But instrument-makers and performers alone could not have brought the violoncello to its position as a favorite instrument unless the composers had helped.
As Bach had been one of the last to write for the old viola da gamba, he was one of the first to write for the new violoncello. He wrote six famous solos for it.
Handel took great pleasure in the violoncello. He made it play an obbligato in several arias in his oratorios and cantatas. Alessandro Scarlatti also wrote for it; and, even better than he, Boccherini (1743-1815), who was a splendid performer himself. His Quartets particularly show it off to great advantage, as was natural to one who could play it so well.
With the development of the String Quartet that was now taking the place of the old “concert of viols,” the importance of the violoncello was settled. It only remained for composers to discover its singing qualities. Nobody understood these better than Mendelssohn. Next time you hear the oratorio of Elijah listen to the ’cello obbligato in Elijah’s aria It is Enough, which is even finer than the beautiful solo accompaniment to Be thou faithful unto Death in Mendelssohn’s other oratorio, Saint Paul.
Rossini’s Overture to William Tell opens with five solo violoncellos accompanied by two others playing pizzicato in first and second parts. Wagner made great use of the violoncello. It is very conspicious in the opening of the third act of Die Meistersinger, when Hans Sachs is sitting in his room reading and talking to himself; and in Tristan and Isolde the violoncello speaks love-yearnings as never before.
This leads us to the latest development of the violoncello as a solo performer in the Orchestra. In Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote Variations the violoncello is made to impersonate the mad, chivalrous and pathetic knight, whose adventures are described by the Orchestra. In this work the violoncello and the viola paint character as nearly as it is possible for music to do; and if we do not receive a definite idea of their appearance the music conveys to us certain impressions of Don Quixote and his unimaginative squire. With great poetic judgment Strauss selected the violoncello and the viola as the most suitable instruments to convey these impressions.
We have been talking about the violoncello all this time. What about the instrument itself?
Perhaps the first thing we notice is that the ribs of the violoncello are very much higher in proportion to its body than those of a violin, or viola. Of course, the height of these ribs differs in different makers. Stradivari made his so low that many of his violoncellos have had to be taken to pieces and wider ribs added to suit the music of to-day. Naturally the sound-post has had to be made taller.
Few of Stradivari’s violoncellos are in existence. He made his violoncellos in two models—large and small. The large ones are very scarce. They have a beautiful tone, but they are hard to play on account of their size. Servais had a “Strad.” Piatti also had one, which was known as “the red ’cello” on account of its varnish.