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 stand as pillars of the cello repertoire and continue to inspire performers and composers alike. Their legacy has led to the composition of many other unaccompanied suites, expanding the possibilities for solo cello. In this fifth set of digital postcards, I’m pleased to introduce another group of these compelling works—some well known, others more recent. Each piece offers something to enrich your playing, teaching, or listening repertoire.

If you’re interested in studying unaccompanied cello suites this summer, I’m happy to share that in July at the Bethany Beach Cellofest, Jennifer Kloetzel, Brenda Neece, and I will be teaching select suites, including the Cassadó and Brearley works featured in this month’s postcards. This is a fantastic opportunity to focus on these pieces within a supportive, non-competitive community of cellists. At the time of publication, a few spots are still available—but be sure to sign up before registration closes.

Looking to discover even more unaccompanied works for cello? Be sure to check out my past postcard series on Asian composers, Black composers, women composers, and Hispanic and Latino/Latina composers, or browse all of my postcards.

Postcard #1 – Simple Suite for Unaccompanied Cello by Denis Brearley

English composer and educator Denis Brearley helped expand the solo string repertoire with approachable works for young musicians. He wrote several short suites for unaccompanied strings, including two for cello. Composed in 1968, his Simple Suite for Unaccompanied Cello is a four-movement work inspired by Baroque dance forms, distilled into an accessible format for beginning cellists.

• Title: Simple Suite for unaccompanied cello
• Composer: Denis Brearley
• Year Composed: 1968
• Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
• Movements: 4
• Duration: 5:55
• Number of Pages: 4
• Number of Measures: Gavotte – 41, Marcia Alla Ronda – 51, Saraband – 16, Jig – 48
• Tempo: not indicated
• Difficulty Level: beginning
• Highest Position Reached: 2d, 4th, 3rd, 4th
• Technique Employed: bass clef, cut time, 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures; slurs, staccato, several double stops, accidentals, key changes
• Publisher: Alfred Legnick & Co Ltd.
• Where to Purchase: Presto Music
• Cost of Score*: $13.75

Recording

Cellist’s Guide

There are four movements in this suite: Gavotte, Marcia Alla Ronda, Saraband, Jig.

The Gavotte would be appropriate for an early Suzuki Book 3 player, as there is frequent shifting between 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions and use of slurred notes followed by staccato notes. Perhaps pair this with the Lully Gavotte to reinforce the bowing pattern and playing in cut time.

Due to the frequent 1st to 4th position shifts and cross string slurs, the Marcia Alla Ronda could augment mid Suzuki Book 3 pieces. I might introduce this piece after the Webster Scherzo.

Three and four note slurs are a dominant feature of the Saraband, with most including at least one string crossing or shift. Because of the bow control required to pull this off, I would rate this as an intermediate level piece, in other words Suzuki Book 4 or above.

The Jig would make a nice precursor the Rondo grazioso from the Breval Sonata in C major in Suzuki Book 4, as the bowing and feel are quite similar. With the exception of three notes, this dance may be played in 1st position and is just 48 bars in length.

Postcard #2: Mongolian Suite by Lei Liang

Originally published as Postcard #2 from May 2024

American composer Lei Liang was born in China and currently serves as the Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego. A reviewer in the New York Times described his compositions as “hauntingly beautiful and sonically colorful.” Since 2018, he has also been the Artistic Director of the Chou Wen-chung Music Research Center in China. Several of his compositions are musical reflections of social issues, including trafficking, violence, and environmental awareness. In 2023, together with the Qualcomm Institute, he launched the “Lei Lab” to collaborate with engineers, geologists, oceanographers and software developers, to explore what Liang calls “the unique potential for learning offered by creative listening.”

• Title: Mongolian Suite
• Composer: Lei Liang
• Year Composed: 2022
• Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
• Movements: 6
• Duration: 16:00
• Number of Pages: 9
• Number of Measures: 26, 30, 21, 57, 50, 47
• Tempo: quarter = 60, 40, 46, 54, 56, 52
• Difficulty Level: varying by movement,  from late beginner to advanced
• Highest Position Reached:
  • I. Tongliano Mountain – 4th
  • II. Where Is Home? – 6th
  • III. Chifeng Mountain – 6th
  • IV. Mother and Daughter – 6th
  • V. Yin Shan Dance – 6th
  • VI. Feng – thumb position
• Technique Employed: 
  • I. Tongliano Mountain – bass clef, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 time signatures, glissandos
  • II. Where Is Home? bass clef, 5/8, 9/8, 2/4, 3/4 time signatures
  • III. Chifeng Mountain – bass and tenor clefs, 3/4, time signature, glissandoes, sul tasto
  • IV. Mother and Daughter – bass and tenor clefs, 7/8. 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 time signatures; grace noters, glissandos, false harmonics
  • V. Yin Shan Dance – bass clef, 7/16, 3/8, 5/8, 2/4, 3/4 time signatures; glissandos, double stops, pizzicato, Bartok pizzicato, left hand string slapping, staccato
  • VI. Feng – bass, tenor, and treble clefs; 7/16, 9/16, 13/16, 15/16, 17/16, 3/8, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 time signatures glissandos, grace notes, double stops, pizzicato
• Publisher: Schott
• Where to Purchase: Theodore Front Musical Literature, Inc.
• Cost of Score*: $20.20

Recording

I. Tongliano Mountain

Program Notes

“Mongolian Suite is a collection of Inner Mongolian songs, both arranged and imagined.  Having studied with the renowned scholar Wulalji since my childhood, I learned songs that sing of mother’s love, friendship, courage, skies, stars, horses, mountains, and grassland; I learned about home and what it means to be away from home – something we can all relate to.  These songs have a special place in my heart.” – Lei Liang

Cellist’s Guide

As the composer indicates on the front page of the score, the Mongolian Suite can be performed as a suite or as individual pieces. The advanced player may choose to play several movements or the complete suite on a recital, while beginning and intermediate cellists may choose one of the movements that fit their levels.

