Cello History

In the beginning of 6th grade, when Mrs. Gomez first taught my class the different parts of a cello, one question was going through my mind. How did the cello come to be? As I researched about the cello’s history, I finally realized something. The structure of the cello has changed massively from the 5th century BC, to the 19th century. The early ancestor of the cello is the viola da gamba, which first appeared in Europe in the late 15th century. The viola da gamba’s structure is similar to the cello’s. The viola da gamba have a, “... flat back and sloping shoulders. Its fingerboard was fretted like that of a guitar and its bow held with an underhand grip… between five and seven stings, with six being far the commonest number,” (Dearling

Strings are now commonly made out of steel or nylon. Cellos have been commonly tuned to different notes throughout the centuries, “...our first description of the cello, in this case a three-stringed instrument tuned F, c, g... when a fourth string was added, it was the B flat below the bottom F… but as early as 1532 the modern tuning C, G, d, a is mentioned… [in the book] Syntagma musicum (1619) [by German composer Michael Praetorius, it] illustrates a five-stringed cello, tuned F’, C, G, d, a,” (Dearling 20). Currently, cellos are tuned C, G, d, a like in the 1532.

According to the book, The Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments Stringed Instruments by Dearling, “The full name of the cello is violoncello, which literally means ‘little violone’ – the violone being the double bass… its name emerged only in the 17th century, some century or so after the instrument itself.” (20). So the name violoncello literally means ‘little double bass,’ and the name violoncello only appeared a few centuries