The Washington times., 1935-11-09

only assumed JQe Important
position it now holds in the last
400 years.
Previous to that time, musi-
clans were evidently lazier than
they now seem to be. No one
wanted to lug around an inStru-
ment the size of a young house.
Yet composers insisted upon at
least a Semblance of a bass voice.
Up until the end of the Seven
teenth century, the Six-stringed
viola de gambia, which was small
er than the violoncello and was
held between the knees, was used
for the bass voice in most or
chestras.
When Haydn and Boccherini
created the string quartet form Of
ensemble music, the violoncello
become more important. The
four strings, low C below the
bass clef, G, D, and A. gave
ample range one octave below the
strings Of the viola, to suit the
needs Of these composers.
Finishing Touches
With the Standardization of
the size and number of strings,
there still remained some finish
ing touches to add, such as the
peg or pin which elevated the in
strument from the floor to a
suitable height and various de-
tails of body shape.
With the general acceptance
Of the violoncello, the usual mode
of lingering did not admit Of
fast technique, with the result
that most composers treated it as
q bass. BY the beginning Of the
Nineteenth century Dupert had
developed the system of lingering
wherein consecutive fingers were
called upon to play half tones
instead of whole tones as here
tofore.
The new style of lingering en-
Couraged more brilliant playing.
and more florid passages were en-
trusted to this large instrument.
Just as the violin was exploited
by Paganini, the first violoncel-
list to attain artistic standards
was Servais, who died in 1866.
In more modern times, Casals
and later our own DR.. Hans Kind
Ter, director of the National
Symphony Orchestra, have been
accepted as the greatest artists
on this instrument.
While there are several standard
sizes of the violoncello in use,
the average size is about four
feet in length. The voice of the
instrument has a warm, vibrant
masculine quality which may be
most expressive, though not so
piercing in carrying quality as
the smaller violins.
Mass Effect
Most all of the tricks that are
possible on the violin may be
performed on the violoncello. AS
the strings are longer and larger,
the response may not always be
quite as fast to the motion of
the bow as in the case Of the
smaller instruments.
The mass effect of eight to IL
violoncellos makes the section
one of the most effective inStru-
mentS of the orchestra.
The name violoncello meaning
''little big viol," is a rather
large name for common usage
with the result that the instru-
ment is usually referred to as the
cello. The correct pronuncia'
tion is "chello."
The String Bass
The voice of the string-baSS viol
IS seldom heard alone in the or
chestra: the deep growing or
grumbling tone that is usually per-
ceptible in the background for
which the String-basS is response
BILE, forms the harmonic founda-
ton of the whole orchestra.
This giant Of the violin family,
which stands some six feet in
height, for all it's size, is some
what inefficient as a noisemaker.
Yet the low tones, deeper than
any tones the lowest Russian bass
vocalist ever dreamed Of, have
way Of penetrating through the
mass Of sound coming from the
orchestra.
The shoulders of this massive
instrument, as if bent with weight,
are sloping, but its back is un-
bowed and its chest carries an ex.
ceedingly high bridge. The bow
shows more of the shape of the
huntsman's weapon than the bows
of the smaller instruments.
Most modern players use bow
that is not quite so wide as those
used in former years. The older
bows were graSped in the same
manner as one would hold saw.
The lighter bows now in general
use are held in the same manner
as the violin bow.
Octave Lower
The strings of the string-bass
run in a reverse order of the violin
strings. The lowest string Is the
e, followed by the A, D and G.
The string-basS is the only men,
ber of the violin family that is
transposing instrument, as the
tone sounds an octave lower than
written in the bass clef.
The pitch of the string-bass
corresponds to the pitch of the
16-foot pipe organ stop. Some
players use an instrument with
five strings, the additional string
being tuned to low c below the