James Ricci
Cello Octet
Duration: 8'
Instrumentation details:
1st violoncello
2nd violoncello
3rd violoncello
4th violoncello
5th violoncello
6th violoncello
7th violoncello
8th violoncello
Cello Octet
Sample pages
Audio preview
Work introduction
This work, composed in 2015, starts off with a slow contrapuntal introduction rising from the low register of the cello while gradually adding more voices into the texture as it rises higher. The introduction is labeled "Darkness into Light." The following section is a rhythmic, frenetic scherzo of sorts with fast alternating arco and pizzicato gestures. This section repeats and then builds in development until it reaches a climax with a contrasting tutti open-string harmonic. The final section - marked "con Dolore" - is slow, dark, quasi-modal, and conclusive. It returns to the mood of the opening introduction but with an entirely different musical character. My Cello Octet is about eight minutes in duration. - JR