We can find many references about bowing, fingering and tempo in violin treatises by L. Spohr (1833), F. David (1864), J. Joachim and A. Moser (1905). However, unfortunately there are no so many specifics and elaborated treatises and methods about cello playing in that time. What’s more, authors like Kennaway upholds that violin sources can’t be used it as real sources for cellists because there are obviously a lot of technical differences between both, cello and violin.
Davydov also devotes some pages of his Violoncello Schule to talk about shifting, but in this case, from a different point of view: “Davidoff may be the first to examine such techniques of minimizing audible shifting. He begins with simple shifts from first to fourth position on the same string, where he demonstrates his fundamental principles in some detail.” (Kennaway, 2014:104). According to Davydov’s method we find the following description:
Here slide thumb on the neck and fingers on the strings quickly and easily from one position to the other. The task becomes more difficult if the first tone of the following position is to be picked up with a different finger than the last tone of the previous position. For these cases (with a few exceptions) it could be established as a basic rule that the finger that is already on the string, without leaving it, slides into the new position, either lying on the spot or being picked up quickly, depending after the following position starts with a higher or lower finger, but that latter finger falls into place at the moment the new position is reached.
Thus, if two fingers change position, one would have to slide one and drop the other, and, according to the above rule, the finger beginning the new position would have to fall. The reverse case is not absolute; sometimes the player can achieve an expressive glissando.
The student is advised not to deviate from the given rule in the beginning; he achieves precision in the game and avoids many useless and ugly sounding glissandos.
We now want to take a closer look at the individual cases when changing positions:
1. If the transition with the same finger
2. If the empty string is between both positions
In this case, the thumb glides into the following position; the finger with which it starts falls on the string only at the moment when the thumb reaches the new position. If the finger touches the string sooner, one of the above-mentioned ugly-sounding glissandos arises.
3. When the first note of the following position is gripped with a higher finger than the last one of the previous position.
4. When the first note of the following position is seized with a lower finger like the last note of the previous position. In this case, what is said earlier is that the sliding finger, which until then had maintained its position reached in the new position, must now be lifted in order not to obscure the following deep finger. (Davydov, 1888:32-33)
After analyzing the necessary elements to carrying out portamento, the next question is how to apply it. We cannot forget that would be impossible to take into account all applications of this expressive tool, because its possibilities are countless. However, some authors point out certain clues, establishing general rules, in order to clarify this issue. In Mechanik und Aesthetic des Violoncellospiels (1929), for example, cellist Hugo Becker mentions the following ‘irrefutable rules’:
1. Assign every portamento with a diminuendo
2. The farther apart the notes to be connected are, the slower the sliding movement is performed, the more necessary the diminuendo
3. Let one never immediately follow the one-way portamento in the opposite direction
4. Add a vibrato to the portamento, if great passion, pain, deep emotion or the exhalation of the life force is to be described. But this nuance should only be performed from a higher to a lower tone.
CHAPTER 4: CELLO METHODS
Portamento
Treatises and early recordings demonstrate that portamento was a fundamental element of romantic string playing, and was an expressive tool integral to string players of Brahms’s circle. However, few specific references regarding its use were written by cellists, and there is much controversy amongst those sources we do have, particularly between cellists such as Friedrich Dotzauer, Jean-Louis Duport, Bernhard Romberg, Friedrich August Kummer, Carl Schroeder, Karl Davydov and Friedrich Grützmacher. Nonetheless, all are agreed on the relation between portamento and a vocal quality as well as on its sparing use. A good compilation of examples can be found in George Kennaway’s book Playing the Cello, 1780-1930 (2014).
We can say that portamento was a regular part of cellists’ expressive devices throughout the 19thcentury, and probably, was used increasingly through that period. However, different opinions arose:
Grützmacher and Popper would contrive fingerings to create portamento opportunities, but in other cases the picture is not so clear – at least in the cases of Davidoff or Schroeder there are grounds for suggesting that they were more restrained. The increasingly strong warnings about the ‘abuse’ of portamento in the later nineteenth century can of course be read as an indication of its increasing prevalence. (Kennaway, 2014:122)
After a close reading of edited scores and of the writings of Clive Brown, George Kennaway and Kate Bennett Wadsworth, I have generally classified Portamento types depending on 5 elements:
1. Finger: with the same finger or a different one
-Sliding from one note to another with the same finger
-Discontinuous portamento in which the finger that stops the first note slides into the position required for the next note to be taken with another finger, after which the new finger is put down as quickly as possible.
This was described by Becker in his treatise Mechanik und Aesthetik des Violoncellospiels (1929) in the following way:
There are two types of portamento execution:
1) with the same finger: the connection takes place without interruption
2) using two fingers: we can either glide with the starting finger up to the auxiliary note (a) or we use the finger of the target set to the portamento (b).
Examples 1 and 2b are more suitable for the lyric, Example 2a more for the heroic.
Davydov refers to this as B-shift (shifting with the beginning finger) and L-shift (sliding on the arriving or ‘last finger’).
