CELLO
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Author : Vasile Jucan
The cello belongs to the violin family, being an instrument resembling the violin, but of much larger dimensions and with a much deeper timber. At the beginning it had five strings, which in time were reduced to four having the pitch of today: C, G, d, a. The score is noted in F or G, or in tenor key, and the range is C – a2.
History – the 17th – 18th centuries
The history of the cello starts with its predecessor, basso di viola da braccio, whose existence is mentioned at the beginning of the 16th century. In Italy, at the middle of the 17th century, the instrument is known as violone, the term violoncello being adopted in Italy and Germany at the end of the 17th century, and after 1700 also in France and England.
The manufacturing of the cello passed successive transformations and alterations. Thus, the oldest bibliographical source known, Musica instrumentalis by Agricola (Wittemberg, 1529), describes an instrument with three strings, pitched F-c-g. Monteverdi uses, around 1600, the pitch C-G-d-a, and Michael Pretorius, in Syntagma musicum (1619), notes the existence of an instrument with four strings (pitched C-G-d-a or F-c-g-d), but also of a "Gross-Quint-Bass," with five strings, pitched F-C-G-d-a.
At the beginning of the 17th century (around 1710), Antonio Stradivari sets the dimensions of the cello, which remain the standard of the present day. Antonio Vivaldi, of whose works remain 27 concerts for cello, all in three movements, in the succession fast (allegro) – slow (Andante or Largo) – fast (Allegro), or Giuseppe Tartini, the author of at least one concert for cello.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) is the author of three concerts, and the cello player and composer Luigi Boccherini (1734-1805), considered one of the composers who played an important role in the emergence of the quartet, is the author of the first string quintet and of a quitet for piano. Haydn remains in the history of music as the "father of the quartet and of the symphony," in a valoric way, and not as a priority. For the cello players, Haydn is the author of the cello concerts, No. 1 in C Major (1761-1768) and No. 2 in D Major (1783). Beethoven composed famous quartets, which represent "the beginning of a new subjectivism in music, by noting on the stave the sincere emotion, in all hues," but also sonatas and variations for cello, and the Triple Concerto for piano, violin and cello.
Cello in 20th century music
The cello and its place in the typology of musical genres
In the first five decades of the 20th century we witness the great transformations of an art that resents a stylistic diversification without precedent. Still, the traditional genres continue to exist, and for cello there are both solo pieces, and chamber works (sonatas, duos, trios, quartets, quintets) – a genre category in which especially the quartet seems to pass through a new flourishing period – but also concert pieces. We mention as an example for the mixed type genres, the Concert for String Quartet by Paul Constantinescu.
Works for cello solo
The number of pieces written to prove the solistic purity of the cello is not great. Nonetheless, we mention the Sonata for Solo Cello (1915) by Kodály Zoltán, placed by the musicologists in the category of works in which the "musical assembly indicates a powerful insistence on the organicity and inner unity of the detail". The sonatas and quartets are majoritary in a list of chamber music of the period.
Chamber works
Prefaced by the Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor (1898) by Max Reger, and by two of Enescu’s pieces, Sonata I for Cello and Piano op. 26 (1898) and the Octet for Four Violins, Two Violas and Two Cellos in C, op. 7 (1900), the works of the first half of the 20th century which involve the cello in the musical discourse are some of the most interesting. Thus, the year 1901 brings the String Quartet in A Major by Max Reger, a piece that opened the door for a series of works dedicated to this genre: the Quartet in F Major (1903) by Ravel, the Quartet in D Minor op. 74 (1904) by Reger, the Quartet in D Minor op. 7 (1905) by Schönberg, the Quartet in D Major (1907) by Ottorino Respighi, the Quartet op. 7 (1908) by Bartók, the Quartet for Piano in D Major op. 16 (1909) by Enescu, the Quartet in D Minor ’Voces intimae’ op. 56 (1909) by Jean Sibelius, the Quartet in E-flat Major op. 109 (1909) by Reger, the Quartet in F-sharp Minor op. 121 (1911) by Reger.
