instrument: Cello

The cello is the bass-baritone member of the orchestral bowed string family, and among the most important instruments within the history of classical music – since its appearance in the early 16th century. Like its musical relatives the violin, viola, and double bass, the cello – or more accurately the violoncello (literally “small, large viol”) – has roots in the Medieval viol and rebec, or fiddle. See the entry on violin for the early development of the cello and other instruments of this family.

By the early Baroque, the “bass violin” – or violone, as it was often called – had become a staple of the string consort, used especially in Italian church sonatas and similar works by Claudio Monteverdi, among others. By around 1700 the term “violoncello” was in common usage, associated with an increasingly fixed design and size – as in the “forma B” by the master instrument maker, Antonio Stradivari. The cello quickly became a popular ensemble instrument, in part via its standard role within the Continuo group – an accompanying consort that also included the harpsichord or organ – not only in chamber music, but also in opera and orchestral music. Solo works featuring the cello increased in the late-Baroque, primarily by Italian composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, who wrote 9 cello sonatas and 27 cello concertos. On the other hand, the cello remained less prominent in France (where the similarly-ranged viola da gamba maintained dominance through at least the 1730s) and in Germany – in turn making J.S. Bach’s glorious suites for solo cello, BWV1007-1012, rather an anomaly. A broader embrace of the cello occurred in the Classical era, as seen, for example, in the cello concertos of Franz Joseph Haydn and the cello sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven – as well as in the increasingly prominent role of the cello within string quartets and symphonies of Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Beethoven. Perhaps the greatest cello composer (and performer) of the period, however, was the Italian Luigi Boccherini, who wrote 11 cello concertos and no less than 34 cello sonatas.

During the 19th century, the number of solo works featuring the cello increased, as did the overall virtuosic demands placed on the instrument. Among outstanding examples during the Romantic and late-Romantic eras include cello concertos and related works by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Tchaikovksy, Edouard Lalo, and Camille Saint-Saëns; as well as cello sonatas and related works by Felix Mendelssohn, Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Richard Strauss, and Gabriel Fauré. In these works, composers increasingly took advantage of the cello’s broad range in register and expression, from sweet melodic passages in the upper register, to powerful, rhythmic gestures in the lower register, etc; the cello was often featured as well within purely orchestral works, just as the prominence and size of the cello section within orchestras increased during this period – nearly doubling through the course of the 19th century. In the Modern era, the cello entered an even heightened status – in large part through a growing number of superb performers, including Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich – as well as many female cellists, such as Natalia Gutman, thanks to the addition of the endpin or “spike”. Among Modern and Contemporary composers that have set a new tone and approach in their cello concertos and cello-featured chamber works include Anton Webern, Sergey Prokofiev, Darius Milhaud, William Walton, Samuel Barber, Dmitri Shostakovich, Witold Lutoslawski, Hans Henze, Tore Takemitsu, and many others – often incorporating unusual or complex techniques.