THE VIOLONCELLO
_The viola da gamba; violin responsible for the development
of the violoncello; instruments of the Seventeenth Century
distinguished for their delicacy of tone; Italians the first to
appreciate the possibilities of the violoncello; instruments
of Andreas Amati; Franciscello, the first great violoncellist;
Berteau and Duport; anecdote of Voltaire; Servais; Boccherini;
use of the violoncello by great composers; instruments of
Bergonzi, Maggini, and, Amati; compass of the violoncello;
Lavignac and Berlioz on the instrument and its capacities._
The violoncello is not a big violin; it is a little double-bass; and
that is why the name is spelled _violoncello_ and not _violincello_. Its
parent was the _violone_; and, if we remember that the violoncello is the
little _violone_ in the Viol Family, we will never make the mistake of
writing _violincello_ for _violoncello_. Almost everyone speaks of this
instrument as the ’cello (pronounced chello) except the Italians; for, as
the word simply means “little,” it has no significance to them.
The violoncello belongs to that ancient and honorable family of viols,
already described (see page 47). Its _immediate ancestor_ was the _viola
da gamba_.
For a long time the _viola da gamba_ was the most popular of all bowed
instruments. We see it in pictures by the old Italian Masters; and it
appears in many pictures by Ter Borch, Metsu and other Dutch and Flemish
painters of the Seventeenth Century, who loved to paint pictures of the
everyday life that they saw. Dashing men and richly dressed women often
appear with this big instrument in front of their knees, intently taking
a lesson from a music-master, or playing to entertain a group of friends
in a pleasant living-room.
We recall that Shakespeare in his rollicking comedy of _Twelfth Night_
makes someone say of the silly knight, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, that “he
plays o’ the viol de gamboys.”
In every wealthy home in England, as well as on the Continent, there
was, as we have seen, a collection of musical instruments for impromptu
concerts. The collection consisted first of lutes and viols of all sizes
and, at a later period, of violins, violas and violoncellos. Music
was one of the entertainments and amusements of society; and it was
considered just as necessary to have instruments of all kinds and all
sizes to suit the visitors as it is to have a piano in the home to-day.
In the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries public concerts were unknown.
It was in the churches and cathedrals and in the homes of the rich that
artistic music was heard.
The _viola da gamba_ was at this time a favorite instrument for ladies;
and it seems strange to us that the more delicate violin was not yet
considered suitable for them while this awkward, and, to our way of
thinking, rather unfeminine _viola da gamba_ was thought to be a lady’s
instrument. However, the _viola da gamba_ was not so hard for them to
play as the modern violoncello, because the strings were much thinner and
a bold, strong tone was not required.
[Illustration: FIRST VIOLONCELLIST, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK
_Engelbert Roentgen_]
The _viola da gamba_ was often made artistic to look at with rich
carving and inlay. A beautiful specimen belonging to the University of
Edinburgh is shown facing page 60. It once belonged to the violoncellist
Servais (see page 61). The back is of rosewood inlaid with ivory. The
neck, scroll (carved in the shape of a woman’s head with elaborately
dressed hair) and the tail-piece (in the shape of Mercury’s caduceus)
are of ivory. This exquisite instrument is of later date than the _Viola
d’amore_ facing page 50, for the crescent-shaped sound-holes are of a
later period than the “flaming-sword” sound-holes. The _viola da gamba_
is rarely met with even in museums; for when the violoncello came
into fashion, many people had their _violas da gamba_ converted into
violoncellos.
Johann Sebastian Bach was the last great composer to write for the _viola
da gamba_.
It seems that the violin is responsible for the development of the
violoncello. The Italians, always so quick to perceive artistic needs and
fitness, soon found out that the newly perfected violin required a more
powerful accompaniment than the _viola da gamba_ could provide; and so
the instrument-makers worked away until they produced the violoncello.
This new instrument was mounted with much thicker strings than the _viola
da gamba_. It seemed just the thing to the musicians of that time to
accompany the very piercing and penetrating tones of the violin, which,
although very far from having the resonant qualities of the violin that
we know to-day since the development of the bow, seemed very loud indeed
to ears that had been accustomed to the sounds of “a concert of lutes, or
viols.”
The people of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries understood all the
varieties of _tinkle_ rather than of _tone_. They liked lovely, soft,
gentle music, and they liked instruments such as the _viola da gamba_,
and _viola d’amore_ strung with “sympathetic strings” set into vibration
when the top strings were touched with the bow and that consequently gave
forth gentle echoes, like those of the Æolian harp.
We remember the Duke in _Twelfth Night_ asks a singer to repeat the music
he has just played and sung:
“_That strain again! it had a dying fall!_
_O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound_
_That breathes upon a bank of violets,_
_Stealing and giving odor._”
We must not despise that quaint and antique music of the Seventeenth
Century drawing-room. It was very high-bred, very refined, very delicate
and very poetic. It had distinction; it had charm.