In the time of the quartets there are also other genres: Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello op. 2 by Albert Roussel, Five Pieces for String Quartet op. 5 (1909) by Webern and the Sonata for Cello and Piano op. 4 (1910) by Kodály, followed by Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in A Minor (1914) by Ravel and Duo for Violin and Cello (1914) by Kodály:
Also in 1914 appeared the Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914) by Stravinsky, of which Roman Vlad wrote: the title is due "not to a sophisticated terminological subtlety, but to a profound reason […] which enlightens an essential aspect of the historical situation in which European music found itself in the first decades of our century," when "the term quartet did not indicate a form, but in a more simple manner, the way of composing an instrumental ensemble." "The spirit of chamber music asks for the timbral individualization of each instrument," and in the Three Pieces, Stravinsky "pushes this exigency t its ultimate consequences", "making use of the different ways of playing the string" and succeeding this way to "differentiate to the maximum even the homogenous sonority of the string instruments."
The following period does not alter the numerical balance between sonatas and quartets. We note, on the one hand, the Sonata for Piano and Cello (1915) by Debussy, the Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor op. 109 (1917) by Gabriel Fauré, Serenade for Strings Trio (1920) by Kodály and Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922) by Ravel, while in the genre of the string quartet, the pieces written by Bartók (nr. 2 op. 17 - 1917), Kodály (nr. 2 - 1918), op. 22 nr. 1 in E-flat Major (1920) by George Enescu, nr. 2 op. 16 (1921) by Hindemith and the Quartet no. 5 (1923) by Alois Haba.
Alban Berg wrote in 1926, the Lyric Suite for String Quartet, and Bartók composed the String Quartets No. 3, 4, 5 şi 6 between 1927-1939. Also in 1926 Mihail Jora wrote the String Quartet op. 9, and the following year appeared the String Quartet no. 3 op. 30 by Schönberg, while in 1936 the String Quartet No. 4 op. 37 by the same composer.
In 1932 Arthur Honegger composed the Sonata for Violin and Cello, and five years later the String Quartet No. 3.
Hindemith wrote, between 1938 and 1948, a Quartet for Piano, Clarinet, Violin and Cello, the String Quartets No. 5 and 6, and the Second Sonata for Cello and Piano.
For Shostakovitch, the years 1940-1949 represent the work for the Quintet with Piano and the String Quartet No. 4 op. 83, while Enescu wrote the Sonata for Piano and Cello in C Major op. 26 no. 2 (1935), the Quintet for Piano, Two Violins, Viola and Cello in A Minor (1940) and the Quartet for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello in D Minor No. 2 op. 30 (1944).
Quatuor pour la fin du Temps by Olivier Messiaen was composed in 1940, and in the following period of time (1941-1945), Britten wrote the String Quartet in D Major op. 25 and the String Quartet in C Major. Prokofiev wrote, between 1941-1949, the String Quartet No. 2 and the Sonata for Cello and Piano op. 119.
Regarding the Romanian compositions, we notice the Sonata for Cello and Piano by Tudor Ciortea (1948) and the String Quartet by Sigismund Toduţă (1936).
Concerts for cello and orchestra
As regards the concert genre written for the cello, we note the Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra op. 8 by Enescu (1901), as well as the concerts by Edgar Elgar (1919), Hindemith (1940), Aram Khachaturian (1946). Igor Stravinsky composed, in 1920, a Concertino for Strings Quartet, Alfredo Casella a Concert for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra op. 56 (1933), while Paul Constantinescu wrote a Concert for String Quartet (1947).
Solos of the instrumental section in concert and symphonic pieces
Following the pattern of the predecessors, of which we note Rimsky-Korsakov, the author of the Scheherazade, where the cello plays significant solo parts, George Enescu offers the cello solo instances in the Suite I for Orchestra op. 9 (1903). Also, in the third part (Andantino cantabile senza lentezza), written in variational form, of the Second Sonata for Piano and Cello in C Major op. 26 no. 2 (1935), George Enescu presents the theme played by the cello solo, along 15 bars.
New sonorous effects proposed in the period of the first five decades of the 20th century
The use of the bow
The musical compositions of the first half of the previous century used, especially in the string instruments, the usual features of the bow: at the heel, at the tip, battutta, col legno. The cello becomes an instrument which can be considered, along with the violin, in the new music regarding the acoustic ideals, connected with the percussion effects. The body of the instrument becomes a source of new sonorities. Similarly, there existed instrumentalisits who preferred to modify the length of the bow, to obtain a better support for the longer notes.
