An Approach to Romantic cello playing in Brahms's time

María Cadenas Rodríguez

The revolution of sound recording at the beginning of the 20th century influenced classical performance practice, setting definitive interpretations and eradicating more personal approaches to music-making. Many fundamental expressive devices were lost over the years and thus Romantic musical performance was no longer understood in the same way. This is why my research tries to look backwards in time with the aim of exploring the main attributes of Brahms’s Romantic style in music for string instruments. My research aims to: (1) understand lost Romantic expressive devices and how they worked, and (2) explore ways of using them today. I first analysed primary and secondary literature to establish context. Then I examined historical edited cello scores by Brahms, using them to show the different fingerings and slurrings provided by the main cellists of the period, which give us a clear idea about the use of portamenti, for example. Finally I listened to cello and string quartet early recordings to hear sonic evidence of these techniques, before applying them in Brahms's chamber music for cello. The main outcome I found is that diverse and emotional approaches to music-making made the Romantic period unique. I hope these tools can encourage today’s cellists and string players in general to create new, more personal, freer and more creative approaches to playing Romantic repertoires.

CHAPTER 3: EXPRESSIVE DEVICES

On string instruments the use of portamento or embellishment with vibrato were essential aspects of Brahms’s aesthetic, being used in order to achieve different shades of emotion, tone color and expressive gestures.

Portamento:the audible connection between notes.

Portamento, the sliding into, after and between notes instead of a clean attack or finish, is the main expressive device of the Romantic time, and of course the one more often used by string players, who slid between notes to give a more expressivo character usually in more lyrical passages. “It is executed with pressure of the bow and often with a relatively slow movement of the left hand” (Brown, 2003:79), but depending on these two parameters, pressure and speed, we can find a large range of portamenti types. However, modern string players try to hide every slide between notes, using different ways of fingering and releasing the pressure of the bow when shifting. "Clive Brown argues that something is lost with the new fingerings.” (Stowell, 2003:5). That’s why by studying 19^thcentury fingerings such as sliding with the same finger, “one can achieve a seamless legato, combined with a range of varied portamento effects”. As Sherman upholds in Performing Brahms: Early Evidence of Performance Style,“one cannot get a real feeling for the sound and phrasing [of Brahms’s contemporaries] without abandoning the modern style of fingering.” (Sherman, 2003:5)

According to violist Emlyn Stam’s thesis (2019:69), Kai Köpp classified six types of portamento, many of which make reference to Spohr’s Violinschule:

- PL: (Portamento Langsam) Sliding with one finger during a slur

(Small intervals up to a perfect fourth, according to Spohr)

- PS: (Portamento Schnell) Sliding with two different fingers during a slur

(Large intervals of a perfect fifth or greater; Spohr prefers sliding with the guide finger rather than with the arrival finger)

- I: (Intonazione) Sliding into the beginning of a phrase

(Small intervals, sliding with the arrival finger)

- C: (Cercar della nota) Sliding with the arrival finger after a bow change

(Small intervals)

- A: (Anticipazione della nota) Sliding with the arrival finger before the bow change

(Small and large intervals)

- L: (Librar la voce) Changing fingers on the same note

(Small intervals)

2. Vibrato: occasionally or continuously regular oscillation of the left hand.

Vibrato was used according to different fashions. Some string players were more conservative and preferred a light ornamental and non-continuous style of vibrato. Joachim is the most remarkable example of this manner of playing. However, he was much more of an exception than the rule. Many others string players had rich, heavy, and continuous vibrato.

The more conservative performers used vibrato as an ornament, for giving color and embellishment. This means that, “a beautiful and powerful sound was not dependent on a vibrato as one of its basic elements.” (Brown, 2004:64). This way of using vibrato wasn’t too heavy, so the deviation from the note was hardly noticeable. It was understood as a way of imitating the harmonics produced through the sound of open strings, which was very appreciated at the time. As Brahms wrote: “But a few open strings here and there, they delight my eye and calm my spirit.” (Avins, 2003: 26)

Joachim carried this concept over from the Viotti school and, as Bruce Haynes affirms in The End of Early Music: A Period Performer’s History of Music for the Twenty-First Century (2007), “his intermittent use of a subtle vibrato and portamento show ‘remarkable similarities" to the violin practice documented by Louis Spohr in 1832 and Ferdinand David a generation later.” According to Robin Stowell in A Performer’s Guide to Music of the Romantic Period, “Joaquim recognized ‘the steady tone as the ruling one’ and used vibrato only when expressively appropriate” (Stowell, 2003:49). Nevertheless, Joachim knew that “he was attempting to stand against a fast-flowing tide, and that vibrato was, for him, one of the most problematic issues of the day.” (Brown, 2004:66)

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