RHAPSODIC BOWING for 8 Celli
Frank Corcoran
There is here not only rhapsodic bowing but also rhapsodic plonking and plinking, pizzicati and ( col legno ) striking and all the myriad colour possibilities of one cello or of eight. – Quasi a chest of viols for today.
I wrote this short essay in string choirs and cello colours for the Cello Section of the N.S.O. it is in one mighty movement. Of eight minutes. The chthonic opening wooden thumps soon give way to arco lines and melodies,high rapture, rhapsodies ascending and descending.
Moving lines bisect each othe , they quiver and announce, until all gives way to the great sarabande rhythm of Bach’s C – Major Solo Cello Suite .
After the second Bach shadow the rhapsodic bowing becomes 8-voiced rapture.
Before the high
arpeggioed harmonics take over completely in the end section comes the repeated ” passacaglia ” bass with two cello as the work streams
to its tender end.
Ancient Greek : ” RHAPSOIDEIN” = ” To stitch together songs.”