The Violoncello and Its History

by Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski

The Dresden Court, which had always done a great deal for music, was continually taking into consideration the means of attracting into its neighbourhood distinguished instrumentalists; and if for some time a succession of foreign, but specially Italian artists found a place there, a certain amount of gain was the result in connection with it—for the artist youth of Germany received thereby a progressive impulse to their own endeavours. The Dresden Court orchestra had already, in the last century, a distinguished reputation, and this was more and more enhanced by the continual influx of talented and highly gifted musicians. As regarded the violoncello especially, it gained not long after the beginning of our century an exemplary representative in Dotzauer. From that time until the present day Dresden has remained an important centre for violoncello playing.

Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, born on January 20, 1783, at Häselrieth, near Hildburghausen, was the son of a minister there. Instructed early in music, he devoted himself to the piano, violin, and violoncello playing. The latter soon gained the ascendancy, and as the inclination for an artistic career showed itself decisively in him, his father sent him, in the year 1799, to Kriegk,[106] at Meiningen, under whose direction he studied two years. After the expiration of that period he found a post in the Meiningen Kapelle until 1805, when he went to Leipsic, and from 1805-1811 he was a member of the orchestra.

From Leipsic he visited Berlin. Here he heard Romberg, with advantage for the pursuit of his studies. In the year 1811 he accepted an honourable position in the Dresden Court orchestra, to which he belonged, from 1821-1850, as first solo cellist. He then lived in retirement, which he enjoyed for ten years. He died in the place where he had successfully worked for so many years on March 6, 1860.

Dotzauer was also well-skilled in composition, and attempted it in various forms. He wrote an Opera, Overtures, Symphonies, a Mass, and several chamber pieces. All these productions have long been forgotten. Not so his violoncello works, which consist of nine Concertos, three Concertinos, two Sonatas with bass, Variations, Divertissements, Potpourris, and a great number of Duets, some of these at least are still prized as objects of study. This is especially the case with regard to his books of instruction, to which belong two violoncello schools,[107] as well as a number of exercises of various kinds.[108] Amongst these the most commendable on account of their excellence are the eighteen “Exercices d’une difficulté progressive” (Op. 120), for beginners (with the exception of the two last numbers), and the “Twenty-four Daily Studies for the acquiring and keeping of Virtuosität.” The latter work is in every respect by far the best of Dotzauer’s many studies. He also published a School for Flageolet playing (Op. 147). His performances combined the gifts of great solidity and fascinating sweetness. Of his two sons, the younger, Carl Ludwig, devoted himself to the violoncello under the direction of his father. In 1820 he was member of the Hofkapelle at Cassel. He was born on December 7, 1811, at Dresden.

Dotzauer was distinguished not only as an executant artist but also as a teacher. The most remarkable of his scholars are—Kummer, Schuberth, Voigt, and Drechsler.

Friedrich August Kummer was born on August 15, 1797, at Meiningen. His father, an accomplished oboist, belonged to the Ducal band there. At the beginning of the century he entered the Hofkapelle at Dresden, and here his son, who at first had taken up his father’s instrument, became Dotzauer’s pupil. When his education was completed on the violoncello, Kummer should have been admitted into the Dresden Hofkapelle; but as there was just then no vacancy for his instrument he was obliged for a while to content himself with being received as oboist. This was in 1814. Three years later he was enrolled among the cellists. By diligently prosecuted studies, Kummer gradually reached such a high degree of artistic cultivation that when Dotzauer was pensioned, he was appointed in his place as first violoncellist of the Royal band. In 1864 he celebrated his fiftieth Jubilee, and then gave himself up to his well-deserved retirement. During his long tenure of office he displayed a most extraordinary activity as soloist, quartet, and orchestra player, as well as teacher. In the latter capacity he worked both privately and at the Dresden Conservatoire, to which he belonged, until his death, which took place on May 22, 1879. At the same time he wrote a good deal for his instrument, a Concerto, two Concertinos, instructive Duets (some easy and others more difficult), Variations, Etudes, Caprices, Studies (amongst them, daily ones), diverse musical “Divertissements,” which were formerly much in request amongst dilletanti, some of which are still used as subjects for the practice of youthful players. He also produced a violoncello school. It is at present the most generally used work of the kind, short and clear, though only extending to a moderate degree of difficulty; finally, Kummer published a useful compendium: “Repertorium and Orchestral Studies,” containing important and difficult cello pieces from oratorios, symphonies, overtures, and operas. Kummer’s playing bore the stamp of great precision and correctness, united to powerful and solid intonation. His technique “was in every point thoroughly cultivated, but to acquire the ‘finesses’ of a virtuoso he was of too simple a nature, which was better calculated to occupy itself with the sphere of music in its intellectual aspect than in brilliant display. All that he produced on his instrument was most correct and defined, in which he was greatly assisted by his quiet and cautious temperament. He was unable indeed to raise himself to the height of poetical inspiration and unrestrained warmth of expression, though he never did violence to a good composition. His manner of rendering was always strictly objective and according to rule.” Amongst Kummer’s pupils Cossmann and Julius Goltermann are prominent.

