![]() In the Renaissance and Early-Baroque periods, neither thumbposition nor the higher registers were ever used (note the extreme shortness of the fingerboard in most pictures of cellos in this epoch). This emancipation continued throughout the 18th century with the cello becoming, in the second half of the century, a fully-fledged solo instrument – while at the same time preserving its ability to simply double the bass line. Already in Scarlatti’s cantatas of the early 1700’s the first steps of this emancipation can be seen in the fact that the bass line was now divided into two staves: one for the Basso Continuo, and the other – with both a higher register and a more elaborate part – for the cello. This success gave rise in 1740 to a famous article “Defense de la Basse Viole Contre Les Entreprises du Violon et les Pretensions du Violoncelle” (Le Blanc) (“In Defense of the Basse Viole Against the Encroachments of the Violin and the Pretensions of the Cello”).įrom the very beginning of the cello’s history, we can see a progressive “emancipation” from its initial role as a humble bass instrument (simply doubling the Basso Continuo) towards a more melodic, soloistic instrument whose register was progressively extended upwards into the tenor register and beyond. By the late 1730’s the enthusiasm for the cello there was such that between 17 26 volumes of cello sonatas were published (by Le Clerc). This introduction of the cello met with a huge success in France. That the cello as we know it originated in Italy is confirmed by the French musician Michel Corrette who, in his Traité de Violoncelle (1741) – probably the first-ever “cello method” – attributed to the influence of Italian players and composers the introduction of the violoncello to Paris, in the early eighteenth century. Likewise “Doublebass” – the bass-register instrument of the violin family – translates to “Violone” in Italian. To avoid confusion, we need to remember that “Viola de Gamba” is the Italian term that translates to “Basse Viole” in French. In fact, it is even possible that the Bach Cello Suites were written to be played on one of these smaller instruments (see the following article). Before this time the cello basically did not exist as such, and all the music that was written for bass-register string instruments was played on its various predecessors: the violone (ancient doublebass), the viola da gamba, viola da spalla, viola pomposa, bass violin (see picture on right) etc. The first orchestral compositions specifying the use of the “cello” appeared around 1700: to be precise, in Gasparini’s Cantata Op.1 (1695) and Scarlatti’s cantatas (1690s), written in Rome and Naples. That the cello was still not a standardised instrument is shown by the fact that Antonii’s work is written for a cello with six strings, tuned like the contemporary viol (mainly in fourths) except for a scordatura of the lowest string (depending on the key) while Galli’s is written for a 4-string cello, but also tuned in fourths. Stradivari’s first cellos date from this time, as do the first compositions specifically written for cello: collections of Ricercares by Giovanni Antonii (1687) and Domenico Gabrielli (1689), as well as Domenico Galli’s “Trattenimento Musicale Sopra Il Violoncello Solo” (1692). ![]() ![]() While the Baroque Period in music is generally considered to cover approximately the period from 1600-1750, the cello – an Italian invention – did not appear till the end of the 1600s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |