The orchestra and its instruments . he illustration facing page §6 wasmade by Januarius Galiano of Naples (born about1740), one of the famous Galiano family of makers, de-scendants of Alessandro Galiano (1695-1730), a pupilof Stradivari. The strings of the violoncello are C, G, D and A,an octave lower than those of the viola. The D stringis very rich and is considered the most beautifulof all. The compass of the violoncello is nearly four oc-taves; and because of this long range composers writefor the violoncello in three clefs: the Bass Clef, forthe lower and middle registers; the Tenor Clef,
The orchestra and its instruments . he illustration facing page §6 wasmade by Januarius Galiano of Naples (born about1740), one of the famous Galiano family of makers, de-scendants of Alessandro Galiano (1695-1730), a pupilof Stradivari. The strings of the violoncello are C, G, D and A,an octave lower than those of the viola. The D stringis very rich and is considered the most beautifulof all. The compass of the violoncello is nearly four oc-taves; and because of this long range composers writefor the violoncello in three clefs: the Bass Clef, forthe lower and middle registers; the Tenor Clef, forthe next highest; and the Treble, or Soprano, Clef,for the top notes. The beginner on the violoncello has a great dealof hard work to do to learn to play at sight in all threeclefs. , In the main, the violoncello is played like theviolin and viola, that is to say the player has tomake all his notes on the fingerboard; and he canalso produce harmonics on the open strings andartificial harmonics by stopping the string at certain. GENTLEMAN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURYPLAYING THE VIOLA DA GAMBA THE VIOLONCELLO 65 places. He sometimes stops these by placing histhumb on the string, — something the violinist neverdoes. Of course, as the instrument is held in the reverseway from a violin, the high notes are the farthestaway from the player. He plays from himself, nottowards himself. Lavignac writes: The functions of the Violoncelloin the Orchestra are manifold. Usually it gives, rein-forced by the double-bass, the bass of the is its natural work. But sometimes the singing-part is committed to it,—when, losing its austerity,it becomes a ravishing instrumental tenor, of pure,warm timbre, ecstatic or passionate, but always dis-tinguished and captivating. Its rapid and light utter-ance, the frequent passage from natural notes toharmonics imitating the alterations of chest and headnotes complete its resemblance to the human , the violoncello, though moving
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
