Seventeenth century cello playing

focussing mainly on bow technique

Research Paper by Anne-Linde Visser

Main subject baroque cello
Student number c012943
Main subject teacher Lucia Swarts
Research supervisor Johannes Boer
Master circle leader Bart van Oort
Presentation 11 April 2017, 10.15-11.15, Studio 3
Date and place 14 March 2017, Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag
Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Chapter 1. The seventeenth century: the beginning of instrumental music 4

Chapter 2. Terminology and the development of the violoncello 6

2.1 Terminology 6
2.2 Development of the violoncello 6

Chapter 3. The seventeenth century bow 8

Chapter 4. Different ways of bow-hold 10

4.1 Bow hold following the treatises 10
4.2 Bow hold in iconography 11
4.3 Experiments with different bow holds 13

Chapter 5. Bow technique 14

5.1. General information on bow technique 14
5.2. Bowing directions 18
5.3. Bowing patterns 20

Chapter 6. Ornamentation 23
6.1 Ornaments 23
6.2 Dynamic devises 28
6.3 Other bow techniques 29

Chapter 7. Other sources on articulation 31

Conclusions 33

Bibliography 35
Primary sources 35
Secondary sources 36

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Introduction

There has been a lot of discussion going on (and it is still happening) about the question
what a violoncello is. Especially Mark Vanscheeuwijck and Steven Bonta have done a lot of
research on the violoncello, mainly focusing on its many different appearances and
terminology.
As a performer, I am very much interested in all of this. But I also think that it might be
especially useful to find out more about the playing technique, instead of just looking at
the ‘right’ equipment. If you think about the way string instruments produce sound - by
using the bow - it might not be such a big issue whether you play a cello that is big or
small, does or does not have frets, is tuned in fourths or fifths, is played da spalla or da
gamba, etc. This is in accordance with Michael Praetorius’ (1571-1621) opinion on this
subject: ‘how a player tunes his violin or viol is unimportant if his technique and intonation are in
order’.1

By many people, Italy is seen as the place where virtuosic instrumental music was
‘invented’ in the seventeenth century. This development led to an idiomatic way of
composing. Repertoire written especially for the violoncello starts in the late 17th century,
although a lot of this repertoire was still composed in the old style.

The first cello treatise was not written until 1741 (by Michel Corrette). In his ‘Methode,
théorique et pratique pour apprendre en peu de tems le violoncelle dans sa perfection’, Corette is
advocating a new way of playing, which served as a basis for many other French cello
treatises, including the famous ‘Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle, et sur la conduite de
l’arche’ (1806) by Jean-Louis Duport.2 Most baroque cellists, including me, probably have
learnt a technique based on those treatises, which in a way is not so different from the
technique we use on the modern cello.

The question is: what happened before? What bow techniques did they use, and is it
possible to reproduce this bow-technique?
When it comes to the seventeenth century, we have no other sources than iconography. But
there are treatises written for other string instruments: the viol and the viola da brazzo
(‘violin’), already in the sixteenth century. Besides that, there are a lot of sources written
for wind players which discuss the matter of articulation, and therefore could be an
interesting source for bow technique as well.

1Praetorius, Michael. Syntagma Musicum II (1614-1615). Translated and edited by: David Z. Crookes. Oxford University
Press, 1991, p. 53

2 Vanscheeuwijck, Marc. Cello stories, the cello in the 17th & 18th centuries. Outhere music, 2016, p. 34
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1. The seventeenth century: the beginning of instrumental music

For centuries, the musical focus had leaned towards the voice and instrumental music was
always secondary to vocal music. It was only in the early 17th century when instrumental
music slowly started to manifest itself as an new genre. This was especially the case in
Italy. Besides that, the 17th century was the age of exploration and discovery. Early modern
thinkers were fascinated with instrumental technologies.
In her recent book, ‘Curious & Modern inventions: instrumental music as discovery in Galileo’s
Italy’, Rebecca Cypess argues that it is no coincidence that in this period the instrumental
music was ‘invented’. The possibilities of instruments changed drastically: they were not
anymore just tools used to make an object. Instead, instruments were now seen as tools for
‘open-ended inquiry; for exploration of the world that would lead to new knowledge.’3

It used to be a very common practice to write music in a functional way: a part could be
played on different instruments. In the 17th century composers started to experiment more
with the many possibilities of the musician and their instruments. A lot of music was now
composed for a specific instrument. This resulted in idiomatic repertoire, and especially
the violin developed an idiomatic technique in this period. Moreover, the new style
required new (advanced) techniques, both for the left and the right arm.

Since musicians, composers and instrument makers are all influenced by each other, also
the musical instrument market came to its rise in this period.4 For example the Amati and
Maggini workshops in Cremona and Brescia - already famous in the last decades of the
sixteenth century - kept growing in popularity. They were experimenting with a variety of
patterns for their instruments.

New musical genres, such as the ‘sonate’, were a very good medium for the musician to
show off their technique. Very typical for those sonates are the constant changes in tempi
and moods. This is also reflected in the other arts: they were trying to create the illusion of
movement in a statue or painting. They were fascinated with movement, and to create
movement with a machine or instrument was seen as a way to fabricate life.5

Vocal music kept being very important, since the human voice has - already for centuries -
been seen as the most powerful medium to express emotions. In treatises, the human voice
therefore is often set as an example for instrumentalists.

3Cypess, Rebecca. Curious & Modern inventions: instrumental music as discovery in Galileo’s Italy. The University of Chicago
Press, 2016, p. 3

4Boyden calls this the organic relationship that exists between technique, music and instrument making.
Boyden, David. The history of violin playing from its origins to 1761 and its relationship to the violin and violin music. Oxford
University Press, 1965, p. 145

5This is what Cypess calls the ‘paradox of instrumentality’: the physical, static instrument which creates a sense of
movement and temporality.

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Interesting enough, there are also a few sources which put musical instruments above the
human voice. For example, the scientist Galileo Galileo wrote the following in a letter to
Lodovico Cardi da Cigoli (1612):

“There is an imperfection, and a thing that greatly decreases the praise due to sculpture: for the
further the medium of imitation is from the things being imitated, that much more is the imitation
marvelous… Would we not admire a musician, who, through singing, represents the feelings and
passions of a lover, and moves us to have compassion for him, much more than if he were to do so
through weeping? And this is because singing is a means not only different from, but contrary to
the expression of sadness, and tears and plaints are very similar to it. And would we not admire
(the musician) much more if he did so without voice, with the instrument alone, with musical
dissonances and pathos-filled sounds, since the inanimate strings are less able to awaken the secret
affetti of the soul, than the voice is in telling of them?”6

In Galilei’s eyes, instrumental music was superior to vocal music and musical instruments
were very powerful tools to express emotions ‘because of their artifice’.
Besides that, composers also saw the technical advantages of musical instruments. Often
for its greater agility and the bigger tessitura. Riccardo Rognoni for example writes that
some passagi are not suitable for the voice because ‘’the voice cannot approach with such speed
and so effortlessly the divisions of instruments’’.7

6Translation by: Cypess, Rebecca. Curious & Modern inventions: instrumental music as discovery in Galileo’s Italy. The
University of Chicago Press, 2016, p. 18

7Rognoni, Riccardo. Passaggi per potersi essercitare nel diminuire (1592). Preface and translations by Bruce Dickey.
Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 37
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2. Terminology and the development of the violoncello

2.1 Terminology

Grove dictionary gives the following definition of a violoncello:

“The bass instrument of the violin family. (…) The violoncello’s present name means, in Italian, a
‘small large viol’, as it employs both the superlative suffix -one, and a diminutive one, -ello.”

Grove also writes that the name ‘violoncello’ already suggests that its early history is not
straightforward. In terms of terminology this definitely seems to be true.
The term violoncello is as far as we know first mentioned by G.C. Arresti in 1665 in his
sonate Opus 4 (Venice). This does not necessarily mean that there were no violoncello’s or
instruments very similar to the violoncello around before 1665: iconographical sources
show a lot of instruments which have a lot in common with the cello we know nowadays.
Furthermore there is repertoire written for the instrument and besides that, there are still a
lot of instruments from the seventeenth century around. Think of Amati and Rugeri,
amongst many others (unfortunately almost all of them have been modernized by now).
Before 1665 the following terms are used: bas de violon (Jambe de Fer, 1556), basso di
viola (Zacconi, 1592), bass viol de braccio (Praetorius, ii, 2/1619, Tabella universalis), basse
de violon (Mersenne, 1637), bassetto, bassetto di viola, basso da brazzo, basso viola da
brazzo, viola, viola da braccio, viola da brazzo, violetta, violoncino, violone, violone basso,
violone da brazzo, violone piccolo.8

2.2 Development of the violoncello

As pointed out before, the development of instrumental music was closely related to new
inventions. This seems to be the case for the development of the violoncello as well: the
development of the wire-wound string at the end of the the seventeenth century is seen by
many scholars as the beginning of the violoncello as a solo instrument. (figure 1, 2, 3)
Thanks to the wire-wound string, strings could be thinner and shorter. Therefore
instruments could be smaller as well. Many instruments where cut down for that reason.
This made them more playable and enabled more virtuosic playing.