2. Strings: through one only string or through several ones
3. Direction: ascendant or descendant
4. Bow: within a slur or before/after bow changing
5. Speed and pressure of left/right hand
The combination of these elements creates a variety of subtle effects of connecting sounds. It can be used in an emotionally neutral way or in a more expressive one. Sliding from one note to another one without emotional purpose would reproduce a smooth legato feeling. However, if we use it as an expressive gesture we could reach a whole palette of emotional intensities. These connecting sounds and their effects are again well explained by Becker in Mechanik und Aesthetik des Violoncellospiels (1929), where he compares it to the “laison” in French language. This linguistic phenomenon consists of associating the last consonant of a word with the first vowel of the following one. This creates a beautiful soft connection between the two words without any interruption. However, Becker singles out the lack of culture of musicians who constantly audibly slide when changing position, calling it ‘intrusive and repulsive’.
Video 1. Sliding from one note to another with the same finger.The connection takes place without interruption.
Video 2. Discontinuos portamento using two fingers: gliding with the starting finger up to the auxiliary note and using the finger of the target set to the portamento.
Vibrato
Vibrato was used by string players in order to add a diversity of nuances to a steady tone, where pitch varies more or less depending on two parameters: the oscillation and the speed of the movement of the left hand. This technique inflects the tone, enhancing the expression of the sound. Unfortunately, “nineteenth-century cello methods discuss vibrato far less often, and less systematically, than do those for the violin.” (Kennaway, 2014:123). Taking a look at Spohr’s violin method, for example, we can see that he distinguishes four different types of vibrato, having always in mind that “this movement must not be too strong and the deviation from the purity of the note should scarcely be perceptible to the ear”. (Spohr, 1833:175)
- intense and fast
- slower and less intense
- increasing in intensity through the note
- decreasing in intensity.
Kennaway also studies references to vibrato in several cello treatises, concluding again that it is a controversial issue. For instance, for Dotzauer and Romberg vibrato was an ornamental tool for cello playing, and “similar restrictions [to Joachim’s use of vibrato] were prescribed in their cello treatises, while some writers, notably Duport, neglect vibrato completely”. (Stowell, 2004:49). Piatti used vibrato rarely and only in a very subtle manner, Servais wrote several markings in scores such as waves, accents in a row, ‘avec abandon’, ‘avec passion’, ‘avec âme et passion’... (See Kennaway 2014:126). Becker too makes reference to vibrato's different applications at the time.
It will be hard to determine when the vibrato became natural. What is certain is that the old classic schools in Italy and France were averse to a richly applied vibrato. The only Paganini disciple, Sivori (1815-1894), who had a wonderful tone, did not tend to vibrate at all. Alfredo Piatti, the greatest violoncellist of Italian blood, seldom used vibrato in a very subtle way... (Becker, 1929:202)
Paradoxically, William Whitehouse described later a rather different version of vibrato use while editing his teacher Piatti’s cello method:
This term, though rarely written in music, is essentially a feature of artistic interpretation. The use of it vitalizes the tone and increases the power of expression. It consists of a wide movement of the left hand (not a trembling motion) and should be acquired by practicing (preferably with the 2nd finger) a slow semi-circular movement coming from the wrist. By this means the finger will alternately sharpen and flatten the note, thereby creating vibrato. Joachim termed it pulsation. (W.E. Whitehouse, 1911:48).
However, in many works it is emphasized that vibrato has to be used in a sparingly and discriminatingly way, just to give character to special individual notes because in a melody not all notes are of equal importance. Usually the most important ones fall on the heavy beat and require more vibrato to enhance their harmonious tones. This emphasis supports the melodic structure and good phrasing.
Also, the frequent employment of harmonics and open strings in early annotated editions of Brahms’s string chamber music indicates a context in which musicians associated with the old German tradition still expected that vibrato should be used sparingly and ornamentally in this repertoire. (Brown, 2016:11)
As Becker points out in his treatise Mechanik und Aesthetik des Violoncellospiels, vibrato reveals ‘inner sympathy with some experience’, like the human voice with its vibration. This is what we should have in mind in order to determine the intensity and speed of vibrato, which should correspond to a respective affect in the notation and musical context of the composer. This obviously invalidates a single vibrato style, like that with ‘overflowing feeling.' Becker upholds that “every feeling requires a different blend of power, color, and expression; the choice of the vibrato character plays a major role." However, “the tendency to play every cantilena with overflowing feeling is common. Hanslick called the cello an instrument of melancholy and sentimentality. Wantonly, exaggerated sentiment seems ridiculous because it creates too much expression.” (Becker, 1929:199)
The human voice was always the model for portamento, as the device played a major role in the art of singing. As Becker says, unfortunately string players don’t have the really important clue that singers do: text. The "singer is protected from such mistakes by the text underlaid by the music, the cellist lacks such a guide,” with instrumental music missing the ‘neat, sure guide’ that is text. Therefore it was common for misunderstandings to arise with string players.
The markings in scores that might suggest where to use this expressive tool, however, are summarized below:
-sf, p dolce and piano espressivo: "Marion Ranken's recollections point out that vibrato was made great use of in sf, p dolce and piano espressivo." (Brown, 2106:10)
-Hairpins: messa di voce is a marking which could suggest vibrato for example in Grützmacher and Servais scores, as Kennaway explains in his book Playing the Cello 1780-1930.
-Accents: “Observe the little accents > by slightly swelling on the notes thus marked – with perhaps a little vibrato.” (Piatti, 1874:2)
As a final conclusion, it is clear that vibrato is a concept open for debate because of the contradictions and the limited amount of instructions, methods and markings in scores. What’s more, we can’t forget that, as early recordings show, in the recording era vibrato was maybe one of the main tools to make each artist more individual and easily recognizable by the ears alone.