John Tavener

A short piece for unaccompanied cello all of which is notated in treble clef and which will no doubt prove to be an excellent exercise in upper range intonation as well as a satisfying piece of music.First performed by StevenIsserlis at the Cricklade Music Festival October 1995.

Solo cello part. This is a special item which is made to order. Please e-mail our Mail Order Department for further information.

For solo Cello Timpani and Strings.Popule Meus was commissioned through the Magnum Opus project: Kathryn Gould founding patron and commissioner and Meet the Composer project manager.It was first performed on 6thFebruary 2010 by Yuri Hooker (cello) and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Micklethwate. Composer's Notes 'Popule Meus is a meditation on the Judaic and Christian text ?O my People whathave I done to you?? but itis also a Universalist contemplation of the wholesale rejection of God by modern man. However much manrejects God he cannot escape Him and indeed he is condemned to the supernatural by his deiformnature. InHindu terms he is the Absolute Ayam Atma Brahma (The Self is the Absolute).In this work the solo cello is the All-Compassionate One while the timpani represent man in his vain andpointless rejection. Although the solocello and strings and the timpani share the same material (four ideas aregradually revealed and they revolve four times during the piece) the timpani music is violent and becomesincreasingly frenzied and contracted while thecello and strings remain still and serene.So even in winning the Darkness loses and even in losing the Light wins. Passion Resurrection andRedemption; or in Hindu terms Atma (The Absolute) alone is real Maya (The Relative) ismerely illusion.'