By the end of the seventeenth century, a violoncello could still mean a lot of different
things. The definition of a violoncello therefore is very much related to place and period.
In Mark Vanscheeuwijck’s opinion our definition of a violoncello, or maybe even our idea
of a baroque cello, is way too restricted: it was only after the 1760s when under the
influence of the new Conservatoire (cello) methods were written and cello schools
emerged. He points out that the instrument existed in many different sizes (figure 6, 7) and
tunings: it could be tuned in fourths or fifths or a combination and could have four or five
strings (figure 1, 4). It could be played ‘da gamba’ (between the legs), ‘da spalla’ (on the

8 Bonta, Stephen. ‘Cello (Violoncello)’. In Grove music online. Accessed April 7, 2016. Oxford Music Online
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right shoulder) (figure 5) or ‘da braccia’ (against the chest). It could be played with the
bow held underhand or overhand. And the left hand technique used, could be diatonic or
chromatic.9

Praetorius was the first one to organize instruments in his Syntagma Musicum and he did
this based on their external features. He distinguished between the viol and violin family.
(figure 8)
Unfortunately, or maybe interestingly, it is not that simple: a lot of instruments we see in
paintings have features that could be part of the violin family but also have features that
could make it belong to the viol family, those instruments are often called hybrid
instruments.

Two important eighteenth century treatises confirm this as well. Johann Joachim Quantz
for example advices cellists in his ‘Versuch einer Anweisung die flute traversiere zu
spielen’ (1752) to have two different kinds of instruments:

‘Those who not only accompany on the violoncello, but also play solos on it, would do well to have
two special instruments, one for solos, the other for ripieno parts in large ensembles. The latter
must be larger, and must be equipped with thicker strings than the former. If a small instrument
with thin strings were employed for both types of parts, the accompaniment in a large ensemble
would have no effect whatsoever.’ 10

And Leopold Mozart writes in his violin treatise (1756) that ‘the seventh kind is called Bass-
Viol, or, as Italians call it, the Violoncello. Formerly this had five strings, but now only four. It is
customary to play the bass part on this instrument, and although some are larger, others smaller,
they differ but little from each other excepting in the strength of their tone, according to the fashion
of their stringing.’
When talking about the viola da gamba he also writes that ‘nowadays the violoncello, too, is
held between the legs, and one can justly call it, also, a leg-fiddle.’ 11

9Vanscheeuwijck, Marc. ’Violoncello and Violone’, chapter 13 in: A performer’s guide to seventeenth century music. Edited
by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 233

10Quantz, Johann Joachim. Versuch einer Anweisung die flute traversiere zu spielen (1752). Translated and edited by
Edward R Reilly. Northeastern University Press, 2001, p. 212

11Mozart, Leopold. Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756). Translation by Editha Knocker, Oxford University
Press, 1951, p. 11
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3. The bow

There is not so much known about the bow making in the seventeenth century because
bows were not signed by the makers before the eighteenth century. Probably the bow was
made by the luthier and supplied together with an instrument. Another possibility is that
a luthier would have a specialized bow maker working in their workshop.12
Besides that, there are barely surviving bows from that period. Our main information
about (early) seventeenth century bows therefore has to come mainly from iconography
and treatises.

Also important to realize is the fact that a bow was just a bow. There was not such a thing
as a cello bow or a viola da gamba bow. There are no indications that there was a
difference between those two. Also, in many cases musicians played more than one
instrument and probably used the same bow. Bows probably differentiated according to
the wishes of the instrument and the musician.13

Bows were made from maplewood, fruitwood and snakewood. Snakewood is one of the
heaviest and is known for its superb elasticity and flexibility.14 This is a very important
feature of snakewood, since the screw mechanism for moving the frog to increase or
release tension was only invented some time after 1720.
The seventeenth century bow had a clip-in fixed frog and the bow stick was basically
straight and was bent by the hair tension. Another possibility is that the stick was carved
slightly outward, another way of doing this is to heat and bent the stick.
Very typical for seventeenth century bows is the tip: the so called ‘pike’ head. The hair was
knotted and curled inside this ‘pike’ head.
In general one can say that a seventeenth century bow is somewhat convex, and that there
is a gradually decreasing distance between the hair and the bow stick from nut to point.
That is also why the bow in its nature has the tendency to sound lighter in an up-bow.15

It is quite plausible to believe that cello or violone bows would have had black hair. Black
hairs are firmer than white hairs and are therefore good for making thick gut strings
speak. Quantz also makes a difference between orchestral and soloist playing and
suggests that we should use ‘’coarser black hair on a heavier bow for orchestral use and white
hair on a lighter bow for solo playing’’.16

It is hard to say something about the length and weight of bows for bass instruments. For
the violin we see both short and long bows, the long bow being explained as the ‘sonate’

12 Otterstedt, Annette. The Viol: history of an instrument. Translated by Hans Reiners. Barenreiter, 2002. p. 252

13 Tarling, Judy. Baroque String Playing for ingenious learners. Corda Music Publications, 2013 p. 241

14 Otterstedt, Annette. The Viol: history of an instrument. Translated by Hans Reiners. Barenreiter, 2002. p. 253

15 Garland, Peter. ‘Bow’. In Grove Music Online. Accessed December 20, 2016. Oxford Music Online

16Quantz, Johann Joachim. Versuch einer Anweisung die flute traversiere zu spielen (1752). Translated and edited by
Edward R Reilly. Northeastern University Press, 2001, p. 241
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bow. Cello bows range from approximately 67 to 74 cm long and weigh from 65 to 86
grams.17

A few historical bows which could have been used as an cello/gamba bow:
1. ‘Bologna’ bow (before 1608) (figure 9)
This bow entered the collection of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna in 1608 where it
is still kept. The bow is probably made from some fruit-wood or maple in northern Italy.
The stick has surely been shortened (maybe 65 mm) and is still possible to see the old site
of the frog. Now the bow is 69,7 cm long and the weight is 67,4 grams. The bow is still a
property of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna.18
2. Anonymous bow from the Kunsthistorischer museum Wien (early 17th century)
(figure 10)
A clip-on frog and a very clear ‘pike’ head tip. This bow is rather short compared to the
first one: 62,5 cm. The weight is ca. 74 grams. 19
There are more examples and I would like to refer to the work of Dr. Rudolf Hopfner, who
has catalogued the collection of historical bows from the The Kunsthistorischer museum
Wien.20

17 Wijsman, Susanne, ‘’Cello (Violoncello)’’. In Grove music online. Accessed December 20, 2016. Oxford Music Online

Measurements and pictures are by the Italian bow maker Antonino Airenti. Accessed December 22, 2016 http://
18

www.airenti.it/baroquebows/contenuti/violinbows.html#

19Measurements and pictures are made by Rudolp Hopfner. Accessed December 22, 2016 http://www.airenti.it/
baroquebows/contenuti/violinbows.html#

20 Hopfner, Rudolf. Streichbogen : Katalog. Tutzing Hans Schneider, 1998

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4. Bow hold

4.1 Bow hold following the treatises

Underhand bow hold seems to be the technique for a very long time throughout Europe.
At least till the 1720s overhand bow hold is rare to be seen. I would like to refer to the
work of Mark Smith for this, who has studied 259 iconographical sources and made a very
detailed table showing the bow holds in different places and time.21 The further we go, the
more overhand bow hold we see. But even in the late eighteenth century, underhand bow
hold was still in use.
The cellist and composer Antonio Vandini (Bologna, c. 1690 - c. 1773), who played a lot
with the famous violinist Guiseppe Tartini, is depicted in a caricature by Ghezzi whit
underhand bow hold. Charles Burney wrote about Vandini that ‘it is remarkable that
Antonio (Vandini) and all the other violoncello players here (Padua) hold the bow in the old-
fashioned way, with the hand under it’. Besides he writes that Vandini ‘plays and expresses ‘’a
pallare’’, that is in such a manner as to make his cello speak.’ 22 (figure 11)

Also Quantz writes in his treatise that ‘some move the bow as is customary on the viola da
gamba, that is, instead of a down-stroke from left to right for the principal notes, they make an up-
stroke from right to left, beginning with the tip of the bow’. But he continues and writes that
‘others, however, proceed like violinists, and begin their strokes with the lowest part of the bow. This
latter method is customary among the Italians, and produces a better effect, particularly in
accompanying, but also in solo playing’. 23

Another famous cellist, Johann Georg Christoph Schetky (1737 - 1824), was praised for his
‘accomplished control of the bow, with which he could balance such strength and flexibility. It was a
marvel how he could produce equally well the finest sweetness and the greatest strength of tone,
because his holding of the bow was different from all the violoncellists that I have ever heard, and
about which other virtuosi who ventured to match him on this instrument (there were few of them)
were amazed. Usually the bow is held with the thumb under, and with the four fingers directed over
the stick, as with the violin, only that with the violoncello the arm hangs downwards, and the bow-
strokes are directed downwards, whereas with the violin, the arm is bent, the hand is raised, and the
bow must be directed upwards. With Schetky it was otherwise. The thumb lay on the frog of the
bow, the index- finger was alone on the stick; and the three other fingers were down on the hairs.
Through the pressure of the lower fingers, especially the little finger, he conspicuously increased or
decreased the pressure of the bow, and brought forth by this means the greatest power of the depths,

21Smith, Mark. “The cello bow held the viol-way; once common, but now almost forgotten.” VdGS Chelys, 24 (1995):
47-61. Accessed April 10, 2016. http://www.vdgs.org.uk/files/chelys/24chelys1995.pdf

22Burney, Charles. The present state of music in France and Italy. Accessed April 10, 2016 https://books.google.co.uk/
books?id=x0QJAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Charles+Burney
%22&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje4LOAp7LMAhWHDMAKHchTC8kQ6AEIKzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false, p.142

23Quantz, Johann Joachim, Versuch einer Anweisung die flute traversiere zu spielen’ (1752). Translated and edited by Edward
R. Reilly. Northeastern University Press, 2001, p. 241.
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or the sweetest oboe-tone in the upper regions. This method is right from mechanical and physical
grounds.’ 24

Going back to the seventeenth century, an important source is Georg Muffat’s ‘Florilegium
Secundum’ (1698). Both his Florilegium Primum and Secundum are an interesting source
about national styles and performance practice. He writes:
‘’Most Germans agree on the holding of the bow for the violins and violas; that is, pressing the
thumb against the hair and laying the other fingers on the back of the bow. It is also generally held
in this way for the bass by the Lullists; they differ from the Italian practice, which concerns the
small violins, in which the hair is untouched, and from that of the bass gambists and others, in
which the fingers lie between the wood and the hair.’’ 25
Jean Baptiste Lully introduced equal bowing for all parts in the ensemble which meant
that the ‘cellists’ had to match the violins and therefore used an overhand technique, like
the violinists. As Muffat says, most Germans agreed on this but it was different from the
Italian ‘bass gambists and others’ (who were obviously playing underhand). I think the
violoncello is part of the ‘others’ since Muffat later calls the ‘violoncino’ his preferred
instrument to play the bass part.26

4.2 Bow hold in iconography

Besides Muffat there are no other relevant seventeenth century written sources concerning
bow hold. We do have a lot of iconographical sources though. I will mainly focus on
Italian paintings, although the Dutch and Flemish paintings are a great source too, since
they are painted so precise and accurate.
By studying those sources I came to the conclusion that there were four different ways of
holding the bow:
1. Underhand: with the fingers around the frog and not touching the hair of the bow.
2. Underhand: with the fingers around the frog, but touching the hair of the bow.
3. Underhand: further on the bow, away from the frog.
4. Overhand

The first way of holding the bow is very similar to the german bow hold double bassists
use today. The examples I could find are mainly for big bass instruments, but I also saw
this bow hold with smaller instruments. (figure 12, 13, 14)

The second way of holding the bow can be seen already in some sixteenth century
paintings. The difference between this bow hold and the first one is the contact with the

24Anonymous source Leipzig 1799, translation by Smith, Mark. “The cello bow held the viol-way; once common, but
now almost forgotten.” VdGS Chelys, 24 (1995): 47-61. Accessed April 10, 2016. http://www.vdgs.org.uk/files/chelys/
24chelys1995.pdf

25Muffat, Georg. Florilegium Secundum (1698). Translated and edited by David Wilson. Indiana University Press, 2001,
p. 33

26Muffat, Georg. Florilegium Secundum (1698). Translated and edited by David Wilson. Indiana University Press, 2001,
p. 46
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hair: the middle finger is often curved around the hair. Besides that, the index finger is laid
on the stick. (figure 3, 4, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17)
The third way is very similar to the second one, with the difference that the hand is placed
further on the bow. In a lot of cases the thumb is still placed on the frog though. This bow
hold can be seen a lot in viol iconography. Vasqualez from the Orpheon Foundation has
made a collection of viol iconography which is worth to take a look at.27
An interesting example is the painting by Girolamo Martinelli (Concerto in casa Lazzari
1680) where the cellists has his fourth finger curved around the hair instead of the middle
finger. (figure 2, 18, 19, 20)

Overhand bow hold is always the case when the instrument is played ‘da spalla' (figure 5).
This makes sense, because underhand bow hold would be physically very unnatural.
A few late seventeenth century paintings also show instruments played da gamba with
overhand bow hold, especially in and near Napoli. A logic explanation for this could be
that the cellists where also violinists (who play overhand of course), since people often
played more than one instrument. Besides that, it was a common practice at the
Neapolitan conservatories that violinists also taught the violoncello.28 (Although the cellist
Antonio Tonelli is depicted with underhand bow hold, and he also taught the violin29).
(figure 21)
One of those cellists was Francesco Alborea (1691 - 1739), who was also known as
‘Francischello’. He studied the violoncello with Gian Carlo Cailò (1659 - 1722), a composer
and violinist who taught at the Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto in Naples. Alborea
became first cellist at the Neapolitan court and later took a position at the Viennese court,
following the footsteps of many other Italian musicians who were very popular abroad. It
is plausible that he was the teacher of Martin Berteau and Jean-Baptiste Barrière as well,
both influential eighteenth century cellists.30Alborea is also seen by many as the first cellist
to make the cello popular in eastern Europe.31 (It is also interesting that in the eighteenth
century it were especially the Italian cellists, such as Giacobe Cervetto and Salvatore
Lanzetti among many others, who made the cello a very popular instrument in England).
Overhand bow hold can be seen in a lot of paintings with famous eighteenth century
cellists, such as Lanzetti and Boccherini, and became almost standardized by the second
half of the eighteenth century.32 (figure 22, 23)

27 http://www.orpheon.org/OldSite/Seiten/education/BowVdg.htm

28Salines, Ines. ‘’The Cello in Naples in the Early 18th Century: Teaching Methods and Performance Practise’’. Masters
Research Paper Royal Conservatory The Hague, February 2015, p. 28

29 Schnoebelen, Anne. ‘Tonelli, Antonio’. In Grove music online. Accessed Februari 14, 2017. Oxford Music Online

30 Ibid.

31 Stowell, Robin. The Cambridge Companion to the Cello. Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 52-53

32 Vanscheeuwijck, Marc. Cello stories, the cello in the 17th & 18th centuries. Outhere music, 2016, p. 56
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4.3 Experiments with different bow holds

In the process of this research I have experimented with the different bow-holds. Besides
the fact that I definitely lack some technique with underhand bow-hold, the equipment
was a bit of a problem. Nowadays most bow-makers make different bows for cello and
gamba (so different bows for underhand or overhand bow hold). My cello bow is really
made for playing overhand and the gamba bow I currently have is too light (especially
when using unwounded gut strings for the lower strings). A violone bow is simply to
heavy. The advantage of underhand bow hold is that you can control the tension of the
hair with the fingers. Besides that it is much harder to get off the string.
There are a few cellists who play very well with underhand bow-hold. Often they use a
technique which is very similar to the viola da gamba technique, so with the hand a bit
further on the bow. (video 1, 2)

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5. Bow technique

5.1 General information on bow technique

Following Bartolomeo Bismantova (before 1675 - after 1694), the art of playing the violin
depends on how to manage the bow:

‘’The entire art of playing the violin consists in knowing how to manage the bow well, to make good
bowings, to make long bow strokes, and to play now loud, now soft, sweet, and cantabile.’’33

