CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY JANOS STARKER IX
translator's note xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
Part One: Goal-Directed Movement
I. ON CONTROLLING MOVEMENT
General Issues 3
Goal Conception 7
Control of Movement 12
II. THE PHYSICS OF MOVEMENT
Energy and Mass 16
Equilibrium 19
Energy Reserve and Looseness 21
III. MOVEMENT AS GESTALT
Movement in Space 25
Movement in Time 30
Part Two: The Fingerboard
IV. POSITION CHANGE
Total Body Movement during Position Change 39
Rotation of the Body and the Leg Muscles 41
Elasticity of the Body 44
Breathing and Position Change 46
Bow Direction and Position Change 48
Portamento and Rhythm 51
Movement of the Left Arm during
Position Change 54
Movement of the Hand and Fingers
during Position Change 59
Finger Activity during the Anticipatory
Movement 63
vi Contents
V. PLACEMENT OF FINGERS, HAND, AND ARM WITHIN
ONE POSITION
Hand and Position 65
The First Four Positions 67
The Transitional Positions (Fifth to Seventh) 78
The Thumb Positions 80
String Crossings and Double Stops 83
VI. MOVEMENT WITHIN THE HAND
Percussion 86
The Trill 91
Fluency 93
VII. VIBRATO
Vibrato as a Means of Expression:
Frequency and Amplitude 97
Vibrato Movement of the Arm 99
Application of Vibrato 105
Vibrato and Pitch Level 108
Part Three: The Bow
VIII. THE BOWED STRING
How Is a Sound Produced on the String? 115
Change of Volume: Pressure, Speed,
and Contact Point 1 19
Sound Colors 127
Speed, Pressure, and Contact Point in
Their Practical Application 130
Problems of Sound Production: How to
Make a String Speak 135
IX. TRANSMISSION OF PRESSURE TO THE STRING
Arm Weight 142
Moment of Rotation (Rotational Force) 144
Pressure Relationships in the Bow Hand 149
Holding the Bow 156
Slanting the Instrument 160
X. MOVEMENT OF THE RIGHT ARM
Upper Arm and Forearm in a
Whole-Bow Stroke 165
Contents vii
Hand and Finger Movements during
a Whole-Bow Stroke 172
Bow Change 179
String Change 191
Simultaneous Bow and String Change 204
XI. DIFFERENT KINDS OF BOWING
Detache 209
Martellato 21 1
Staccato 215
Off-the-String Bowings 218
CONCLUSION 229
BIBLIOGRAPHY 23 1
FOREWORD
Whenever a political candidate is asked to express his opinion
on any given issue the safest cliche is "not enough is being done
about . . . ," and any subject can be named to fill in the dots. His
opponent says the same, and both are safe and right.
All through my professional life, when receiving or finding
works pertaining to cello playing, I could not help but express the
above cliche. "It is not enough!" Books with many valid points
invariably fell short of answering or dealing with unlimited num-
bers of issues. Methods are usually directed toward special prob-
lems and aimed at particular groups of players.
The major value of Gerhard Mantel's book is that no one can
say that it is "not enough." It discusses all conceivable aspects of
cello playing in the utmost clinical detail. It is based on honest
research, experiment, and experience. As such it can help to
eliminate much harmful teaching of baseless principles, usually
the result of individual teachers' playing shortcomings. It can
promote the recognition of many proven facts, though often con-
tradictory to accepted traditions. It can even help to explain var-
ious schools of playing where the differences may be real, semantic,
or matters of taste.
In such an undertaking there is an inherent danger that state-
ments may sound dogmatic, although arguments, discussions, and
disagreements are called for. Nevertheless, I urge that this book
IX
x Foreword
be obligatory reading for those whose aim in life is the responsi-
bility of teaching future generations to play the cello.
Janos Starker
bloomington, indiana
JUNE 1974
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Gerhard Mantel's Cello Technique accomplishes what few
other books on the subject do: it gives both teacher and student
a vocabulary with which to conceptualize and discuss what hap-
pens when the cello is played. For this reason I decided to take
time off from a busy schedule as a cello teacher and performer to
translate Mantel's book into English. Once I had begun the job,
however, I discovered that each new chapter I translated from the
German was providing me with invaluable concepts and termi-
nology to use in my day-to-day teaching routine. This daily inter-
action between teaching cello and translating Cello Technique
not only contributed to my teaching but also helped the transla-
tion, for it clarified, through application, many hypotheses put
forward in the book.
In presenting a wealth of objective information the author to
a large extent avoids the controversies existing between different
schools of cello playing. So, while it is not a method as such,
Cello Technique covers the ground that is the indispensable basis
on which any sound method must be built. It is the only attempt
since Hugo Becker's Mechanik unci Asthetik des Violoncellospiels
to relate in a systematic way the sciences of anatomy and physics
to the technical problems of cello playing. By presenting Cello
Technique in English, I have endeavored to share with my Eng-
lish-speaking colleagues this source of valuable teaching and study
materials.
XI
xii Translator's Note
Some changes have been made in translation by the author
and the translator for clarification of salient points in the original
text. Liberties were taken with the original manuscript where text
material seemed inappropriate for an English edition.
Barbara Haimberger Thiem
ames, iowa