But as times changed, manners and tastes changed with them. All of a
sudden, so it seems, the instrument-makers, as we have seen, began to
search for _tone_ and when the sharp, piercing and shrill (so it seemed
to the people of the day) violin came into being, other instruments
were needed to accompany it. Gradually, one by one, the delicate viols
with their thin strings and the tinkling and swishing lutes went out of
fashion and were made no longer.
To-day their voices are almost unknown; for the old Viol Family is
extinct. We have a new String Quartet that is distinguished for its great
carrying tone,—rich, warm, sweet and vibrant.
When it first came into favor, the violoncello was used to strengthen
the bass part in vocal music, particularly in church music and also to
reinforce the double-bass; but for a long time it made no appearance in
the drawing-room. The _viola da gamba_ still held the first place in
society.
The first instance of a violoncello attracting attention is in 1691, when
Domenico Galli of Parma, a famous wood-carver, made a superb violoncello
which he presented to Francisco II, Duke of Modena, with a treatise on
violoncello as a solo instrument and the art of playing it. Two other
Italians in the first half of the Eighteenth Century, Antoniotti of Milan
and Lanzetti,[12] violoncellist to the King of Sardinia (1730-1750),
brought out compositions which are the first that recognize the
capacities of this instrument. The Italians were, therefore, the earliest
to develop the violoncello and also the art of playing it.
Andreas Amati (1520-1577)[13] was to the violoncello very nearly what
Stradivari was to the violin. He transformed the _viola da gamba_ into
the violoncello. As early as 1572 Pope Pius V sent Charles IX, King of
France, a present of thirty-eight bowed instruments, eight of which were
bass. These were all made by Andreas Amati and on the back of each were
painted the arms of France and other devices and the motto, _Pietate
et Justitia_. In 1790, when the mob broke into Versailles during the
Revolution, all these instruments were destroyed except two violins and
one violoncello. This is still in existence and is known as “The King.”
Once it was owned by Duport.
The first big solo violoncellist was Franciscello (1713-1740), of whom
little is known except that he played in all the important European
cities. He took his name from his instrument. It was a new thing for the
violoncello to appear in such a conspicious _rôle_.
Corelli and Tartini,[14] the first _great_ violinists, often had their
accompaniments played on a violoncello; and it is supposed that from
associating with the violin, the assisting instrument became ambitious
and tried a little virtuosity for himself.
Then the French took it up. They did a great deal for the violoncello.
First came Berteau, who died in 1756; and, after him, the still more
important Jean Louis Duport (1749-1819), who worked out a system of
fingering and bowing and a methodical manner of “shifting” from position
to position.[15] Duport’s _Essay_ on the subject made an epoch in
violoncello playing. Duport was a very fine performer. It seems that he
was inspired by the playing of the violinist, Viotti,[16] who visited
Paris in 1782 and who astonished everybody. This started Duport thinking,
just as Paganini’s playing a half century later set Liszt thinking.
Duport’s idea was to imitate the agility and grace and charm of the
violin upon his own violoncello. Ever since Duport’s time the violoncello
has been considered practically a bass violin as far as technique is
concerned; and great performers have constantly added some new idea with
regard to playing it, until now the violoncello in the hands of a Pablo
Casals can be as airy and light as a violin even if its voice is heavier.
The violoncello has now learned to _sing_. Duport would be astonished if
he could hear our violoncellists to-day, though he was one of the best
(if not the very best) of his time. Beethoven thought so much of Duport
that to him he dedicated his first two Violoncello Sonatas, op. 5.
[Illustration: VIOLA DA GAMBA]
We can get an idea of the way a violoncello was regarded in the
Eighteenth Century by the compliment that Voltaire paid Duport when the
latter played for him in Geneva. Voltaire was perfectly astonished by
his performance. When Duport laid down his bow Voltaire said: “Monsieur,
you make me believe in miracles. You know how to turn an ox into a
nightingale!”
Duport was delightfully modest, although everybody acknowledged his
greatness and every violoncellist studied his famous _Essay on Fingering
and Bowing the Violoncello_. In this he said: “Everybody knows the kind
of bowing called _martelé_ (hammered), or _staccato_. It is an affair of
tact and ease. There are some players who get it at once; others never
learn to get it perfectly: _I am one of those_.”
Then came Adrien François Servais (1807-1866), called “the Paganini of
the ’cello.” He was a native of Brussels. Then Nicholas Joseph Platel
(1777-1835), called by Rossini “the King of ’cellists and the ’cellist of
Kings.” Platel is thought to have invented the peg as a convenient rest,
for he was very stout and found his instrument difficult to hold. Then
Alfredo Piatti’s lovely Amati ’cello and the way he played it are still
remembered by many old American concert-goers, who heard him abroad.
But instrument-makers and performers alone could not have brought the
violoncello to its position as a favorite instrument unless the composers
had helped.
As Bach had been one of the _last_ to write for the old _viola da gamba_,
he was one of the _first_ to write for the new violoncello. He wrote six
famous solos for it.
Handel took great pleasure in the violoncello. He made it play an
_obbligato_ in several arias in his oratorios and cantatas. Alessandro
Scarlatti also wrote for it; and, even better than he, Boccherini
(1743-1815), who was a splendid performer himself. His Quartets
particularly show it off to great advantage, as was natural to one who
could play it so well.