Francesco Rognoni (? - 1626) mentions that the tone of the viola da brazzo, especially the
violin is rough ‘’if it is not tempered and sweetened by dulcet bowing.’’34

Luckily the violin (family) had already a very successful example: the viol. The viol
players had already expanded their technique in the middle of the sixteenth century. This
advanced technique, and a way of thinking, could be easily adapted to the technique of
the violin in the early seventeenth century. 35

Ganassi
One of those very early viol sources is by Sylvestro Ganassi (1492 - middle of 16th century)
who was a recorder and viol player at the San Marco. His Regolo Rubertina (1542-43) is the
only really detailed treatise on string playing in the sixteenth century. It is remarkable how
precise Ganassi is about fingerings, shifting and bowing for the viol.36

One other thing which I think is fascinating as well, is his attention to the physical aspects
of playing an instrument, and in particular for the viol. He stretches the importance of
having a good posture and position of the body to allow for free movement of the arm and
the hand.37 Besides that, he also links this to the appearance of the musician while
performing, something he mentions already in the Prologue of the Regolo Rubertina:

‘’The beauty conveyed by the musician is seen in the manner of holding his instrument with grace,
with the carriage of his hand and in the movements of his body, executed with such symmetry as to
inspire the audience to maintain silence. This appearance contributes to the quality of performance,
which not only provides nourishments to the ear but also visual beauty.’’38

33Bismantova, Bartolomeo. Compendio Musicale (1677). Translation by Stewart Carter. A performer’s guide to seventeenth
century music. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 199

34 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 41

35
Boyden, David. The history of violin playing from its origins to 1761 and its relationship to the violin and violin music. Oxford
University Press, 1965, p. 76

36 Ibid, p. 77

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Regolo Rubertina (1542-43). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
37

Music, 2002, p. 3

38 Ibid.
!14
In chapter 2 he continues with the movement of the body. We have to move our body for
two reasons he says: first of all, not to appear ‘like a piece of stone’ and second, ‘for the
reason that music is composed to words’.39 With that he means that our motions should be
according to the music and the text. Here he makes the connection with the bow:

‘’With words and music in a happy vein or in a sad one, one must draw the bow either strongly or
lightly, according to the mood; sometimes it should be drawn neither strongly nor lightly, but
moderately, if that is what the word suggests. Whit sad music, the bow should be drawn lightly and
at times, one even should make the bowing arm tremble and do the same thing on the fingerboard to
achieve the necessary effect. The opposite can be done with the bow in music of a happy nature, buy
using pressure on the bow in proportion to the music. In this manner, you will see how to make the
required motions and thereby give spirit to the instrument in proper proportion to every kind of
music.’’40

In chapter 3 he basically confirms this idea of having different bow strokes for different
affects, but explaining this in a more technical way:

‘’You know that the bow is to be held with three fingers, that is to say the thumb, the index and
middle fingers. The thumb and middle finger ensure, in holding the bow, that it does not fall, and
the index fingers serves to strengthen and stabilize it, keeping it on the strings and exerting more
or less pressure according to the need. One needs to draw the bow four fingers widths, more or less,
away from the bridge, depending upon the size of the instrument. The bow should be drawn steadily
with a loose arm and with a graceful but firm hand, so that the sound is distinct and clean. If you
were to bow too much in the direction of the fingerboard, you would produce neither a firm nor live
sound. Likewise, if you were to bow too closely to the bridge, the sound would be rough. For this
reason, you should follow a middle course, which is more or less four finger widths from the bridge,
depending upon the size of the viol, as I said earlier. It is in fact true that you are free to bow close to
the bridge at times, when there is a reason to produce a hard sound, according to the subject matter
or bow towards the fingerboard for a quieter effect in music which is somber for example. Thus for
melancholy music, you would play close to the bridge.’’41

Again it is striking how detailed and how much attention he also gives to the physical
aspects: “with a loose arm and with a graceful but firm hand”. His ideal sound is ‘distinct and
clean’ and should not be rough. Besides that, it should be a firm and alive sound.

He continues with explaining the difference between an up and down bow (‘forward and
backward’), something I will write more about later in this chapter.
Basically, each note value receives its own bow stroke. Ganassi requires in his Regula
Rubertina that the longa, brevis, semi-breve, minim, semi-minimum, crome and semi-
crome receive their own strokes. Again he explains the movement of the body related to
this. The arm must help the hand he writes. Besides that, he seems to ask for more

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid, p. 4

41 Ibid.
!15
movement of the hand (wrist?) for fast notes, a principle every string player still learns
today:

‘’The arm must always help the hand achieve its effect whether on the fingerboard or on the bow.
First, one has to know how the fingers are to be used in holding the bow, but the arm, as well as the
hand, must be used properly to achieve the right effect with the bow. It is necessary to know how to
play a longa, that is in one stroke of the bow, such that the arm produces the sound; similarly, it is
necessary to know how to play the breve, the semibreve, the minim, the semi-minimum, the crome
and the semi-crome, for when the arm is used properly it should produce a glorious sound. For the
smaller note values like the semi-mimi, crome and semi-crome, the proper use of the hand is
essential to produce a fine sound.’’42

Ganassi also suggests to always practice in two different directions.43

He mentions the importance of practicing one more time, in a quote where he again
points out the exigency of representing the mood in music and tells us to
“[…] practice it until you have thoroughly mastered the method of holding the viol and the proper
position of your body, together with the motions required for a beautiful tonal effect.”44

Luigi Zenobi
The virtuoso cornett player Luigi Zenobi (1547 or 1548 - after 1602) wrote numerous letters
during his lifetime. One of those letters is written to an unnamed prince and discusses the
qualities every musicians needs to have. String players need to have a perfect bowing he
writes:

‘’The players of a string instrument such as a viol, both viola da gam- ba and violin, must be judged
by the perfection of their bowing (arcata) and the quality [of the] tone of the instrument and the
variety of the strings, through the richness in the propriety and choiceness of diminutions and
through the tremolo, through the striscio, and through the facility and assurance del lirare.’’45

Zenobi uses the terms arcata and lirare for bow technique without defining them. Arcata is
bowing and therefore the verb lirare must refer to something else. It could mean slurring of
notes.

Like Ganassi, Zenobi also mentions the importance of ‘grace’ when holding and playing
an instrument. He also says that playing an instrument should look ‘easy’. We could also
translate this as a relaxed (free) way of playing:

42 Ibid, p. 5

43 Ibid, p. 6

44 Ibid, p. 4

45Zenobi, Luigi. Letter on the perfect musician. Translation by Bonnie Blackburn and Edward Lowinksy. Studi Musicale
22, 1993, p. 103
!16
‘’(…)facility, and virtuosity of the hand, the finesse of the fingers, and of the tremolo, the quality of
the imagination, the richness and variety of good passaggi, and fine grace of bearing and of holding
the instrument, the choiceness of style, and the ready ease in the use of their instruments.’’46

As a wind player himself, he does not give any other details about string playing. But he
does warn both wind and string players for playing carelessly:

‘’The same is true for the great concerts, which make a great din, and cause all the blunders,
mistakes, the poor intonation, and the ignorance of players on wind or on string instruments to slip
by unnoticed. But when one sings and plays with care and with one alone, a player's musical
intelligence, or the lack of it, can be judged from the first few notes.’’47

Zenobi also advises to know a piece in its simple form, and with that he means without
any passagio.48

Francesco Rognoni
Another important source is by Francesco Rognoni (second half of the 16th century – after
1626). In his Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620) he not only presents ornaments but he also has a
chapter on vocal technique and on both wind and string instruments. He was the son of
Ricardo Rognoni on who I will come back later.

Rognoni characterizes the viola da gamba as ‘a sensitive instrument’ 49 and the violins as an
instrument ‘in itself crude and harsh’.50
About both instruments he writes that is has to be played with gentle bowing, (a beautiful
bowed articulation) and that the bow needs to be in good contact with the instrument,
distinguishing the notes well.51

For the violins, he adds, that we have to make sure not to make more noise with the bow
than making a good sound:

‘’Hence, let this be a lesson to those players who have a certain crude way of playing without
smoothly using the entire bow on the viola but who lift it with such force that they make more noise
with the bow than a {musical} sound’’.52

Something Rognoni seems to be bothered by, is musicians who ‘do nothing more than
make passaggi’:

46 Ibid, p. 105

47 Ibid, p. 102-103

48 Ibid, p. 101

49 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 40

50 Ibid, p. 41

51 Ibid, p. 40

52 Ibid, p. 41
!17
‘’Many are seen nowadays who play either the cornetto or violin or other instrument who do
nothing more than make passaggi, either good or bad, so long as they make passaggi, deafening the
one who knows his business, ruining all the song, thinking they are doing well. For those it would
be better that they should go play, as is said, out in the bushes, than in ensembles, since they don’t
know that it is worth knowing how to play a note with grace or bowed sweetly and gently than to
make so many passaggi beyond what is proper.’’53

I will come back on the matter of passaggi and ornaments in the next chapter, but it is
worth to realize how important Rognoni thinks it is, to know very well how to play a
note, and how to bow it well. This was also the case with Zenobi.

5.2 Bowing directions

One of the first things we learn when playing baroque music, is the rule of the ‘strong
down-bow and the weak up-bow’.
Depending on how the bow is held, overhand or underhand, the down-bow is the natural
bow stroke for a strong (accented) note or respectively for a weak (unaccented) note. The
up-bow is the natural way to play a weak (unaccented) note when holding the bow
overhand. When playing underhand, the up-bow is the natural way for a strong (accented)
note.
Riccardo Rognoni (ca. 1550 – before 20 April 1620) is the first one to mention this difference
in bow directions between the viola da gamba and the violine da brazze:54

‘’because it is understood that in making a long diminution the viola da gamba bow goes up-bow
(pontar) on eighth-notes and sixteenth-notes and the violine da brazze [sic] down-bow (tirar) on
eighth-notes and sixteenth-notes because the bow on all has to have [abide by] its rule.’’55

Riccardo Rognoni uses the words tirare (‘to pull’) for the down-bow and pontare (‘to
push’) for the up-bow.
Francesco Rognoni uses very similar terms: ‘tirar in giù' for down-bow and ‘pontar in sù’
for up-bow. In the examples in Selva de Varii Passaggi, Rognoni uses de the abbreviations
‘P’ and ’T’. Those abbreviations are also used by the violin teacher Gasparo Zanetti (after
1600 - 1660).56
Ganassi uses the following terms: in giu (or in zoso) for down-bow and in su (or in suso) for
up-bow.

On the violin, the terms down-bow and up-bow make sense because the strokes are
literally ‘down’ and ‘up’. On instruments held da gamba, so the cello and the viola da

53 Ibid.

Erig, Richard & Gutmann, Veronica. Italian Diminutions: the pieces with more than one diminution from 1553 to 1638.
54

Amadeus Verlag, 1979, p. 51

55Rognoni, Riccardo. Passaggi per potersi essercitare (1594). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002,
p. 37

56 Il Scolaro (1645)
!18
gamba, it would be far better to say out-bow (away from the player) and in-bow (towards
the player).57

Both Francesco Rognoni’s and Ganassi’s description on bowings are a bit problematic:
they seem to mean exactly the opposite.

Ganassi:
‘’The first stroke in bowing should be always a down-bow (in giu), if you are playing a passage
consisting of cromes or any other small note value. If you bow in this manner, you will get a good
sound. When you begin the first stroke with a push-bow (in su), you proceed in a contrary
motion.’’58

Francesco Rognoni:
‘’The way of bowing is: the bow is always drawn (tirar) down at the beginning of a piece and after
any rest because thrusting (pontar) the other way is ugly to see, is not its natural way.’’59

Ganassi’s Regola Rubertina is basically a viol method, and Rognoni wrote this in his chapter
about the viola da gamba. So according to our terminology it should be exactly the other
way. Rognoni probably copied this from Ganassi.
In the case of Ganassi, Boyden gives some plausible explanations why this is the case.60
One of Boyden’s arguments is related to the way the viola da gamba is held (diagonally to
the left) on the title page of Regola Rubertina. This way, the bow arm needs to make an
upwards motion to the right to meet the strings at a right angle. So to draw the bow
‘out’ (down-bow) one needs to draw the bow up. To draw the bow ‘in’ (up-bow), one
needs to push the bow down.
The other argument comes from the way Ganassi explained plucking the strings for
lutenists. He says that the thumb moves in a downward motion towards the instrument
(in zoso) and the index finger moves upwards, away from the instrument (in suso). Besides
that, he uses the same symbol to indicate a down-bow (following our terminology) as he
does to indicate a downward motion for the thumb on the lute: a dot below the note
(which was a common practice at that time).61
One more thing I would like to add to this comes from Ganassi’s Lettione Seconda (1543),
where he - very contra-dictionary - writes that the arm comes away from the instrument
with the up-bow (in suso) and vice-versa.62

57 Garland, Peter. ‘Bow’. In Grove Music Online. Accessed January 20, 2017. Oxford Music Online

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Regolo Rubertina (1542-43). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
58

Music, 2002, p. 6

59 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 40

60
Boyden, David. The history of violin playing from its origins to 1761 and its relationship to the violin and violin music. Oxford
University Press, 1965, p. 80

Erig, Richard & Gutmann, Veronica. Italian Diminutions: the pieces with more than one diminution from 1553 to 1638.
61

Amadeus Verlag, 1979, p. 52

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Lettione Seconda (1543). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
62

Music, 2002, p. 53
!19
5.3 Bowing patterns

Fransesco Rognoni gives the following advice for bowing directions for the viola da
brazzo family: start down-bow after a whole rest, up-bow after a half or shorter rest and
down-bow for sixteenth notes, up-bow if there is an eight note before the sixteenth notes.

‘’It is necessary to draw the bow down (tirar in giù), as regards half-rests or breaths (literally
sighs,sospiri) to point the bow up (pontar in sù), the same as one finds the passaggio that goes
immediately in sixteenth-notes or thirtysecond-notes to draw it down (tirar in giù), if [there is] an
eighth-note before the passaggio one can use an upbos (pontar in sù), this is natural for it.’’63

As we can see, the principle of ‘strong down-bow and weak up-bow’ was started already
by Ganassi, Fransesco Rognoni and Richardo Rognioni.
This principle is explained in great detail by some later sources. Very famous is Muffat,
who explains the difference in the French and the Italian (and German) bowing rules very
precise.
Both Bismantova and Zanetti, two late Italian seventeenth century sources, give quite
detailed examples of bowing patterns. I have to say that all the examples are quite logic
and I did not find anything very different then we would do nowadays. Besides that, they
are examples, and music will be often more complicated as those examples. In the end, it is
always up to the performer.

Use of slurs
Both Ganassi and Riccardo Rognioni mention the slurring of two notes in a single bow
stroke but nothing in great detail.
Diego Ortiz (1553) speaks of the possibility to slur two or three semi-minims in a row, but
he leaves this to the performer:
‘’When there are two or three quarter notes in a row, may only the first be marked, and the others
pass without taking a new bow stroke, as I have said, and because this can be shown; but because it
is theoretical I leave it to the good judgment of the musician, and I will treat the ways to vary,
which are three.’’64

Francesco Rognoni discusses the matter of slurring in great detail in his Selva de varii
passaggi (1620). The Italian term used for slurring is lireggiare. This term is also mentioned
in connection with the lira da gamba, where Rognoni writes that ‘the lira loves long bows so
that one can lireggiare better.’’65
He gives two different possibilities. The first one he calls simply lireggiare, the second one
he calls il lireggiare affettuoso:

63 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 41

64Ortiz, Diego. Tratado de Glosas (1553). Translation by Peter Farrell. Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society, volume IV,
1967, p. 8

65 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 40
!20
‘’By slurring (lireggiare) we mean playing two, three, or more notes in a single bow stroke, as can
be seen in the opposite examples; if there are two, then two down and two up; if there are three, the
same; if four, then four up and four down; if there are eight or twelve, the same so that the bow
stroke lasts to where the line below ends. It is also done with five or six notes. If you want (this
bowing) to have a good effect, you must practice it slowly, giving pressure to the wrist of the bow
hand. You should know that this (sign) T means to draw the bow downwards, and P means to
thrust it upwards. This method of legato bowing will serve for all the stringed instruments.
Legato bowing in the affettuoso manner, that is, with affetti, is the same as the kind described above,
as far as the bow is concerned. However, it is necessary for the wrist of the bow hand, almost
jumping , to beat each note, one at a time. This is difficult to do well, and thus much practice is
needed to be able to do it with the beat, conforming to the note values, (whereby) you should be
careful not to make more noise with the bow than with the sound.’’ 66

With il lireggiare affettuoso he seems to mean some kind of bow-vibrato (or we could also
call this tremolo).

