Opus 975

Rhapsody on a Hungarian Folk Song (2012)

for Cello

Olga Shutko, cello

Duration: 5.75 min.

Dedication: for Orsolya Vági

Publisher: Musik Fabrik

Performance materials available from the publisher.

Rhapsody on a Hungarian Folk Song (2012) for solo cello was written for Orsolya Vági.

The work is based on the plaintive folk song “Madárka, madárka” (“Little bird, little bird.”) The text of the song expresses intense longing, as the singer asks the bird to take a letter back to her beloved in “my beautiful Hungarian homeland.”

The first section, marked furioso, is dramatic and vivid. This energetic music gradually winds down, leading to a section marked lontano cantabile, in which the melody is heard clearly. Several small developments are explored, before the work ends peacefully.