The Baroque Cello – A Manual for Advanced Students, Teachers and Interested Amateurs
The book has been designed as a manual to supplement instrumental instruction of advanced students. It summarizes historical sources reflecting the primary national styles of Italy, France, England and Germany, presenting them in a manner suitable for current pedagogical purposes. In addition to exercises taken from various cello treatises – for example by Corrette (1741), Cupis (1772), Muntzberger (1802), Breval (1804), Duport (1806) and above all Dotzauer (1824 and 1833) – cello transcriptions from the violin treatise by Geminiani (1751) are made available to the modern reader for the first time.
The cello manual comprises 18 chapters subdivided into three fields: Historical Source describes the application of diminutions and ornamentations, key characteristics and the guidelines for performance practice according to the principles of rhetoric. Historical Technique presents historical fingerings, arpeggios and chordal recitative accompaniment. Technique contains general practical exercises for bowing and fingering still in use today. Each chapter presents three annotated musical examples, an “Urstudie” (basic study), and a “Petit Plus”. These are complemented by questions (“for reflection”), suggestions (“for additional practice”) and information (“for additional reading”). The book is completed by a comprehensive bibliography of sources and literature as well as short biographies of the authors cited.
Tobias Bonz was trained in Germany as a cellist and baroque cellist. He has performed with German and in particular French and Italian Baroque Orchestras all over Europe. He also established an innovative concert series with his own ensemble, Antichi Strumenti, producing six CDs. For the past fifteen years he has taught cellists and string ensembles, resorting to his experience as a performer. He has published on historical performance practice and in 2012 edited the autobiography of the Mulhouse flutist Jean Gaspard Weiss. In recent years he has turned to research on historical music pedagogy, working especially on institutional music instruction in the late eighteenth century. www.tobiasbonz.de
