CELLOWISE is an exciting new collection of arrangements from the popular classics. The standard is from Grade 3 upwards and included are Bach Badinerie, Handel Sarabande, Haydn Gipsy Rondo, Gossec Gavotte and Tambourin, Brahms Hungarian Dance and other favourites with attached CD of top quality performances making a pleasant and varied recital programme both to listen to and of course to play.

Cellowise is featured on the 2014 Bauhinia Cup String Competition in Hong Kong and is on the current syllabuses of Trinity College London, the Musik-PrüfungsKommission in Vienna and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, 2015-2018.

FOOTNOTE TO CONTENTS

Originally a folk-dance from Medieval Spain, the Sarabande became the spiritual centre-point of the 18th. Century dance suite, and well-known to cellists through the Bach Suites.

The Badinerie is a musical haiku, stunning in its precision and economy of means and like a poem condenses much meaning and expression into few words.

Sir Yehudi Menuhin once called the "Erbarme Dich" solo the most beautiful piece of music ever written for the violin. This poignant duet for voice and obligato is about remorse, betrayal and the universal theme of suffering. It is one of the centre-pieces of the St. Matthew Passion and is sung after Peter has denied Christ, betraying him to the authorities and to his Crucifixion.

Gavotte and Tambourin. These two Dances reflect the political opposites of the French Revolution - one a popular dance for partying and celebration, the other more courtly and considered a favourite of Marie Antoinette.

Rondo all'Ongarese and Hungarian Dance.
Hungarian Folk music is fiery and impassioned with virtuoso techniques of embellishment and improvisation. Haydn and Brahms incorporated these elements into Classical forms.

Like other Romantic and early-Romantic composers (Mendelssohn and Schubert) Brahms was attracted to Scotland as a wild and beautiful country of myth and legend. The melody which moves hauntingly through the Intermezzo is a Scottish Cradle-song. At the beginning of the music Brahms quotes a line from Lady Anne Bothwell's lament.

Cellowise is currently on the Royal Irish Academy of Music Strings Syllabus 2012-2014 for Grade 5.