Morrison Hall, Room 227, 8:30 am
Contemporary Cello Etudes: Bernd Alois Zimmerman's Ver kurze Studien for Violoncello Solo (1970)
Paul Christopher, Associate Professor of Violoncello
Studying
études, pieces written to address specific technical problems, is a vital
component in developing instrumental mastery. Historically, great performers
have often composed études for use in teaching their chosen instrument.
Pianists and violinists have been particularly fortunate to have pedagogical
works written by performers who were also distinguished composers. Outstanding
examples include Chopin’s Études,
Opus 10 and 25 and Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Opus 1. These
and other pedagogical works by great composers often transcend their original didactic
purpose to become outstanding concert works.
Cellists
are less fortunate with the standard étude
repertoire consisting of works by Duport, Kummer, Lee and Popper, all
influential performers who wrote useful study material but were nonetheless not
composers of the first rank. Fortunately, several exceptional twentieth and
twentieth first century composers have enriched the genre with their
contributions.
Zimmermann’s Vier kurze Studien (Four
Short Studies) were composed for the cellist Siegfried Palm in 1970, the year
of Zimmermann’s death. Each study addresses a specific skill, in a simplified
form, that appears in Zimmermann’s Sonata
for Solo Violoncello (1960), a work that was considered unplayable prior to
it’s premier and advocacy by Palm. In the first study two different meters are
superimposed, each requiring a different tone color and style of bowing. The
second study utilizes different types of pizzicato. Rapidly alternating single
notes, double and triple-stopping are utilized in the third study. The final
piece is a study in cantabile
featuring the cello’s highest tessitura.
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| L to R: Coreil, Edgar, Christopher |
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