Dictionary of Music - Birding America

cello 67that are struck by hammers connected to a keyboard.Its bell-like tone is amplified by a resonator. Thecelesta looks like a small upright piano and even hasdampers for the bars that are controlled by a pedal,just as in a piano. The celesta’s range is from middleC to four or five octaves above middle C, but forconvenience its music is written an octave lowerthan it sounds. Invented in 1886 by Auguste Mustelof Paris, the celesta was first called for byTchaikovsky in the “Dance of the Sugar PlumFairy,” in his ballet, The Nutcracker. It also has aprominent part is Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion,and Celesta (1937).fig. 52 p/u from p. 71cell A small group of pitches, functioning as abuilding block in serial music and other modernstyles.cello (chel′ō). The common name for the violoncello(the full name is less often used), the bassinstrument of the violin group. About twice thesize of the violin, it rests on the floor whenplayed, supported by a spike at the lower end, andthe player performs seated. The cello’s shape isalmost the same as the violin’s, except that itsneck is shorter and its ribs are deeper in proportionto its length. (See under VIOLIN for a drawing.)The cello is tuned an octave and a fifthbelow the violin (exactly an octave below theviola), C G d a, and it has a range of almost fouroctaves, from low C to the A two octaves abovemiddle C.fig. 53 p/u from p. 71The cello was developed in the sixteenth century,during the same period as the violin and viola. Oneof the oldest cellos still in existence was built byAndrea Amati about 1572. The early cello often hadfive strings, but eventually the lowest string wasomitted. Until the twentieth century the cello rarelyhad an end-pin, the instrument being leaned againstthe player’s legs or supported by a small footstool.During the seventeenth century the cello wasused principally together with the harpsichord,organ, or lute to provide the bass accompaniment(see CONTINUO) required by so much music of thisperiod. Only in the late 1600s were solo pieces forcello written. Among the first are some works byDomenico Gabrielli of Bologna, dated about 1680.Soon afterward Pietro Locatelli wrote some virtuosoworks for cello, and Antonio Vivaldi produced bothsonatas and concertos. By the end of the baroqueperiod (1750) the cello was coming into its own as amelody instrument, valued for its expressive, velvetytone. Johann Sebastian Bach produced six suites forunaccompanied cello, outstanding works in the celloliterature. Other eighteenth-century works for celloinclude concertos by Leonardo Leo, K. P. E. Bach,Franz Joseph Haydn, and Luigi Boccherini, himselfa renowned cello virtuoso. Important treatises oncello playing were written by the French cellistJean-Louis Duport (1749–1819) and the Germanvirtuoso Bernard Romberg (1767–1841). An importantcello method and a series of etudes still usedwere written by the Austrian cellist and composerDavid Popper (1843–1913).Along with the violin and viola, the cello is abasic member of the STRING QUARTET, as well asbeing included in virtually all other chamber musicfor strings and in every symphony orchestra. Outstandingcellists of the twentieth century include,first and perhaps foremost, Pablo Casals(1876–1973), along with Emanuel Feuermann, GregorPiatigorsky, Pierre Fournier, Leonard Rose,Janos Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Yo-Yo