Technical analysis of "Roxana" Cello Concerto by Armağan Durdağ and study suggestions for performens

The aim of this study is to provide all instrumentalists, especially cellists, who will play concertos from the Contemporary period of classical Western music, with a general understanding of the cello concertos from this period, to understand their roles as soloists and to offer them suggestions for working on solving some difficulties they may encounter. In the study, a Contemporary period piece, Armağan Durdağ's (b.1981) Op.10 "Roxana" Cello Concerto, was taken as an example. The study conveys the subject of the "Roxana" Cello Concerto and how the inner stories used in its narration come to life in the sections of the work. In the following pages, historical information is given about the main characters of the story, the Macedonian Emperor Alexander the Great and his wife Roxana, and the biography of the composer Armağan Durdağ is added. Two major studies under two main headings constitute the main text of the thesis. The first of these is the presentation of the technical competences of the cello from the Baroque period to the Contemporary period, the writing of the solo cello in concertos, the orchestration approaches and the role of the solo cello in the orchestra, chronologically through the cello concertos of Vivaldi, Haydn, Dvořák and Durdağ. The second is the presentation of the technical difficulties encountered in the writing of the solo cello of the "Roxana" Cello Concerto and suggestions for the interpreters to work on their solutions. The first conclusion reached in this study is that the cello has contributed to the variety of tones that exist in the contemporary period by developing its technical capacity and reaching a capacity to create all kinds of contemporary sound effects. Another conclusion is that interpreters will understand the characteristics of solo cello writing in concertos from the Baroque period to the present, their understanding of orchestration and the changing roles of the instruments within the orchestra. In this context, it was intended to explain that the roles of soloists in the orchestra have changed in the concertos of the Contemporary period. In the light of the examinations, it was seen that the role of the orchestra to polish the soloist like a jewel pedestal has ended; and the soloist's obligation to successfully present bright, flashy and fast passages has ended. It was understood that the soloist can sometimes participate in the music he is in with a simple accompaniment or with effective sounds coming out of his instrument. Another conclusion reached is that the difficulties that can be encountered in the concertos of the Contemporary period will first be solved by understanding the historical change; and subsequently, more concrete solutions are still present in the work proposals belonging to the previous classical music periods.