I DON'T think the Denisov would be a good place to start!

I can be helpful by not being helpful and vice versa....

 

Just play cello duets, add 3 flats to your line and pretend you're in treble clef. Used to do this when I played bass lines on bari for concert band in high school.

 

Add 3 sharps, not 3 flats.

 

Reminds me of the other day...I pulled this piece out for our sax quartet and I didn't even stop to think that it might be a alto 1 , alto 2 type-thing...I just whipped out the sop and we went to town(the tune was called "The Nasty")
It sounded REALLY cool...Didn't think ANYTHING of it...Later, i noticed it was for ALTO not sop...the alto part on sop sounded very funky...but only because it was already a funky piece...It just made all the changes sound like sus4 chords! Interesting sound but probably won't consciously do that for my next gig...

 

Libby Larsson wrote a pretty neat alto/cello duet called Bid Call. It's written to be in the style of an auctioneer's talking during bids. My professor played it last semester. If you're willing to put a bit of practicing into it, it's definitely a fun piece. Very difficult, especially fitting it together.

 

Thanks for the input so far. I've thought about just reading cello duets or even treble/bass duets and transposing, but I'm looking for duets that are actually geared to the specific sounds and characteristics of the instruments.

They would also have to be easy enough for her to be able to play with minimal practice time. Maybe I'm asking too much since most are probably written for professional performance.

 

There's a nice work by Mark Engebretson called 4 Short Songs: A Certain Sadness. Requires some quarter tone knowledge on both parts, but well worth it.

 

Cello sax duets

My wife also plays cello. We've done lots of duets together just for fun. Mostly pieces written for clarinet and bassoon (Mendelsohn, Mozart, etc.) or arranged for trumpet and trombone (e.g. Bach inventions) with me on soprano. I've also arranged a few pieces. The trick is to find pieces where the registers work together, especially with soprano and cello. We've tried a few alto & cello but there are very few arrangements that work without transcribing.

I like the idea of cello duets with reading treble clef for bass and adding the sharps, but we haven't tried that yet.