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Published by ortus musikverlag in spring 2026:
Jan Freiheit
Das Violoncello. 1500 – 1800
Eine Quellensammlung
The volume will contain around 830 pages and over 300 colour and b/w illustrations, numerous music examples, source texts with translations and an index. The subscription price until 29 February 2026 is EUR 68.00 (thereafter EUR 98.00).
Orders should be sent to the publisher:
ortus musikverlag, Rathenaustr. 11,
15848 Beeskow. Mail: ortus@t-online.de
For around 100 years, there have been cello players who have endeavoured to perform the solo works for this instrument and the bass lines of chamber and orchestral music from a stylistically critical point of view and close to historical conditions. This was and is sometimes more and sometimes less successful. One reason for this is the fact that comprehensive descriptions of the violoncello and its playing technique are only available beginning with Michel Corrette’s school from 1741. In recent decades, however, these 18th century texts have been largely uncritically applied to the playing of the ‘baroque cello’ in general, although the conditions in the 17th and even more so in the 16th century were completely different.
Anyone who has already taken a closer look at this marvellous instrument will probably be surprised at the title of this work: The Violoncello 1500 - 1800. The correct title should have been: About the bass instrument of the violin family in the eight-foot range. 1500 - 1800 The term violoncello first appears in music history in 1665 in a Venetian printed score by the Bolognese organist Arresti. Other diminutives of the Italian word violone, meaning bass violin, have probably only existed since the publication of Fontana‘s Sonata a 1 2.3 (1641), in which he calls for a violoncino in the title.
However, both contemporary music treatises and iconographic sources suggest that bass instruments of the violin family with their ribbed rim shape and the predominant fifth tuning, as well as the idea of playing only one part on them, existed in different sizes and much earlier: large and small bass violins with various intermediate sizes have been documented since the beginning of the 16th century. It is clear that anyone interested in the violoncello should focus their attention on the whole variety of different bass instruments in the violin family that play in the eight-foot register.
This monograph is intended to provide players who wish to study or learn about the early music for this instrument with the vast majority of currently available sources on this instrument and its playing style in a condensed form. Teachers and students in particular, but also enthusiasts of the instrument, will appreciate the fact that all source citations are organised according to the various subject areas, so that the essential statements or pictorial evidence can be found quickly. Both foreign-language texts and those in older German are accompanied by an easy-to-understand translation of the source text.
The author has spent many years searching for iconographic representations of bass string instruments (of the non-octave 8-foot range) of the violin family. He found what he was looking for mainly in many European museums, but his research was also enriched by enthusiastic collectors of pictorial material from Western musical practice. As a result, he was able to consult more than 3,000 depictions of instruments that most probably belong to the group of bass instruments of the violin family in the eight-foot range in order to examine their characteristics and the way they were played from various perspectives and to analyse them statistically. This makes it easier to categorise what was common practice when and where, and sometimes leads to surprising results that often call into question established principles (e.g. how the instrument or bow should be held).
As a result of the analysis of the iconographic evidence, five areas of Europe crystallised, which are also considered separately: German-speaking, Dutch-Flemish, Italian and French-speaking regions and countries as well as the British Isles. The Iberian Peninsula may be missing here, but 68 pictorial testimonies from three centuries are too few to be meaningful.
In addition to the textbooks written specifically for playing the cello, among which the aforementioned Method by Corrette (1741) has survived as the earliest treatise, the general musical textbooks, compositions and iconographic evidence form the most important basis for learning about the nature of the bass violins and the way they were played (especially for the two hundred years before that).
This work thus represents a collection of material from the sources of Western musical practice on the eight-footed bass violin. Statements about the nature of the instrument and its handling are reproduced as completely as possible. Occasional duplications of the same facts by different authors are intentional, as this makes weightings clear in the context of the sometimes considerably divergent opinions. On the other hand, issues not directly related to the instrument, such as general music theory or practice as well as ornamentation and harmony theory, are neglected unless they specifically address the realisation on the cello (e.g. fingering in a trill or when playing a chord).
With the present work, the author would like to encourage the reader to question established habits regarding the practice of playing the baroque cello in discourse with the surviving sources, for example the choice of the appropriate type of instrument, the position of the instrument and the bow, the type and tuning of the strings, the use of vibrato, ornaments and harmonics, in order to gain deeper insights into the music of the time and its realisation today.
Bibliographical information
Jan Freiheit
Das Violoncello, 1500 –1800
Eine Quellensammlung
om355 / ortus studien 36
ISBN 978-3-910684-08-9
Publication date: expected May 2026
Subscription price until 29 February 2026: 68,-EUR
Final price: 98,- EUR
Subscription/order via
Mail: ortus@t-online.de
or via the publisher‘s website:
https://www.ortus.de/de/home/om355