• I. Tongliao Mountain would be appropriate for the late beginner. The majority of the piece can be played in third and fourth position, and because it is in the key of f minor, the player will gain experience playing extensions with flats. The rhythm is tricky, so beginning cellists should seek help from a teacher. This would be a good choice for those who have played Minuet No. 3 from Suzuki Book 3.
• II. Where Is Home? can be played almost entirely in third and fourth position, with a few notes in sixth position. The rhythm shifts among a variety of time signatures and would be good practice for the late intermediate/advanced player.
• III. Chifeng Mountain is written in bass and tenor clef and introduces complex triplets.
• IV. Mother and Daughter is for the late intermediate/early advanced player who is ready to learn false harmonics in tenor clef. There are definitely some advanced rhythms in this one.
• V. Yin Shan Dance, while written in bass clef, is an advanced-level piece. There are sixteenth-note triplets and thirty-second notes, which require a quick left hand.  Additionally, there is ricochet bowing, and the time signature alternates among 2/4 and 5/5, 2/4 and 7/16, and 2/4 and 3/8 time signatures.
• VI. Feng is for the advanced cellist. The rhythm is challenging, and the player must be able to play in thumb position on the D string and high A string. Additionally, the piece is written mostly in tenor and treble clefs.

Postcard #3: Suite for Violoncello Solo by Gaspar Cassadó

Originally published as Postcard #3 from March 2023

Spanish cellist and composer Gaspar Cassadó is renowned for both his original works for cello, guitar, and chamber ensembles as well as for his transcriptions of cello works by other composers. Ever an innovator, he is known for (among other things) being the first cellist to play a public performance using only steel strings rather than the heretofore traditional combination of steel and gut.

• Title: Suite for Violoncello Solo
• Composer: Gaspar Cassadó (30 September 1897 — 24 December 1966)
• Instrumentation: unaccompanied cello
• Year Published: 1926
• Movements: 3
• Duration of Work: 15:28
• Number of Measures: 83, 103, 199
• Number of Pages: 10
• Tempo: Andante, Allegro giusto, Lento ma non troppo, Allegretto tranquillo, Allegro marcato
• Difficulty Level: advanced
• Highest Position Reached: thumb, in all movements
• Technique Employed:bass, tenor & treble clefs; 6/8, 2/4, 3,4, 4/4, 5/4 time signatures; double, triple & quadruple stops, grace notes, septuplets, nontuplets, undetuplets; harmonics & false harmonics, pizzicato
• Publisher: Universal Edition
• Where to Purchase: IMSLP
• Cost of Sheet Music*: free (Non PD EU)

RECORDING

PROGRAM NOTES

“Like the Bach suites, Cassadó’s suite is a collection of dances, introduced by a Preludio, which in the first movement of his suite turns into a zarabanda, related to the baroque sarabande. Cervera suggests that the two presentations of the opening theme, one forte, the other piano, represent, in turn, Don Quixote and his beloved, Dulcinea. But other associations run through the movement, as well, including quotations from Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloe (the famous opening flute solo) and from Zoltan Kodaly’s Sonata for Solo Cello.

The second movement is a sardana, the folk dance most closely associated with the Catalonian nationalist revival of the 19th century. The sardana is a round dance accompanied by a cobla wind band comprising a high-whistling flaviol (wooden fipple flute), double-reed shawms and various brass instruments. The opening, played entirely in harmonics, imitates the high whistling sound of the flaviol summoning the dancers to the town square. The sardana is a dance in three parts, the middle section being more lyrical and in a minor key. The frequent changes in register on the cello imitate the way that various sections of the band interact.

The last movement is the one in which the spirit of the dance is most evident, with the snap of castanets imitated in sharp, abrupt rhythms, the strumming of the guitar in flamboyant arpeggio patterns, and the harmonies of Spanish folk music in the distinctive pattern of the four-note descending bass line.” – Donald G. Gíslason

CELLIST’S GUIDE

If you haven’t already heard this work, do yourself a favor and listen- it truly is enchanting. Though not terribly well-known, it has gained popularity in recent years.

At first glance, the Suite seems quite readable, that is until you actually sightread it.

The first movement contains sudden, sporadic bow rocking interspersed with vertical left-hand flourishes, which, in theory, should sound effortless.

The Sardana is filled with thumb position double stops moving up and down the cello, and 3rds in the lower positions thrown in for good measure.

The final movement is laden with double, triple, and quadruple stops, frequently while dancing lightly on the string.

Each section could really serve as a small etude.  Kudos to those who make this appear easy!

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