Trying to find unaccompanied cello suites that aren’t by J. S. Bach? Look no further.
Cello Suites Beyond Bach
Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello remain among the most beloved and frequently performed works in the cello repertoire. They have inspired and continue to influence generations of composers to create their own unaccompanied suites. This month, I’m sending you the third set of my digital postcards about these fascinating works—some well-known, some composed recently, all worth exploring.
If you’re eager to study unaccompanied cello suites in depth, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be teaching select suites this summer at the Bethany Beach Cellofest. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or dedicated amateur, this is a fantastic opportunity to work on these pieces in a supportive, immersive setting. Stay tuned for the full summer repertoire list coming soon!
Want even more unaccompanied cello music? I invite you to explore my past series featuring Asian composers, Black composers, women composers, and Hispanic and Latino/Latina composers, or browse all of my postcards.
Postcard #1 – Suite pour Violoncello Solo, Op. 76, by Alexander Tcherepnin
- Title: Suite pour Violoncello Solo, Op. 76
- Composer: Alexander Tcherepnin (21 January 1899 — 29 September 1977)
- Year Composed: 1946
- Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
- Movements: 4
- Duration: 6:30
- Number of Pages: 4
- Number of Measures: the opening is unmeasured and followed by a 10 bar section, 50, 21, 72
- Tempo: quarter = 80; quarter = 96; eighth =42; quarter = 104
- Difficulty Level: advanced
- Highest Position Reached: thumb, 5th, thumb, thumb
- Technique: unmeasured, 2/8, 3/8, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/4, 7/4, and 8/4 time signatures; bass, tenor, and treble clefs; harmonics, grace notes, pizzicato, and left-hand pizzicato; triple and quadruple stops
- Publisher: Editions Durand
- Where to Purchase: Sheet Music Plus
- Cost of Score*: $8.79
Recordings
Listen to Dr. Yuriy Leonovich’s live audio recording.
Or watch this YouTube video by Brannon Cho:
Program Notes
Alexander Tcherepnin’s Suite for Solo Cello, Op. 76, is a concise, 6-minute work that blends Eastern and Western musical idioms. The suite is structured in four movements: an improvisatory piece evoking the Chinese bowed instrument erhu, a dance inspired by Japanese koto music, a Russian-influenced lullaby, and a vibrant finale emulating the Chinese pipa. For more details, please refer to Dr. Yuri Leonovich’s detailed introduction.
Cellist’s Guide
This suite uses the pentatonic scale, as opposed to the usual heptatonic scales in Western classical pieces. The first movement is an exercise in rhapsodic and legato playing. The left hand climbs gradually into thumb position, including false harmonics along the way. The second movement remains in the lower positions, with a focus on ricochet and staccato bowing. The third movement is a beautiful etude, consisting of legato double stops in the lower positions. Due to the range of the double stops, thumb position is necessary. The fourth movement stays predominantly in the lower part of the instrument and includes sautillé bowing and rapid strumming.
Postcard #2 – Suite for Violoncello Solo, Op. 15, by Ilse Fromm-Michaels
This second selection is a hidden gem that is rarely performed and would make a fantastic addition to any cellist’s repertoire. German pianist and composer Ilse Fromm-Michaels launched her career as a concert pianist around age 20 (though she had been composing since age 8). According to her son, clarinettist Jost Michaels, she first showed a preference for playing pieces by contemporary musicians, such as Pfitzner, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Bartók and Kodály; some of this influence is reflected in her Suite. After suffering great hardship before and during WWII, she mainly shifted her focus to teaching piano starting in the late 1940s. In 1959, she was the first woman elected to the ‘Freie Akademie der Künste’ (Free Academy of the Arts) in Hamburg.