Related to the matter of bowing patterns is the discussion if bigger groups of musicians
where aiming for an uniformity in bow strokes. In the case of the cello we might wonder if
cellists, who played underhand, played in the same manner as viol-players did (so with
the up-bow as their natural strong bow). But one can also imagine that when a cellist is
playing together with one or more violinist, he/she could use the same ‘strong down-bow
and weak up-bow’ principle as the violinists would do.
At the same time, we don’t know how much they cared about uniformity in bow strokes.
If we believe Muffat, the Italians did not bother to much about that:

‘’the Germans and the Italians do not agree with the Lullists, nor even to any great extent among
themselves, in the matter of the rules for up- and down-bows. But it is well known that the Lullists,
whom the English, Dutch, and many others are already imitating, all bow the most important notes
of the musical meter, especially those which begin the measure and which end a cadence, and thus
strongly show the motion of the dance, in the same way, even if a thousand of them were to play
together.’’67

Muffat continues to write about the uniformity in sound in the French orchestras thanks to
the strict bowing rules:

‘’Thus when noble men returned to our lands from these places, and did not find this unanimity
among our German violinists, who where otherwise excellent, they noticed the difference in the
concord of sound and were amazed, and complaint not infrequently about the improper movement
of the dances.’’68

66 Ibid, p. 42

67Muffat, Georg. Florilegium Secundum (1698). Translated and edited by David Wilson. Indiana University Press, 2001,
p. 33

68 Ibid.
!21
It is interesting though that the bowing rules by Bismantova are quite similar to the ones
mentioned by Muffat, who explains the difference in the French and the Italian (and
German) bowing rules very precise.
Another thing to think about is the orchestra in Rome under the ‘baton’ of Corelli. It is
known that Corelli liked the uniformity of bow motion in his orchestra. Following Marc
Vanscheeuwijck this could also indicate that the cellists where playing with overhand bow
technique.69

69 Vanscheeuwijck, Marc. Cello stories, the cello in the 17th & 18th centuries. Outhere music, 2016, p. 41
!22
6. Ornamentation

I will only discuss the ornaments which are related to bow- technique or require a special
bow-technique.

6.1 Ornaments

Passagi
All treatises mentioned before talk about passagi: (in English: diminution/division) an
ornament where long notes are divided into smaller ones by playing around the written
note. Most treatises explain passagi by giving examples using different intervals. The
ability to improvise those diminutions was very important in the 16th and 17th century for
both singers and instrumentalists. Making diminutions was a way to achieve continuity of
movement in music.70

For singers, the term gorgie is often used. Gorgie means ‘throat’, referring to the technique
singers need to use for singing diminutions.71

We can find a lot of complaints by both Ganassi and Riccardo and Francesco Rognoni,
about musicians who don’t play passagi well.
Both Ganassi and Riccardo Rognoni stretch the importance of playing a passagi skillfully:

Ganassi:
‘’If beauty is perceived in the manner of holding the instrument and in motions which are
harmonious, quality also will be perceived through the performer’s knowledge of intervals and
harmonies allowed by the musical structure, and with diminutions or passaggi played in such a
manner as will not offend the art, that is to say played without committing forbidden errors or
misunderstanding of counterpoint and composition.’’72

Riccardo Rognoni:
‘’As to the instruments, then, they have this in common, that they must be so skillfully played that
their sound is not harsh and confused. This happens to those who ostentatiously try more to play
great masses of difficult things than to delight with a few good ones.’’73

Francesco Rognoni adds to this that musicians should not make diminutions all the time.
In his chapter on singing he warns against making passagi on words that “signify pain,

70Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s guide to
seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 295

71‘to beat in the throat’. Used by Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo
Forni Editore, 2002, p. 39

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Regolo Rubertina (1542-43). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
72

Music, 2002, p.3

73Rognoni, Riccardo. Passaggi per potersi essercitare nel diminuire (1594). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni
Editore, 2002, p. 37
!23
anguish, misery, torment, and similar things.” He advises to use graces, accenti and esclamationi
instead.
In the chapter on the viola da gamba he writes that the bass part should not make many
passagi:

“(…) but those few which are made must be well placed and natural, because the bass is the
fundament of the other parts. Let everyone be warned not to play as do many who play bass
instruments who do nothing but make passagi, and passagi, what is more, that are not fit for the
bass, ruining the entire ensemble.”74

Something similar is written by Zenobi for bass singers:

‘’He who sings the bass, if he sings in company, is obliged to know how to keep his part firm, right,
and secure: firm with regard to his singing, right with regard to pitch (voce), secure with regard to
his judgement. And if he occasionally wants to improvise an embellishment (passaggiare), he must
wait for the moment where the other three parts hold steady, and he must know the places where he
can sing an embellishment.’’75

In his chapter about the viole da brazzo Francesco Rognoni he adds that all notes should
be played clearly:

‘’The passagio must be made of equal notes and such that they can be heard note by note, not too
fast or too slow, but following a middle road, extending the bow well above the viola. The eighths,
sixteenths, and thirty-seconds must be well distributed both those on the downbeat and those on the
upbeat because the most important thing for players of any instrument is to make the passagi in
tempo.’’76

All comments on bow directions are related to passagi (and gropetti), because they should
sound natural (and not ‘confused’).

Groppo
The groppo (means ‘group’ in Italian) is a cadential division. In its basic form it is a
repeated alteration between the leading tone and the tonic, going down to a third on the
final movement. The groppo is more often performed in double tempo, and there are also
examples with thirty-second notes.77

74 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 40

75Zenobi, Luigi. Letter on the perfect musician. Translation by Bonnie Blackburn and Edward Lowinksy. Studi Musicale
22, 1993, p. 99

76 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 41

77Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s guide to
seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 302
!24
Following Francesco Rognoni it is important to play/sing the final rising third with grace:

“it is necessary to stop always on the penultimate note of every passaggio, and in particular on the
trillo or gruppo, in order not to make the last note suddenly harsh because it would displease the
listeners.”78

A groppo is always played with separate bow strokes. Concerning the bow direction, the
same rules apply as with passagi. (example 1)

Tremolo
The definition of tremolo depends on the period. For string instruments in the 17th century
it seems to mean bow-vibrato. Bow-vibrato should be played by varying the pressure
during a bow stroke, and not by stopping the bow. For the voice and wind instruments,
the tremolo is described as a smooth fluctuation of intensity.79

The first known use of the term for string players is by Zenobi.80 Biago Marini uses the
term in his opus 1 (1617). He writes ‘tremolo con l’arco’ above the string parts, and ‘metto il
tremolo’ on the organ part. This is an indication that the string players should imitate the
tremulant stop of the organ.
Carlo Farina’s (c. 1600 - 1639) Capriccio Stravagante (1627) gives a similar instruction: ‘’the
tremulant is played with a pulsating bow hand, by way of imitating the tremulant of the organ’’.81

Following some descriptions, a tremolo can be an unmeasured ‘trembling’. Other

descriptions give a more measured, rhythmical version of the tremolo.82

Same as with passagi, we should be careful not to make tremolo endlessly:

‘’The tremolo is done often but with grace, and one must guard against doing it endlessly, as some
do, who thus sound like goats.’’83

The explanation by Francesco Rognoni for the execution of a tremolo on the viola da brazzo
is hard to understand. He talks about an altering of the note, and not of a bow-technique:

78 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 39

79Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s guide to
seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 311

Cypess, Rebecca. Curious & Modern inventions: instrumental music as discovery in Galileo’s Italy. The University of
80

Chicago Press, 2016, p. 242

81 Ibid, p. 136

82Dickey Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s guide to
seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 311

83 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 38
!25
‘’(…) the tremolo by its nature is a rising of the note and not a falling, and that because of this the
tremolo is made with the finger above the one which makes the note.’’84

This is especially interesting in comparison with the examples Rognoni gives for the voice.
(example 2) As you can see, there is no altering of a note in this example.

Ganassi does mention something similar: he writes that for sad music we ‘’should make the
bowing arm tremble and do the same thing on the fingerboard to achieve the necessary effect’’.85

This kind of trembling does suggest the use of finger-vibrato. A contemporary of Ganassi,
Girolamo Cardano (1501 - 1576 ) calls this technique Vox Tremula in his treatise on music
(De Musica, 1446). Cardano explains this Vox Tremula for the recorder as an technique
where not only the breath needs to tremble/vibrate, but also the fingers need to thrill in
order to vary the interval.86

Trillo
The trillo is usually described as an articulated reiteration of a note and for the voice we
could say that it is ’beaten in the throat’.87 This technique is also used for the execution of
rapid passagi (gorgie).
In examples given by both Giovanni Luca Conforto (1560 - 1608)88 and Guilio Caccini
(1551 - 1618)89, we can see that there is a gradual increase of speed of the reiterated notes.
(example 3)

Praetorius distinguishes two kinds of trills: ’one is played unisono, on one line or in the
space’. The other one ’concerns various modes’. Praetorius used the following signs for
these trillo: t, tr, tri.90

There are no explanations how to play a trillo on string instruments, but taking into
account that a tremolo (unarticulated) is played on one bow stroke, we could say that a
trillo (articulated) is played with separated bow strokes.

