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SCHUBERT – Cradle Song – SIX CELLOS (easier)

Other Identification:
I base my transcription of this piece on an existing arrangement – one which Adam Carse made for violin, cello and piano back at the beginning of the 20th century, and almost surely no longer in print. What attracted me to this music was its structural simplicity and yet so full of charm.

Movements or sections:
The structure is indeed easy for anyone to follow; an eight-bar melody which itself might be divided into two phrases of four bars each, followed by two bars of a mini-Codetta which gives a ‘neutral’ feeling or perhaps one descriptive to the title – that of falling asleep! At letter A the process repeats itself – so one might say we encounter a second verse of those eight bars with its codetta at the end. And at letter B this happens for the third time. The music draws to a close with the codetta. What I have tried to do is to slightly vary the ‘orchestration’ each time so there is always something new to attract your attention.

Instrumentation:
SEXTET OF SIX CELLOS
Arranged by David Johnstone

2 PDFs:
1] – General Score
2] – All individual parts

Approximate difficulty:
EASY – TO – MEDIUM
No part goes beyond the ‘A’ octave note to the open A-string, though small grace notes will take one into 6th position – however, these are note vital to the sense of the music and may be omitted if preferred. The first two cello parts share the majority of the principal melodic material, but by no means all of it. Cello 3 comes to the fore in the small ‘codettas’ whilst cello 4 subtly adds secondary melodic phrasing frequently too. Both the Cellos 5 and 6 play in first position only, and both parts are without forward or backward extensions. Cello 5 contains a few arpeggiated figures later in the piece, so is a little bit more difficult than Cello 6, which in spite of largely playing the bass notes should be as tender as possible so as to float upwards the music towards a most heavenly atmosphere!

Dedicatee of this presentation (if applicable):
Originally arranged for the Boulder Cello Project (Colorado, U.S.A.)

Links (Audio – Visual), and known performances given by:
Franz SCHUBERT – Cradle Song, for Six Cellos

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