which, despite its deceptively light mood, is profoundly original. Stylistically it acknowledges 18th century dance forms before saluting the Tango of our own century.
• 9 movements which are a total of about 7 minutes long.
• 1. Adagio rubato: Dotted rhythms pervade through the movement. Melodic contour is disjunct with many leaps and some half step motion.
• 2. Poco Allegretto: This movement is entirely pizzicato. Techniques include rolled chords, slurred pizz across strings (both ascending and descending), left hand pizzicato while bowing.
• 3. Pastorale: Dotted rhythms in a triple feeling which revisit the intervallic unpredictability of the first movement.
• 4. Andante con moto, rubato: 3 instances of high plucked thirds (B-flat and G) interspersed with arco in a leaping rhapsodic character. Difficult perfect 4th and perfect 5th double stops.
• 5. Vivace: Energetic spiccato with many quick leaps in register. Middle section is more lyrical, but maintains the leaping shape of the main material. Returns to the beginning material at the end in a piano dynamic. Dissonant triple stops (E-C-Eflat)
• 6. Tango: Traditional dotted tango rhythm. Quick changes between pizzicato and arco. Some left hand pizzicato. Many double and triple stops. Middle section is more lyrical with sudden mf’s and quick diminuendos. Ends on a natural harmonic.
• 7. Allegro marciale: Heavy march with many double stops, and sudden dynamic changes. Ends with the march fading into the distance.
• 8. Allegretto: Dissonant but playful gestures open the movement, and are juxtaposed by agitated dotted-rhythm double stops. Ends with a sudden subito piano artificial harmonic.
• 9. Menuett: Triple and quadruple double stops combined with richochet bowings alternate with lyrical quick ascending leaps.