Unfold: Sequence for solo cello
This thirteen-minute work by Don Banks was recorded alongside the Kreutzer Quartet’s Unfold album. Time limits kept the track off that CD, so it appears here as a separate release.
Banks’ Sequence for solo cello was commissioned by the 66 Group in Cardiff and first performed by George Isaac in 1967. The form is clear and direct.
An opening lento sets out the principal motifs. The allegro that follows develops them, with ad lib timed passages that set dramatic, virtuosic writing against slow plainchant. The second section extends the plainchant idea through a series of slow, evenly spaced pitches. Between each ‘Canto,’ as Banks calls them, come episodes that explore a single technique: sul ponticello, pizzicato, sul tasto, col legno.
Those techniques are never used in isolation. The move into and out of pizzicato matters as much as pizzicato itself. The opening circles the four open strings without being confined to those pitches. A short coda gathers the earlier material.
Artists
Neil Heyde
Neil Heyde is the cellist of the Kreutzer Quartet. On Move he appears as performer and producer in Australian chamber repertoire, including a substantial solo cello work issued beside the quartet’s album Unfold.
Don Banks
Don Banks (1923–1980) was an Australian composer of concert, jazz and commercial music. Serial craft, electronics and a lifelong pull toward jazz shaped chamber works, concertos and scores central to mid-century Australian modernism.
Tracks
- Sequence for solo cello Don Banks 13:32
Performer
Where to listen
Unfold: Sequence for solo cello is available for streaming through Apple Music. It can also be purchased through the iTunes Music Store.
Unfold: Sequence for solo cello is an online-only release. It has never been released on any physical media.
Product details
- Catalogue number
- MD 3381
- List price
- $10.00 AUD
- Total playing time
- 13 minutes 32 seconds
- Release date
- 25 Jan 2015
- Musical work
copyright - © 2015 Move Records
- Sound recording
copyright - ℗ 2015 Move Records
- Category
- Classical
- Genres
- Contemporary Classical, Modernist Classical
- Barcode
- EAN 9314574338126
Related recordings
Unfold
The Kreutzer Quartet, long regarded as one of Europe’s most dynamic and inventive ensembles, turns here to four Australian string quartets from the 1960s and 1970s.
Jewel
Australian gems for violin and piano. Jewel gathers works by some of Australia’s finest composers, among them Peter Sculthorpe, Margaret Sutherland, Don Banks and Vincent Plush.