84 Ibid, p. 41

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Regolo Rubertina (1542-43). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
85

Music, 2002, p. 3-4

86 Griscom, Richard & Lasocki, David. The Recorder: A Research and Information Guide. Taylor and Francis, 2012, p. 199

87Dickey Dickey Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s
guide to seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 311

88 Giovanni Luca Conforto: Breve et facile maniera (1593)

89 Giulio Caccini: le nuove musiche (1602)

90Engelke, Ulrike. Music and language: interpretation of early baroque music according to traditional rules. Zimmermann,
Frankfurt/Main, 1990, p. 39
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Accenti
The definition of accenti is complicated because it appears in many different forms. I would
like to refer to an article by Bruce Dickey on this topic for more information.91
In general we can say that an accento is made by adding a note above the written out note
before it drops by a step.
Following Francesco Rognoni, the ‘true accento’ is done only in a descending line. But he
writes that ‘nowadays’ it is also used in an ascending line. Besides that, he writes that the
accento should be done ‘somewhat late rather than otherwise.’92 (example 4)

General thoughts on ornamentation

There are numerous variants and forms of the described ornaments. Often different
ornaments are combined and become a new ornament.
Ornaments should have a function, and suit the music and the text.
Moreover, some ornaments function as a medium to go smoothly to the next ornament.
For example Zacconi relates a tremolo with a passagi: ‘’the tremolo is the true door for entering
into a the passagi and for mastering the gorgie, because a ship sails more easily when it is already
moving than when it is first set into motion.’
Caccini gives examples were he first uses a groppo, leading to a trillo.

A lot of variants of ornaments show unequal rhythms, a way to vary articulation.

Sometimes this also has the effect of stressing the dissonant notes in a diminution.

Zenobi also uses the words ‘syncopation’ and ‘discrimination’, probably to suggest
unequal handling of notes:

‘’He {the perfect musician} must know how to improvise passagi in skips, in syncopation; he must
know thoroughly which places demand them; he must start with discrimination and finish in time
with those who sing or play with him.’’93

In a lot of those unequal rhythms, we find dotted rhythms. Most string players will find
this difficult in terms of bow technique: the dotted note takes to much bow, which makes it
hard to come back and therefore there is often a tendency to make the dotted note to short.
Both Ganassi and Francesco Rognoni do insist on sustaining the dotted note:

Ganassi:
‘’Furthermore, you must not interrupt the sound of a dotted note, but sustain it with the bow, as
one does in singing.’’94

91 Dickey, Bruce. ‘’L’Accento: in search of a forgotten ornament’’. Historic Brass Society Journal, 1991

92 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 38

93Zenobi, Luigi. Letter on the perfect musician. Translation by Bonnie Blackburn and Edward Lowinksy. Studi Musicale
22, 1993, p. 101

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Regolo Rubertina (1542-43). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
94

Music, 2002, p. 6
!27
Francesco Rognoni:
‘’In passing from one note to another, one must carry the voice well with grace, holding the dotted
notes well.’’95

6.2 Dynamic devises

Although treatises mention the use of forte and piano already in the 16th century,
indications in music are quite rare. From the beginning of the early 17th century, we can
find more indications in the score. Especially the so called echo effect is often notated.96
This almost became a genre, there are many examples of sonates by for example Marini,
Giovanni Gabrielli, Dario Castello and Picchi, which are based on the musical illusion of
an echo. Marini even supplies specific staging instructions for the performers in his
‘Sonate in ecco’ for 3 violins and continuo: he writes that the part which plays ‘loudly’
should be seen, the two other parts (who play the echo) should not be seen.97

Domenico Mazzocchi (1592 - 1665) is one of the first to notate and explain the following
abbreviations in his preface to his Madrigali (1638)98: F. P. E. T. (F for Forte, P for Piano, E
for Echo and T for Trillo). It is interesting that he also writes that those abbreviations are
commonly known. Besides that, he uses the letter V for crescendo (called by him messa di
voce), and the letter C of a crescendo which is followed by a diminuendo (which is our
current definition of a messa di voce). In the closing section of one of his madrigals we can
find the indications forte - piano - pianissimo. This does suggest a diminuendo.99

For string instruments, Ganassi does mention how to produce a loud or a soft sound: close
to the bridge for a loud sound, and close to the fingerboard for a soft sound.100
Other (later) sources confirm this. I have not been able to find anything concerning bow
speed.

95 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 39

Boyden, David. The history of violin playing from its origins to 1761 and its relationship to the violin and violin music. Oxford
96

University Press, 1965, p. 178

Cypess, Rebecca. Curious & Modern inventions: instrumental music as discovery in Galileo’s Italy. The University of
97

Chicago Press, 2016, p. 124-124

98 Madrigali a 5 voci in partitura (1638)

99Harvard dictionary of Music, ‘Expression marks’, Accessed March 2, 2017 https://books.google.nl/books?

id=TMdf1SioFk4C&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&dq=Mazzocchi+madrigals
+18+dynamic&source=bl&ots=1JwYtz1T2l&sig=oIQl6DUBp5npPhKy2hSM9pHIRkM&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9iL
OX6rjSAhVMXhoKHdojD84Q6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=Mazzocchi%20madrigals%2018%20dynamic&f=false

Ganassi, Sylvestro. Regolo Rubertina (1542-43). Translated and edited by Richard Bodig. Artarmon, N.S.W. : Saraband
100

Music, 2002, p. 4
!28
Dynamical differences is seen by Zenobi as another requirement of the perfect musician:

‘’He {the perfect musician} must use echo passages, now immediate, now separated; he must know
how at times to begin loudly and then to let the voice die gradually; and at times to begin, or end,
softly and then enliven it gradually.’’101

Messa di voce
Although Mazzocchi explains the messa di voce as only an increasing of sound, we often
define a messa di voce as the the increasing and decreasing of a note. Therefore it is always
used on long(er) notes.102

<> messa di voce

Esclamatione
The esclamatione can be seen as the opposite of the messa di voce: a strong beginning with an
immediate decrescendo followed by a crescendo. The esclamatione is typically done on
downward-moving dotted figures, for example a dotted half note with a falling quarter
note.103

>< esclamatione

Caccini mentions two different kinds of esclamatione: the exclamatio viva and the exclamatio
languida.104 The exclamatio viva for a bigger interval and the other one for a scale-wise
motion. This does suggest that a more passionate esclamatione is required.105

6.3 Other bow techniques

Staccato
The term staccato comes from staccare, which is a shortened form of distaccare, which means
‘to detach’.106

101Zenobi, Luigi. Letter on the perfect musician. Translation by Bonnie Blackburn and Edward Lowinksy. Studi Musicale
22, 1993, p. 101

102Engelke, Ulrike. Music and language: interpretation of early baroque music according to traditional rules. Zimmermann,
Frankfurt/Main, 1990, p. 72

103Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s guide to
seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 309

104Caccini, Luigi. Le nuove musische (1602). Translation by Sion M. Honea , accessed March 5, 2017 http://
sites.uco.edu/cfad/files/pdfs/historical-performance/Caccini.pdf

105Dickey, Bruce.’Ornamentation in Early Seventeenth Century Italian Music’, chapter 16 in: A performer’s guide to
seventeenth century music. Edited by Stewart Carter and Jeffery Kite-Powell. Indiana University Press, 2012, p. 309

106 Garland, Peter. ‘Bow’. In Grove Music Online. Accessed March 3, 2017. Oxford Music Online
!29
The shortening/separation of notes was only marked in scores toward the end of the 17th
century. Often with dots or vertical slashes over noteheads but sometimes also by writing
stacco, staccato, or spicco in the part.107

Imitation
One of the best examples of ‘imitation’ is Carlo Farina’s (c. 1600 - 1639) Capriccio
Stravagante (1627). In this piece the ‘violin consort’ imitates other instruments and even
animals. Interesting are the performance instructions by Farini. A lot of those pieces do
require special bow-techniques, such as ‘here one strikes the strings with the wood of the
bow’, and for the imitation of cats one needs to slide with the left hand and with the bow
one must ‘take care to run the bow, now above, now below the bridge as badly and as
quickly as one can, in the way that cats ultimately do, as they bite each other and run away
in chase’.108
In cello repertoire we don’t find such extreme examples, but a very nice piece is ‘Tromba a
basso solo’ by Guiseppe Colombi (1635 - 1694). Vigorous rhythms and the excessive use of
intervals of a fifth or a fourth do recall the trumpet and its fanfares.109 When there are a lot
of repetitions of the same note, often that is very good place to imitate the tremulant stop
of the organ (tremulo).

