Sigiswald Kuijken’s da spalla cellos
What is the man at the centre of the 21st-century da spalla revival playing on?
Sigiswald Kuijken, the renowned Flemish baroque violinist and founder of the orchestra La Petite Bande, has been at the forefront of this century revival of the Violoncello da Spalla. After meeting with Lambert Smith, a researcher, mathematician, and amateur player, he became curious and finally decided to commission an instrument from Dmitry Badiarov. This was the very first of the Badiarov spallas, and Daniela played it when it was still in the white, on the occasion of the making of the strings for it. It happened on January 26, 2004, at the facilities of Aquila Corde Armoniche, the gut string company run, at that time, by Mimmo Peruffo and Daniela herself. The playing technique was not yet a topic of discussion 😅.
(On a side note, this was not the first da spalla of the modern era: the Violoncello da Spalla, alias viola pomposa always exhisted after Bach’s time, for example they appeared in a catalogue of a German factory at the beginning of the 20th century. To mention just a few other, Adolf Bush had one made by his father at the beginning of the 20th century, when his father had the occasion to measure one of the Leipzig Hoffmann -now lost. Lambert Smith, who was a student of Sigiswald Kuijken at conservatory, had one made before the year 2000 by Dirk Jacob Hamoen, who was well acquainted with the Brussels Hoffmann having worked for decades at the Brussels Musical Instruments Museum. In France, the young Eliakim Boussoir made for his degree in Mirecourt a viola pomposa, alias Violoncello da Spalla, in the year 2000. The idea came to him because he had done an apprenticeship with a luthier, Samuel Peguiron, who already made one in 1994.)
Mr Kuijken has the soul of a researcher, and he never stops studying and experimenting until he’s fully satisfied. He won’t be happy with “ready-made soup”. He ordered a second instrument from Badiarov, this time a larger one, affectionately nicknamed “spallone” (big spalla), because he had in mind the iconographies from Italy showing larger instruments.
This instrument, the larger one, was used as a four-string continuo instrument, while the first one, the smaller one, is kept as the five-string obbligato instrument, the piccolo.
Yet, Mr Kuijken was still in search for his voice, until one day his wife Marlene caught his attention: they had at home an old tiny cello, which they always believed to be a children cello. Sigiswald bought it long before to help someone in financial need and since then it sat on the top of a cupboard. Why couldn’t that become a Violoncello da Spalla? Maybe that’s precisely what it was, since the beginning! They brought it to a luthier in Paris, who adapted it and converted it to five strings. And Sigiswald was happy, he found his voice and his favorite companion!
Being it the largest of the three cellos, he eventually decided to keep it as a four-stringed instrument and use it for continuo playing. Spallone was sold (to a Canadian violinist), and the piccolo, the first one made by Badiarov, remains as the five strings for the obbligato parts.
The life of a cellist is not daily playing obbligato solos; actually, it’s quite the opposite. Sigiswald travels worldwide, giving masterclasses, and he loves playing the continuo with his students. So, his daily instrument is the former “old children’s cello” now original da spalla, and which he loves so much. He lately settled with it, preferring it for continuo playing, chamber music and also for solo cello repertoire.
Sigiswald Kuijken and his da spalla are at the service of music, and the role of the instrument is precisely to be instrumental in conveying his voice. We learned a lot from the meetings with him.
We met him 3 times in the past six years, but only once we could see the piccolo, the other times he only had the historical one with him. Last year he also allowed us one hour to measure it, and we discussed together the advantages and peculiarities of it. It is always a pleasure to meet someone so passionate about research and so generous with their knowledge.
You can hear the voice of Sigiswald’s original da spalla also in the album “Solo”, recorded in June 2023 and published to celebrate Sigiswald Kuijken’s 80th birthday. This cello, described in the booklet as Anonymous, Germany mid 18th century, is also featured in two of the three pics on the cover of the album. We think it is a wonderful recording, highly recommended! It’s available on all platforms.
News from da Spalla world
Are you looking for a Violoncello da Spalla A-case? This one is ready to go, straight from the factory. It is a show sample but still in perfect condition. The price is 20% discounted! If you are interested, get in touch!
Updates from our workshop
Recently, we were removed from the Da Spalla Community Facebook group, which we had administered, together with a group of friends and colleagues, and helped thrive during the years preceding and contemporary to the COVID-19 pandemic, because we mentioned somewhere in this newsletter that Sigiswald Kuijken plays on a Bohemian children’s cello (that’s what we remember he said the first time that we saw him with it in 2019, when it was still very new even to him. This proved to be wrong after more research, we apologies for such incorrect information). We were asked to rectify this and specifically write that S.K. plays exclusively on Badiarov da spalla cellos, which is not correct and we refused to do. We hope that, with this newsletter, we have presented the situation with more clarity and details.
We invite all who want a free and open-minded discussion to join the Da Spalla Enthusiasts Facebook group, a group that we created years ago, on the occasion of another hype of incongruous information, intolerances and subsequent bullying. In this group everyone is welcome to share research articles, news, music, iconography. Bullying other members is not tolerated, and anyway nobody already known for this kind of behavior will be admitted to the group. It’s a group made to enjoy music and discover the Violoncello da Spalla.
In 2022, Daniela participated with a Violoncello da Spalla (now owned by Kim Min, a violinist in Philadelphia) at an exhibition of women luthiers, which was held in Suwanee (near Atlanta), Alexandria (close to Washington, D.C.), and was to be closed in Vermont. The day before our flight to the US, we discovered we had contracted Covid, so we rushed to ship the instrument, as we couldn’t attend the first tranche of the exhibition. For that occasion, we created a series of gadgets (still available on Redbubble) and a brochure to explain what a Violoncello da Spalla is and our story. That brochure evolved into a full-fledged book, now available on Amazon.
It contains the story of the Violoncello da Spalla through the ages, with all the treatises, iconographical references, and also references to the original instruments in museums, as well as our own story with the Violoncello da Spalla. It’s around 80 pages, with fun illustrations (not only iconography but also cartoons by Daniela). Most importantly, all the sources are there, so it’s a must-have reference book. And it’s cheap, not because it doesn’t contain value, but because it has to be widespread. This is also why it is available on Amazon, allowing it to be accessible worldwide.
Here is the link to buy our small book containing the history and the research about the Violoncello da Spalla
Featured video of the week
In this video, recorded in 2016, you can see side by side the piccolo and the spallone, the two da spalla cellos made for Sigiswald Kuijken by Dmitry Badiarov in the first decade of this century.
Enjoy here a beautiful performance of J. S. Bach’s Musical Offering, in which Sisgswald plays on his original instrument, made in Germany at the mid of the 18th century. Recorded in October 2023.
Are you a luthier interested in making a Violoncello da Spalla?
In the archive of this newsletter, I have documented the entire process, sharing measures and templates. You can check the index and some of the posts at this link. If you subscribe to a paid plan, you will have instant access to all the posts and a private chat where you can ask me any questions.
Further suggested readings:
Early re-discovery of the Violoncello da Spalla in Brussels before the year 2000: read this interview to Fançois Fernandez and Yun Kim, which we published on September 2021
On the French revival history, this is our interview with Eliakim Boussoir, published here on May 2021
