Bach is a serious matter. Use him respect.
Violoncello piccolo in Bach Cantata
When I first got involved with Violoncello da Spalla, somewhere around 2004, I never heard anything about it before. Being a viola player, it was with enthusiasm (and ingenuity) that I spoke about it to a cellist colleague. What I got back was a laugh in the face. Just like that, straightforward. What sense could it have? Clumsy and with little sound compared with a standard cello, why should someone be interested in it? Cm’on, Bach is a serious matter. Use him respect.
I am now ashamed to admit that for years this verdict influenced me. Much later, when my husband decided that if I were not going to make it (despite having purchased the original project by D. Badiarov), he would make it himself, I still demonstrated short interest. The day arrived in which I had to try it. It was not only fun, but it was also easy, easier than viola for sure! But this is my story, let’s get back to Bach.
Was Bach so grave as we usually see him? When we look through our 21st century’s eyes and the devotion we have for his works, it takes a bit more reading about his life and times to get to see the real man. I can see two main aspects of his personality: he was creative, avid of musical experimentation, curious, he would use all the instruments and tools he could to get his message across. He was convinced that music was the way to elevate our spirits to god, or better, the only possible way God had to communicate with us, and it was his duty to put this communication into practice.
Bach’s priority in cantatas was not beautiful sound (especially not what is beautiful sound for us today) or virtuosity as itself, but delivering a clear message. On one occasion, he went as far as using a note which is almost unplayable in the midst of a beautiful trumpet solo to remember to the audience that Man could indeed create wonderful art but never get to absolute perfection.
In the violoncello piccolo obbligato parts in his cantatas, Bach specifically wrote “piccolo”, which means small. He didn’t write “for five strings” as he did in the sixth suite. Violoncello already meant small violone, so why emphasising even more by adding the word piccolo? Could this mean he wanted a particularly small cello? He didn’t mention five strings here, but it was pretty clear from the writing that he had a five strings cello, tuned CGDAE. He was a close friend with luthier J. C. Hoffmann, so the possibility that Hoffmann’s piccolo cellos are exactly what he meant by violoncello piccolo is very high, even if not confirmed by contemporary sources.
He used the violoncello piccolo in his cantatas eight times between October 1724 and May 1725. In four of them, the C string is not even used. In others, the lower strings are used in slow descending scales, not in virtuosic passages, or, in low cadenzas, the continuo doubles the same notes. Most probably, the two lower strings were not performing as the upper ones, which, by the way, is usually the case even in bigger cellos when using pure gut strings or basses overspun with ancient technologies, that is, without using modern materials or flat wire. They were probably clumsy, yes.
Why should Bach ever liked to use a clumsy instrument?
Hey, stop. Who said clumsy instrument? The voice of such a short cello on the high register is not clumsy at all. It is as agile as a violin and has a clear penetrating voice. It is, looking with more attention, the real middle instrument between trebles and basses, having all that characterises both categories.
Bach uses it in arias in which some communication between earthly and godly nature is happening. Could it be that he liked the idea of an instrument being a bridge between the two worlds but at the same time showing the difficulties of communication, as it will never be as celestial as a violin or as earthly as a violone? An instrument with a clear cristal voice that gets slowed down by clumsy earthly basses?
These thoughts were inspired by Koji Otsuki’s work. Should you want facts and details on how Bach handles the Violoncello piccolo in the obbligato parts in his cantatas, you can find them at the link below:
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/25325
Updates from our workshop
Here in Meltina there’s quite a lot going on, even if it seems not much to share.
Alessandro is very busy at the bench. He’s getting on with the new violoncello da spalla and the violin is at his final colour, it just needs one more coat of varnish to be well protected.
On my side I am preparing a presentation on the Wagner which will happen in a couple of weeks in Bolzano, next week I will share a video playing him, so stay tuned!
Featured video of the week
Enjoy at the link below Cantata BWV 85 performed by Sigiswald Kuijken. Probably the most demanding between violoncello piccolo obligato parts, here Bach shows confidence in an instrument well settled and a performing G string. No C string required, here you see a four strings instrument tuned GDAE.