With the development of the String Quartet that was now taking the
place of the old “concert of viols,” the importance of the violoncello
was settled. It only remained for composers to discover its _singing_
qualities. Nobody understood these better than Mendelssohn. Next time
you hear the oratorio of _Elijah_ listen to the ’cello _obbligato_ in
Elijah’s aria _It is Enough_, which is even finer than the beautiful solo
accompaniment to _Be thou faithful unto Death_ in Mendelssohn’s other
oratorio, _Saint Paul_.
Rossini’s _Overture to William Tell_ opens with five solo violoncellos
accompanied by two others playing _pizzicato_ in first and second parts.
Wagner made great use of the violoncello. It is very conspicious in the
opening of the third act of _Die Meistersinger_, when Hans Sachs is
sitting in his room reading and talking to himself; and in _Tristan and
Isolde_ the violoncello speaks love-yearnings as never before.
This leads us to the latest development of the violoncello as a solo
performer in the Orchestra. In Richard Strauss’s _Don Quixote Variations_
the violoncello is made to _impersonate_ the mad, chivalrous and pathetic
knight, whose adventures are described by the Orchestra. In this work the
violoncello and the viola paint _character_ as nearly as it is possible
for music to do; and if we do not receive a definite idea of their
appearance the music conveys to us certain _impressions_ of Don Quixote
and his unimaginative squire. With great poetic judgment Strauss selected
the violoncello and the viola as the most suitable instruments to convey
these impressions.
We have been talking about the violoncello all this time. What about the
instrument itself?
Perhaps the first thing we notice is that the ribs of the violoncello are
very much higher in proportion to its body than those of a violin, or
viola. Of course, the height of these ribs differs in different makers.
Stradivari made his so low that many of his violoncellos have had to
be taken to pieces and wider ribs added to suit the music of to-day.
Naturally the sound-post has had to be made taller.
Few of Stradivari’s violoncellos are in existence. He made his
violoncellos in two models—large and small. The large ones are very
scarce. They have a beautiful tone, but they are hard to play on account
of their size. Servais had a “Strad.” Piatti also had one, which was
known as “the red ’cello” on account of its varnish.
The finest Stradivari was owned by Duport and passed into the possession
of August Franchomme, who paid 25,000 francs ($5,000) for it.
Carlo Bergonzi made superb violoncellos and so did Maggini, who made his
on the viola pattern, placing the sound-holes rather high. Andreas Amati
and Nicolò Amati both made beautiful instruments, which are characterized
by a sweet, mellow tone.
No violoncellos of Joseph Guarneri are known.
The violoncello in the illustration facing page 56 was made by Januarius
Galiano of Naples (born about 1740), one of the famous Galiano family
of makers, descendants of Alessandro Galiano (1695-1730), a pupil of
Stradivari.
The strings of the violoncello are C, G, D and A, an octave lower than
those of the viola. The D string is very rich and is considered the most
beautiful of all.
The compass of the violoncello is nearly four octaves; and because of
this long range composers write for the violoncello in three clefs: the
Bass Clef, for the lower and middle registers; the Tenor Clef, for the
next highest; and the Treble, or Soprano, Clef, for the top notes.
The beginner on the violoncello has a great deal of hard work to do to
learn to play at sight in all three clefs.
[Illustration: GENTLEMAN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PLAYING THE VIOLA DA
GAMBA]
In the main, the violoncello is played like the violin and viola, that is
to say the player has to make all his notes on the fingerboard; and he
can also produce harmonics on the open strings and artificial harmonics
by stopping the string at certain places. He sometimes stops these by
placing his thumb on the string,—something the violinist never does.
Of course, as the instrument is held in the reverse way from a violin,
the high notes are the farthest away from the player. He plays _from_
himself, not _towards_ himself.
Lavignac writes: “The functions of the Violoncello in the Orchestra are
manifold. Usually it gives, reinforced by the double-bass, the bass of
the harmony. This is its natural work. But sometimes the singing-part
is committed to it,—when, losing its austerity, it becomes a ravishing
instrumental tenor, of pure, warm _timbre_, ecstatic or passionate, but
always distinguished and captivating. Its rapid and light utterance,
the frequent passage from natural notes to harmonics imitating the
alterations of chest and head notes complete its resemblance to the human
voice. Moreover, the violoncello, though moving in another region and
awakening other sensations, possesses a richness of varied tones almost
as extensive as that of the violin; and its _pizzicati_ are better and
less dry than those of the violin.”
Regarding the team-work of the violoncello in the Orchestra, Berlioz
said: “Violoncellos together to the number of eight, or ten, are
essentially melodious; their quality 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 violoncellos playing in unison upon their first string. They are also
excellent for airs of a religious character. The two lower strings, C
and G, especially in keys which permit the use of them as open strings,
are of a smooth and deep sonorousness; but their depth hardly ever
permits a composer any melodies. These are usually given to the upper
strings.”