By prodding through primary and scholarly sources, it was found that during Bach’s time in Cöthen, he had the opportunity along with resources to compose freely as he wished. Bach was very influential in changing the function of the violoncello from an accompanying instrument to a solo instrument, showcasing the cello’s latency in his writing of the unaccompanied cello suites. He does this by creating an accompanying line with in the solo line, which allows the cello to display its soloistic capabilities and not to be restricted to simply an accompanying line.
How Bach Encouraged the Cello to Evolve as a Solo Instrument
To this day, the unaccompanied Bach cello suites, specifically the Prelude from the Cello Suite No.1 in G major BWV 1007 are the most commonly performed works for solo cello. However, Bach’s suites were not always in the limelight of the soloist’s repertoire. These suites remained overshadowed by other works until the renowned cellist, Pablo Casals (1876-1973), discovered them in the twentieth century. The suites were unlike many of the other instrumental compositions during this time; many of the previously composed works for solo cello could not compare in virtuosity nor sonority. Furthermore, in The Bach Reader, Hans David stated, “none of these men [Baltzer, Matties, Biber] had written unaccompanied music for a stringed instrument on any such scale as even one of the Bach works, let alone such series of them as his two sets of six each.” An analysis of compositions and writings by Georg Philip Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi, Luigi Boccherini, and Giuseppe Tartini reveals that Johannes Sebastian Bach’s “Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello” were greatly influential in changing the function of the cello from an accompanying instrument to a solo instrument.
Most scholars believe that Bach composed the Cello Suites from 1717-1723 while he was in Cöthen. Although Bach was not a cellist, he was still able to produce a masterpiece with the circumstances surrounding the writing of these suites. During this time, Bach worked as a Capellmeister for Prince Leopold’s court. Since the church was Reformed at this time in Cöthen, Bach was not required to compose weekly compositions. Luckily, Leopold was a zealous music lover. According to Eric Siblin, Bach stated that “‘Because Leopold loved music, he would want to employ the best musicians. ‘” Bach used this to his advantage. Bach had highly skilled musicians at his disposal, to which he could compose chamber and solo instrumental works of a different caliber. An argument could be made that other composers did not have decent musicians at their disposal; thus, they did not write for the cello in a more elaborate manner. Despite the controversy, Bach was well equipped with excellent musicians to assist him in composing the suites, and no evidence indicates that the suites were written for a particular performer. Instead, Bach wrote the music to be played by all cellists. According to Albert Schweitzer, “At bottom he conceived everything for an ideal instrument, that had all the keyed instrument’s possibilities of polyphonic playing, and all the bowed instrument’s capacities for phrasing.” By combining elements of both keyboard and string composition, Bach produced a polyphonic and melodic piece of music for a single instrument. Throughout Bach’s life, the role of the cello was primarily that of an accompanying instrument in the bass register. According to Pleeth, “the ‘violins’ spanned both worlds [religious and secular] with equal ease and from the sixteenth century onwards could hardly be dispensed within either religious or profane spheres.”
“Along with playing the basso continuo, the violoncello became popular for mere enjoyment, in the homes of all classes of people. The cello also continued to be an “indispensable member” in the church and chamber ensembles.”
In Recent Re-Evaluations of the Baroque Cello and What They Might Mean for Performing Music of J.S. Bach, Marc Vanscheeuwijck wrote, “In recalling the cello concertos Antonio Vivaldi wrote in the 1720s, when Vandini was teaching at the Pietà, certain tendencies similar to Tartini’s concertos can be observed: there is not much virtuosity in the Boccherinian sense of the term (high positions or wide leaps up and down the fingerboard), but rather a general extension that barely exceeds the middle of the upper string, with virtually no use of the lowest string.” The violin at the time was the primary stringed instrument composers were most comfortable writing for, quite frankly, it still is. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) even commented on Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor Op. 104 stating, “If I had known that it was possible to write a cello concerto like this, I would have tried it as well!” This is evidence that during later periods a composer like Brahms did not even know the capabilities of the cello in a concerto setting, even though he composed sonatas for the cello. The most arguable comment about the cello is that the lower strings of the cello are said to be too mellow and that it lacks projection; therefore, it would not be audible in a large hall, nor when accompanied by an orchestra. However, even as stated, the cello is quite soft sounding until you go above the middle of the upper string which the composers at the time did not do. Thus, this poses the following question: did composers not take into consideration the cello’s range? Even though throughout the 1600s the cello remained an accompanying instrument, and when it was not playing the basso continuo line, it was played in homes and church services rather than solo performances. During this time, solo instrumental music began to be developed for the string family but mostly for the violin.
Solo music for the cello was not fully developed until the late eighteenth century, when Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) demonstrated the full potential of solo virtuosity on the cello. Boccherini had an advantage: he composed for his own instrument, the cello. Therefore, he was more familiar with the cello’s capabilities than other composers. Before the Baroque period were a few pieces for solo cello existed, composed primarily by the composers Giovanni Battista Degli’Antonii (1636-1698), Domenico Gabrielli (1659-1690), and Domenico Galli (1650-1697).
As you can see in Figure 1 from Luigi Boccherini’s Cello Sonata in A Major, the cello in the first voice has a rather virtuosic line. Yet, the cello in the second line is still in essence a basso continuo line, which is consistent with the historical role of the cello.
Figure 1.
However, an example of a solo set of works that were composed before Bach is Domenico Gabrielli’s Seven Ricercars for Solo Cello. These ricercars are very complex for their time. These ricercars provided a compound line, similar to two independent lines, this shows that like Bach, Gabrielli thought of the different strings on the cello as different voices.
However, these pieces are not similar to Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites, as his suites took the cello repertoire to a new level by introducing new registers and voicings, such as soprano, alto, tenor and bass (SATB). In doing this, Bach was responding to the demand of the people. “Both of Bach’s sets look like aristocratic and demanded versions of solo fiddling, elevated to levels of new expressiveness by carefully considered harmonic movement and an intimate knowledge of Italian and, especially in the cello set, French characteristics.”
An analysis of compositions and writings by Georg Philip Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi, Luigi Boccherini, and Giuseppe Tartini reveals that Johannes Sebastian Bach’s “Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello” were greatly influential in changing the function of the cello from an accompanying instrument to a solo instrument.