When

Abis, Amoret

About the work

‘When’ was composed for CoMA Open Score 2013. It was written as an homage to my grandfather, who was a passionate amateur cellist. As a fireman in the Second World War his hearing was badly damaged, yet despite this he remained determined to live a life of music. I wanted to capture an essence of some of the poignant, yearning, romantic music for cello that he had loved; the Catalan Song of the Birds as played by Pablo Casals, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, The Swan by Saint-Saens. Elements from these pieces are woven within the material. The cello makes use of scordatura (the lowest string is tuned down a semitone), creating harmonic implications between the open strings around which the piece is composed.

Origin

Call for pieces for Cello Concerto, 2013

Recording

The sample audio is from a recording by London Sinfonietta conducted by Gregory Rose on the album Open Score released by NMC. The album (NMC DL228) is available to purchase here.

Anthology

The score for this work is included in the anthology Open Score: Contemporary Music for All (ISMN: 979-0-9002363-0-2) published by CoMA in 2016. More details

Downloads

This work is available as a digital download. Upon purchase, you will receive a link to download PDF files and a licence that will entitle you to legally print copies of the sheet music. Nothing will be posted to you. For more information see our terms and conditions page.