Timbral effects concerning the unconventional use of the instrument
"There can be delineated a few categories in the semiographic tendencies of the 20th century:
- I. Caused by the crisis of the sound, at the beginning of the century there will emerge new ways of exploring the resources of the instrument, under all the aspects (…) for example: strokes, knocks or actions with the help of auxiliary objects (sticks) etc. [...].
- II. "(…) an explosion of the notation marks, with obvious tendencies towards visualization, writings which allow liberties to the instrumentalist."
- III. An action of "synthetizing, in which from the multitude of the notation marks and the technical solutions become classical only some of the signs, which correspond to validated sonorous realities. Some of them are the cluster, the effect of prolonging the vibrations, glissando etc, which were imposed as specific techniques [...]".
Other effects
In the Lyric Suite for String Quartet (1926) by Alban Berg, a piece partially dodecaphonical, we encounter some effects which can be easily considered "aesthetic".
The musicologists noticed, for instance, the range of the expression terms employed: "it seems that Berg ostentatively entitled his work as being lyrical, and not only a simple suite in six parts. The ostentative intention becomes accentuated also in the expressive specifications which accompany the movement indications of each piece: gioviale (I), amoroso (II), misterioso (III), appassionato (IV), delirando (V), desolato (VI), also a sentimental catalogue of lyricism".
The problem of timbral emancipation started earlier, by "the increasing differentiation of the timbre value in Romantic and Impressionist music," and the importance which Schönberg placed on the phenomenon. Thus, starting with the 5 Pieces for Orchestra op. 16 (1909), la piece whose subtitle is Farben ("Colours"), Schönberg experiments the concept of Klangfarben melodie.
Timbral metamorphoses and noise emancipation in the works written for cello in contemporary music
Percussive effects, noise as timbral effect
The cello is used in the music of the second half of the 20th century in the spirit of some innovations of exacerbated expressivity, first as a source of the different percussive effects, but also through noises of distorsioned sonorities.
There are also employed glissandi on flageolets or the ones produced with the daumen, or the indication of performing "mit grossen Ton".
New effects ("sand-foot")
In Valse vide, we notice the composer’s request that the cello player should "graciously" rub the floor with his feet.
Music dedicated to cello in contemporary period (1950 to present)
From genres to the new programmatic instances of music
Livre pour quatuor (1949) and Structures (1952) - Boulez, Chronochromie (1960) - Messiaen, Gruppen (1955) and Zyklus (1959) - Stockhausen, Incantations - Ţăranu, Arcade - Stroe, Orion, for cello and orchestra (1983) - Toru Takemitsu. All of these works avoid the tradition of naming the genre in the title of the piece, and some of them make use of programmatic significations. Although in the second half of the 20th century this tendency was very common, we notice that the pieces for cello or the ones in which this instrument plays an important part are, to a large extent, precisely delineated from the point of view of the genre.
Works for solo cello
The works for solo cello are present also in the second half of the 20th century. We note three reference pieces, identically entitled, Sonatas for Solo Cello, composed by George Crumb (1955), Anatol Vieru (1962) and Sigismund Toduţă (1989).
Chamber works (especially string quartets)
As regards the chamber compositions, Aaron Copland (1950), George Enescu with the String Quartet in G Major op. 22 no. 2 and the Quartet with Piano (1951), but also Dimitri Shostakovitch, with the String Quartet no. 5 op. 92 (1952), are representatives of the genre.
In 1952, Cornel Ţăranu composed the Trio for Strings, while Eliot Carter, Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Cembalo.
Sigismund Toduţă, in Sonata for Cello and Piano (1952), offers an extremely rare example which poses new technical problems.
Of the authors who composed quartets we notice: Pascal Bentoiu, String Quartet No. 1 in E Major op. 3 (1953), Zeno Vancea, String Quartet No. 2 in E Minor (1953), C-tin Silvestri, String Quartet op. 27 no. 2 (1954), George Crumb, String Quartet (1954), Cornel Ţăranu, String Quartet (1955), Dmitri Shostakovitch, String Quartet no. 6 op. 101 (1955).
