A Frieze and a Litany

This set of two related pieces was originally written for solo cello and takes its title from the poem Man of Assynt by Norman MacCaig. It was written for Robert Irvine as part of his UNICEF solo cello project in 2015, and was premiered by him on 22nd October 2016 in Migvie Church, Aberdeen. A Litany requires a tuning-fork, preferably one with tubular limbs rather than those with square edges.

The player is required to change from arco to the tuning-fork and back, a transition covered by l.h. pizz. open strings, which can be repeated ad lib. during the change. For the tuning-fork tremolo passages, the two prongs of the fork are scissors either side of the portion of string. The most even tremolo is needed.