Rule to play the Violoncello da Spalla
Bartolomeo Bismantova, Ferrara 1694
Bartolomeo Bismantova’s “Compendio Musicale” is a tutorial book dedicated to “Signori Musici miei giorni” to contemporary musicians. B. B. was a cornetto player in the Academia dello Spirito Santo di Ferrara, the hometown of the Este family. It contains music theory, technical rules (like fingerings, breathing rules, and bowing rules), as well as helpful tips for practising, which are valuable also for professionals today. It is the first mention ever of the name “Violoncello da Spalla”. The first manuscript was completed in 1677, and in 1694 Bismantova added a few pages containing rules to play the Violoncello da Spalla, the Contrabasso and the Oboè. It was never published in his days due to the death of his protector.
At this link, you can find a free download of the whole book, or you can buy a physical copy here.
For a better understanding of the extent of this source, we think it’s worthwhile to look closely at a few pages.
Bismantova gets on for several pages with examples of different rhythm patterns and slurs and their bowings, which we highly recommend to see if you are at your first experience with a baroque bow and baroque music because they will teach you what this bow was created for and the way to pronounce and phrase with it easily. Rules are easy to understand even if you can’t read Italian, as they are explained with examples in notes and (dotted) bowings.
This precious note about the strings technology needs some attention. We are in Ferrara, very close to Bologna, the centre of music innovation of the time, and we are at the end of the 17th century. Wound strings were already available and probably quite seen around. But they were not used for violone or double bass players, and we think it’s for their cost (they indeed have been costly as the quantity of silver or other metals used in those big strings was noticeable) and probably their life length. Even if big and not as delicate as a violin’s, a wound string will never have the long life of a big 6 mm plain gut string (or even bigger!), which will last as long as the instrument itself! We also think the quality of the overspinning craftsmanship and that of the resulting sound were taken into consideration.
On the pages dedicated to the violin, there was not any mention of strings.
Finally, let’s look at the Violoncello da Spalla rules:
“alla moderna”, meaning the modern way. So playing the small violone or violoncello on the shoulder was a modern invention.
It has four strings, but we cannot be sure that the numbers on the example are indicating the fingerings and thus are proving the use of the diatonic (violin) fingering because, on the violone page, the numbers are simply following the notes, but cannot be fingerings in that case. As Bismantova was a windwood instruments player, probably his information on the fingerings, if meant so, is not reliable. However, he doesn’t mention fingerings here but only says that these are the notes with the corresponding numbered scale. In the violin rules, he speaks about fingerings only to say that you play a sharp note by pushing up the finger of the corresponding note and a flat note by pulling it down, except for the #G on the third string (the Tenor string) and the bE on the second string (the Alto) which are both played with the 4th finger.
The fourth string is tuned one fourth lower, not fifth, for a better response of the string (see the note above), but it can as well be tuned in fifths
The fact that rules and bowings are the same as the violin ones is not proof of the horizontal position, as the exact phrase was used also for the Violone.
“The Violoncello is always played on the upper octave.” We don’t think this means the violin or the viola octave. As this page was added together with the violone rules and is just after it, we believe it’s the upper octave compared to the violone octave, so the cello octave. The use of the viola octave would not need the fourth string tuned up for a good response, as for sure, we are speaking of an instrument much bigger than the viola.
You can get more insights into Bismantova’s work in this video: it is meant for wind players and consort, but the tips are handy also when applied to string players.
Updates from our workshop
We’re slowly settling into our new workshop. We’re so slow because unfortunately Daniela’s mum broke a heel during our holiday in Val d’Aostam so we are spending more time with her, and also because Daniela’s car definitely broke and needs to be replaced, which took away time and energy (long hours scrolling car sales announcements online).