Barnett, Gregory. Bolognese Instrumental Music, 1660-1710: Spiritual Comfort, Courtly Delight, and Commercial Triumph.
107

Ashgate Publishing, 2008, p. 130

Cypess, Rebecca. Curious & Modern inventions: instrumental music as discovery in Galileo’s Italy. The University of
108

Chicago Press, 2016, p. 134-136

Barnett, Gregory. Bolognese Instrumental Music, 1660-1710: Spiritual Comfort, Courtly Delight, and Commercial Triumph.
109

Ashgate Publishing, 2008, p. 146

!30
7. Other sources on articulation

Almost every sixteenth and seventeenth century treatise discusses both articulation and
ornamentation. For the subject ‘bow-technique’, articulation is extremely important,
because the bow is our medium to articulate.

The instructions concerning the practice of articulation are mainly written for wind
instruments. Those instructions are very important for the the interpretation of this
repertoire. Besides that, it is interesting to compare the instructions for wind and string
instruments and to see if some ‘rules’ can be applied to both instrument families.

When we talk about articulation nowadays we seem to mean mainly the attack of a note
(or the absence of an attack)
Groove gives the following definition of articulation:

‘’The separation of successive notes from one another, singly or in groups, by a performer, and the
manner in which this is done. (…) The term articulation refers primarily to the degree to which a
performer detaches individual notes from one another in practice (e.g. in staccato and legato). (…)
Techniques of articulation in most wind instruments include various patterns of tonguing:
equivalent aspects of technique of instruments of the violin family involve the handling of the bow
(and the occasional use of pizzicato).’’110

The comparison between tonguing and bowing is also mentioned by Francesco Rognoni:

‘’If you play a madrigal or a motet or a canzona dimiuita or passeggiata by someone who does not
understand the craft, there will always be passaggi distorted with the bow for a lack of
understanding of the instrument. The same thing happens with other instruments, like the winds,
lute, harp, and other similar ones. On wind instruments (this happens) because they do not know
the terminations of the tongue.’’111

Although Girolamo Dalla Casa (? - 1601) does not write anything specific about string
instruments, he does write on the title page of his ’Il vero modo di diminuir’ (1584) that his
examples also apply for string instruments.112

All instructions for wind instruments use syllables (‘lingue’) to explain the articulation.
The different syllables cause different ways of attack. There has been written a great deal
about this, since different sources often use different syllables.113

110 Chew, Geoffrey. ‘Articulation and phrasing’. In Grove Music Online. Accessed March 3, 2017. Oxford Music Online

111 Rognoni, Francesco. Selva de Varii Passaggi (1620). Translated by Bruce Dickey. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 41

112 Tarr, Edward & Dickey, Bruce. Articulation in Early Wind Music. Amadeus Verlag, 2007, p. 53

Erig, Richard & Gutmann, Veronica. Italian Diminutions: the pieces with more than one diminution from 1553 to 1638.
113

Amadeus Verlag, 1979, p. 30

!31
In general we can say that each note is articulated with a movement of the tongue. So this
is the same as with the bow where in general every note receives its own stroke.

Long notes often start with the syllable te or de.

Ganassi, amongst others, distinguishes three ways (tre lingue principale) to tongue groups
of faster note values:
1. te che
2. te re
3. le re
He writes that the first one ‘’uses syllables with a hard, sharp effect, the third one uses pleasing,
or smooth ones. The middle link is the second form: (…) one of its syllables belongs to the first basic
form, the other one to the third. It is a combination of the tow extremes, hardness and
smoothness.’’114

This also correspondents with Dalla Casa, who uses very similar syllables. He calls the
first form ‘piu crude', the second form ‘mediocre' and the last one ‘dolce’.115

Besides that, Ganassi writes that ‘’the quoted forms of articulation are based on perfect and
imperfect attacks with the tongue.’’116
This principle is very easy to translate to the bow: the down-bow as an ‘perfect’ attack, the
up-bow as the ‘imperfect’ attack. But this is not necessary the answer: way more important
is how to vary the bow strokes. In examples we never see that all fast notes are articulated
le re le re le re le re. Dalla Casa for example gives the following sequence: de re le re de re le re.

Apart from this, we can say that repeated notes where generally tongued with single
strokes (te te te). Scale-wise movement was generally tongued in the lingua riversa (le re, de,
re, te re) manner.117

114Engelke, Ulrike. Music and language: interpretation of early baroque music according to traditional rules. Zimmermann,
Frankfurt/Main, 1990, p. 55

115 Tarr, Edward & Dickey, Bruce. Articulation in Early Wind Music. Amadeus Verlag, 2007, p. 55-56

116 Ibid, p. 55

117 Dickey, Bruce. Preface and translations on Riccardo and Francesco Rognoni’s treatise. Arnaldo Forni Editore, 2002, p. 30
!32
Conclusions

Iconography shows us that there are a lot of possibilities to play the cello. In terms of bow
hold, underhand bow hold is seen the most, but also overhand bow hold can be seen
towards the end of the 17th century. In general we can say that cellists held the bow
relatively close to the frog, that is the case with both underhand and overhand bow
technique. We can also say that they probably stayed on the strings as much as possible
since with underhand bow hold it is harder to get off the string than with overhand bow
hold. Besides that, for example Francesco Rognoni warns against lifting the bow (‘because
it makes more noise than a musical sound’) and he also advises, like Ganassi, to sustain a
dotted note with the bow as much as possible (‘like one does in singing’).

The treatises by Sylvestre Ganassi,Luigi Zenobi, and Riccardo and Francesco Rognoni give
some very important ‘rules’ on string playing. The attention given to articulation and
sound in general is striking. Besides that, they stretch the importance of having a good
posture, not only for our appearance while playing, but also for the quality of sound. To
practice very well seems very important for them too: they seem to be bothered by
musicians who don’t master their instrument (and music in general) well. I think this is
very true for bow technique. In addition to this I also think it is very important to listen
very well while practicing.
I have the feeling that (especially in historical performance practice) there is a tendency to
listen with the eyes. Something can look very historically ‘correct’: the equipment and the
way the instrument is played, but if it does not sound well, what is the point?
In the end, technique is just a tool, rather than a rule. Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) writes
in the second book of his Syntagma Musicum that we should realize that

‘’there are many matters of this kind where the impression can be given that there is only one right
way of doing something. So, for instance, some keyboard players are held in contempt for not using
some particular fingering or other. This is ridiculous, in my opinion. If a player can fly up and
down the keyboard, using the tips, mid-joints, or the backs of his fingers - yes, using his very nose if
that helps! - and either keeps or breaks every rule in existence, so what? If he plays well, and plays
musically, it matters little by what means he does so.’’ 118

The human voice is often set as an example for instrumentalists. Towards the end of the of
the 17th century there was also a tendency to imitate other instruments and even animals.
This shows that they where very inventive and looking for different ways to create
different affects. They were not afraid to use quite advanced techniques for this.

The many treatises written for wind instruments are very detailed when it comes to
articulation. I found those treatise very helpful as an addition to the treatises on string
playing: they give more possibilities on how to vary articulation (bow strokes).

Praetorius, Michael. Syntagma Musicum II (1614-1615). Translated and edited by David Z. Crookes. Oxford University
118

Press, 1991, p. 53
!33
In the introduction I stated that a lot of the early cello repertoire was still composed in the
older style, and therefore those treatises are still a very valuable. This repertoire seems to
be built on the principles of articulation. In my opinion, those treatises are not only
valuable for 17th century repertoire, but could be also a source of inspiration for any other
repertoire.

This research did give me more tools to play this repertoire. I think I recognize more
motives/figures which can give an indication how to play (and/or ornament) them.
Learning other repertoire than the usual ‘cello’ repertoire was very helpful for me to
understand this repertoire better as well. For example the diminution pieces by Giovanni
Basanno, or the barely played canzona’s for bass solo by Girolamo Frescobaldi. This
repertoire only works when it is played with ‘a beautiful bowed articulation’ (F. Rognoni).

!34
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