Bernhard Cossmann, born on May 17, 1822, in Dessau, studied at first under Theodore Müller, the cellist of the formerly famous Müller String Quartet, at Brunswick, and then under Kummer. During the years 1840-1841 he worked in the orchestra of the Grand Opéra in Paris, after which he went to London. In 1848 he was engaged as solo player for the Leipsic (Gewandhaus) Concert, in 1852 taken to Weimar by Franz Liszt, and in 1866 appointed teacher of cello playing to the Conservatoire at Moscow. From 1870 to 1878 Cossmann lived privately in Baden-Baden and only appeared to play at concerts. When the Conservatoire at Hoch was founded in 1878, the office of teacher of his instrument was entrusted to him, which post he now occupies. Cossmann belongs to the best cellists of the present time. He has a fine, distinct tone, manages the fingerboard with ease, and is not only a distinguished solo player but also an excellent quartet player. Amongst his compositions the most worthy of notice are a Concert piece with piano accompaniment, three “Fantasias” on Motifs from the “Freischütz,” “Tell,” and “Euryanthe,” six Solos in two parts, a Swiss Melody and a Neapolitan Canzonet, three Pieces (Op. 8), Etudes de Concert (Op. 10), and Violoncello Studies.

Johann August Goltermann, born on July 25, 1825, in Hamburg, after he had perfected himself under Kummer, was appointed to the Prague Conservatoire, to which he belonged from 1850 to 1862. In the latter year he exchanged this employment for that of first solo cellist in the Stuttgart orchestra. In 1870 he was pensioned, and on April 4, 1876, he died. He was an able artist in his branch of it.

The next pupil of Dotzauer to be mentioned is Carl Schuberth, born on February 25, 1811, in Magdeburg. He received at first, from a musician of his native town named Hesse, six years instruction, and then repaired to Dresden to Dotzauer, with whom he remained two years. On his return home he made his début with success as a soloist at a concert organised by Catalani, in Magdeburg. At the end of 1828 he undertook a concert tour to the North. The destination was Copenhagen, where, in the spring of 1829, he arrived and made a prolonged sojourn. Later on Schuberth occupied the position of first violoncellist at the Magdeburg Theatre, gave it up, however, in 1833, and undertook, in the autumn of the same year, a journey through Western Germany and Belgium. From the latter place he visited Paris. In the following year he went to Holland, and during the season of 1835 he was heard in London. Schuberth then went to St. Petersburg, where he found, as elsewhere, a brilliant reception, and immediately a permanent position, for he was not only named Director of the Imperial band, but also Inspector of the Music School affiliated to the Court Theatre and Director of Music at the University. He filled these posts until 1863, in which year death overtook him during a journey for the benefit of his health, on July 22, at Zurich. Schuberth’s playing was exceedingly clever, but in expression more elegant and ornamental than impressive. His cello pieces give evidence of this, which, with the exception of a Concerto, belong to the description of so-called conversazione music; but they have not survived their author. Amongst his pupils the most remarkable is Carl Davidoff.[109]

Carl Louis Voigt, the third of Dotzauer’s pupils above-mentioned, was born on November 8, 1792, at Zeitz; he was the son of the organist at St. Thomas’s Church, Leipsic, Joh. Georg Hermann Voigt. He played several instruments, and amongst others the violoncello also, on which his grandfather, Johann Heinr. Viktor Rose,[110] had given him instruction at Quedlinburg. Besides his work as organist, he played the violoncello with the orchestra of the theatre in the Gewandhaus at Leipsic. He imparted to his son what he knew and was able to do as cellist, who, in order to perfect himself, studied under Dotzauer’s direction some time, and in 1811 took the latter’s place in the Leipsic Orchestra, to which he had belonged since the winter of 1809-1810. Voigt filled this post until his death, which took place on February 21, 1831. His violoncello compositions extant, consisting of Sonatas, Duets, Exercises, and a diversity of Drawing-room Pieces, are feeble, but may be used for instruction—as, for example, the three Sonatas (Op. 40).