The Glory of the Cello
By Ian Abbott
The historical record about the playing of the cello is rather threadbare. None of the great cellist-composers (e.g. Boccherini) published their thoughts about effective composition for the instrument and what constitutes playing in ‘good taste’. Cellists are, however, fortunate in the many method treatises published since the first one in 1741. The scope of these, however, focuses on bow management, intonation, fingering, and the provision of many exercises that develop these skills at both elementary and more advanced levels of playing.
From the invention of the cello in the early 1500s until the mid 1700s, its role was to provide the bass accompaniment in an ensemble. It did this by duplicating the notes played by the left hand of the harpsichord. This style of playing emphasised parlando (speaking) style in preference to cantando (singing) phrasing. From the 1760s and 1770s, Haydn and Mozart gave the cello greater prominence in cantabile passages in their string quartets and piano trios with the result that the instrument at last enjoyed equal standing with the upper strings and the keyboard.
Cellists are very fortunate to possess the perspectives of two eminent musicians who, because they were not professional cellists, present an unbiassed appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the cello.
Johann Quantz (1697-1773) published in 1752 his Essay of a Method for Playing the Transverse Flute, in the final section of which he discussed the duties of instrumentalists forming the ripieno section accompanying the flute soloist. His concept of the cellist’s role emphasises the need to ‘draw a full, round, and virile tone’ but deplored those players who ‘garnish the bass with graces’. ‘Only in a solo is a skilful addition of embellishments permissible’. Quantz noted that the ripieno cellist is in an ‘advantageous position to help the other parts in the expression of light and shadow’ and in providing ‘vigour to the whole piece’. In facilitating the performance of the concertante part, the cellist is ‘very important’.
Another contribution considered significant by Quantz is the cellist helping the soloist ‘to bring out and make apparent the different passions expressed in a piece by its composer’.
Quantz regarded ‘becoming a good accompanist’ as the essential foundation for solo playing. A ‘good accompanist is of greater service in an orchestra than a mediocre soloist’.
Quantz was an eminent virtuoso of the flute and like many other composers and virtuosi played many instruments when a young man, including the cello. He was well-travelled across Europe and met many of the great French, German, and Italian composers of his era. His treatise remains worthy of careful study.
Baroque
Baroque stance (no endpin, instrument resting on calves) and use of a Baroque bow (showing the swan bill tip, bow held away from the frog).
By the time of Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) the composition and proportion of instruments in the modern orchestra was well-established. He published his Grand Treatise on Instrumentation and Modern Orchestration in 1844; it was intended as a guide to composers about the capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of all the instruments. (In a subsequent edition he included a chapter on what is expected of a conductor).
Berlioz did not much like orchestral cello music ascending to ‘extreme upper notes’, except when these were rendered as harmonics. He also warned composers about the impractability of playing double stopping in tenths (in contrast to the violins).
Berlioz was writing in the Romantic period when the ‘part of the double-bass is ordinarily given to [celli], which they double an octave above or in unison: but there are many instances when it is advisable to separate them, either to let them play, on the high strings, a melody or melodious phrase; or to take advantage of their peculiar sonorousness on an open string for producing an effect of special harmony, by writing their part below the double-basses; or, lastly, to assign them a part nearly like that of the double-basses, but giving them more rapid notes, which the latter could not well execute’.
Berlioz did not favour entirely separating the celli from the double-basses, as this weakened the ‘sonority of the fundamental notes of the harmony’, resulting in the bass part becoming ‘dull, bald, extremely heavy, and ill-connected with the upper parts [of the bass; i.e., celli]’.
Overall, Berlioz praised the impact of the cello in the orchestra: Celli ‘together, to the number of eight or ten, are essentially melodious; their timbre, on the upper strings, is one of the most expressive in the orchestra. Nothing is more voluptuously melancholy, or more suited to the utterance of tender, languishing themes, than a mass of [celli] playing in unison on the first string. They are also excellent for airs of a religious character…’.
Berlioz did not care much for playing rapid passages in thumb position: ‘they are not very sonorous, and are always of dubious precision’.
One of the highlights for the cello section is the beginning of the overture of Rossini’s opera William Tell (1829). This comprises a quintet of five solo celli, accompanied by the remaining celli playing pizzicato. Berlioz praised the excellent effect of these ‘deep-toned timbres, all of the same kind’.
Another operatic overture in which the celli shine is that of Verdi’s The Sicilian Vespers (1855). I’m hoping that MetSO will one day perform this overture!
Modern
How a cello is played nowadays: Tourte bow, with hachette tip, and bow held at the frog. Endpin supports the cello.
In conclusion, the splendid resonance of the notes of the cello’s A and D strings together with the plangency of those deeper notes produced on its G and C strings, whether played as accompaniment or as part of a melodic phrase, serve to create the glory of this magnificent musical instrument.
Sources of quotations: Reilly, ER 1985. Johann Joachim Quantz On Playing the Flute. 2nd ed. Faber and Faber, London; Bennett, J 1882. A Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration…by Hector Berlioz. Novello, Ewer and Co., London.
The wonderful MetSO Cellos