Composition details
- Title: Suite for Violoncello Solo, Op. 15 (1931)
- Composer: Ilse Fromm-Michaels (30 December 1888 – 22 January 1986)
- Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
- Movements: Prelude, Boureé, Gavotte, Aria, Gigue
- Duration of Work: (Prelude 5’), (Boureé 2:30), (Gavotte 2:50), (Aria 4:35), (Gigue 2:50)
- Number of Measures: 37, 40, 64, 26, 44
- Number of Pages: 9
- Tempo: quarter = 108-116
- Difficulty Level: see techniques employed for each movement (below)
- Highest Position Reached: see techniques employed for each movement (below)
- Techniques Employed:
- Prelude – 6/4 time signature; bass, tenor & treble clefs; accidentals; a few notes in thumb position – high intermediate level / low advanced
- Boureé – 4/4 time signature; bass clef,; triplets; one quintuplet; accidentals; 1st-6th positions – intermediate level
- Gavotte – 4/4 time signature; bass and treble clefs; triplets; quadruple stops; pizzicato; accidentals; 1st-5th positions – intermediate level
- Aria – 3/2 time signature; bass and treble clefs; triplets; grace notes; accidentals – low advanced level
- Gigue – 6/8 time signature, bass, tenor, and treble clefs; accidentals – advanced level
- Publisher: Sikorski
- Where to Purchase Score: all-sheetmusic.com
- Cost of Score*: 13,00 €
Recording of Three of the Movements
Program Notes
“Ilse Fromm-Michaels was born in Hamburg and showed musical talent at an early age. She studied music in Berlin, first at the Hochschule für Musik with Heinrich van Eyken for composition and with Marie Bender for piano. In 1905 she began study at the Sternsche Conservatory of Hans Pfitzner and James Kwast and completed her studies in 1913 with conductor and composer Fritz Steinbach and pianist Carl Friedberg in Cologne.
In 1908 Fromm-Michaels began a career as a concert pianist, often playing her own works. She married Hamburg judge Dr. Walter Michaels, and after the Nuremberg Race Laws were instituted by the Nazis was banned from performing or publishing her compositions. She continued teaching music, and after World War II established the Hamburg First School of Music and Drama.” – Wikipedia
Cellist’s Guide
Unfortunately, this marvelous work is little known. Like the six Bach Suites, the five movements of the Suite for Violoncello Solo op.15 are baroque dance forms. Three of the movements, Bourreé, Gavotte, and Gigue, have slightly dissonant but tonal harmonies and lively rhythm, while the Prelude and Aria are atonal and expansive.
The technical difficulty of the dances ranges from intermediate to advanced level and can be played individually or as a whole.
Postcard #3: Suite for Solo Cello by Thomas Oboe Lee
Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China and came to the United States by way of Brazil where his musical education began during a resurgence of popular interest in Bossa Nova music, leading him to an early career as a jazz flutist. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston University since 1990. His more than 200 compositions include nine symphonies, fifteen concertos for solo instruments, eighteen string quartets, a two-act chamber opera, over sixty choral works and song cycles, and numerous solo and chamber works.
- Title: Suite for Solo Cello
- Composer: Thomas Oboe Lee
- Year Composed: 2014, revised 2015
- Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
- Movements: 7
- Duration: 16:50
- Number of Pages: 19
- Number of Measures: 584
- Tempo: half = 54; quarter = 100; dotted quarter = 60; quarter = 52; quarter = 168; half = 52; dotted quarter = 138
- Difficulty Level: advanced
- Highest Position Reached: thumb
- Technique Employed: bass, tenor, and treble clef; 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 2/2, and 3/2 time signatures; double stops, thirty-second notes, numerous accidentals
- Publisher: Departed Feathers Music
- Where to Purchase: Sheet Music Plus
- Cost of Score*: $9.99
Recording
Program Notes
“I met Jan Müller-Szeraws through Andrés Díaz back in the ’90s… Since then, Jan has participated in a number of performances of my work, including my String Quartet No. 12 … The Seasons (2010). Most recently, he premiered with colleagues in the Boston area my piano quintet, Pq2 … (2014). Suite for Solo Cello (2014) is dedicated to him. My work is modeled after J. S. Bach’s Six Suites for unaccompanied cello. The sequence of movements in my Suite is similar to that inBach’s …
- Fantasia … Moderato
- Allemande … Allegro
- Courante … Allegretto
- Sarabande … Adagio
- Minuet … Allegretto
- Arioso … Adagio
- Gigue … Presto
Enjoy!!!” – Thomas Oboe Lee
Cellist’s Guide
The opening movement of the Suite has a contemporary feel, which gives way to traditional dances with a modern harmonic bent. The slow movements are interspersed with and contrast nicely with an Allemande, a Courante, a Minuet, and a Gigue. These faster dances are marked with rapid tempos, which I feel could be relaxed a bit.
Because there are so many accidentals in this piece, even the professional player will find this Suite to be a good technical workout. This is really a blast to play.
If, like I do, you enjoy mid-century harmony mixed with Baroque dances, this may be the piece for you.
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