To these can be added the works by Anatol Vieru, String Quartet no. 1 (1956), Radu Paladi, String Quartet in C Minor (1956), Anatol Vieru, String Quartet no. 2 (1957), Alois Haba String Quartet no. XI op. 87 (1958) and String Quartet no. 2 op. 52 (1966) by Mihail Jora.
Concerts for cello and orchestra – the viability of the genre
The composers of the last five decades of the previous century manifested a preference for the timbre of the cello as a concert instrument. The authors of the concerts for cello and orchestra are numerous and renowned: Anatol Vieru (1962), André Jolivet (1962 and 1966), György Ligeti (1966), Witold Lutoslawski (1970), Penderecki (1972), Shostakovitch (1959 şi 1966), Adrian Pop (1975), Alfred Schnittke (1990).
We note some of the important pieces from the point of view of the genre or of the usage of the cello: the Concert for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra (1963) by Paul Constantinescu, the Symphony for Cello and Orchestra op. 68 (1963) by Benjamin Britten, Concertino per la ’Musica Nova’- Quintet for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano (1967) by Adrian Raţiu.
Solos for cello
From the concerning perios we note an interesting example of a piece for solo cello, found in the Symphony no. 14, op. 135 (1969) by Shostakovitch.
Romanian musical compositions written for cello
We consider as opportune a chronological presentation of some works from the Romanian compositions for cello. The titles capture nonetheless some of the main coordinates of Romanian music and represent also a suggestion for the cello players.
Typologies of the sonorous effects in cello compositions of the 20th century
- 1. Ways of articulation and sonorous rendering:
- - pizzicato with daumen (Toduţă)
- - bowing on the tailpiece, bridge or the resonance box (Stroe)
- - ways of using the pizzicato (all composers):
- - pizzicato “on the vertical” with percussion effect
- - pizzicato sul ponticello, with a sharp sonorous effect
- - arpeggiated pizzicato (up- and down-bow, sometimes alternately) (Bartók)
- - pizzicato with daumen (Toduţă)
- - col legno (almost all composers)
- - sul ponticello (Ligeti)
- - “heavy bouncing bow” (Ligeti)
- - arco gettato (A. Pop)
- - glissando quasi gridi (A. Pop)
- - changes of bow sempre liscio (A. Pop)
- - “discoloration” of the sound (senza colore) (Ligeti)
- - flageolets (frequently)
- - sul ponticello, sul tasto and col legno (Penderecki)
- 2. Noises:
- - scratching noise (Ligeti)
- - strong pressure of the bow (distorsioned sonorities) (Stroe)
- - noises produced by rubbing the palm or the feet (Stroe)
- - percotando/glissando (Terényi)
- - col legno battuto (Ţăranu, A. Pop)
- - “Bartók - pizz” Lift the string and let it strike the fingerboard (Ligeti)
- - slaps col legno on the tailpiece (Terényi)
Innovative issues of instrumental technique
Taking into account the more or less conventional ways of writing, we noticed that the instrumental technique was forced to keep up with the procedures imposed by the composers:
- - the ways of articulation were widened;
- - the bow was used as a percussion instrument;
- - the bow wood claimed (almost) equal rights with the bow hair;
- - the bowing can be performed near the bridge, over the bridge, on the bridge, on the nut or even the body of the instrument;
- - the resonance of the box was used for percussion;
- - to the sounds produced by the instrument were added finger, palm or feet taps, or voice;
- - the principles of fingering were restructured;
- - the characteristics of the sound were focused on timbre and its metamorphoses;
- - there were created techniques of timbre-making and un-timbring the sounds;
- - the emancipation of noise lead to the extension of the technique of the right hand;
- - the improvisation technique developed;
- - were developed new ways of playing the ornaments;
- - were developed skills of reading modern scores;
- - the performance moved from the aesthetic significations to the precise naming of the categories (see glissando and grotesque);
- - there are tendencies to the performance in drama style (instrumental theatre);
- - were theorized notions and ways that represent the composing manner of some composers (“Bartók - pizz”);
- - there is frequently employed the combination and ovelaping or technical procedures of rendering the sonorous timbres;
- - the fragments typical to alleatoric music make the instrumentalists participants in creating music.