Written by Tim Blomfield

Before the era of standardisation in the sizes of instruments, all members of the now standardised violin family had variants. The violin piccolo, for example, is best known to today’s audiences as a requirement by JS Bach in his Brandenburg Concerto №1 BWV 1046. The ‘pochette’ or dancing master’s violin (as it could slide easily into his pocket) was in common use in European courts throughout the 17th and 18th centuries – for teaching dances. Similarly, the viola came in more than one size: typically, the alto viola and the tenore viola.

The violoncello (which is commonly known as the cello) originated from the violone (Italy), which elsewhere was called bass violin (England) and basse de violon (France). The violoncello piccolo is smaller than a full-sized violoncello, somewhere between a ½ size and ¾ size instrument. It carries an extra string on the treble side of the instrument, giving it a particular sonority. This is typically tuned five notes higher in pitch than the full-sized violoncello’s (top) a’ string, giving it the pitch of e’; a variant of this tuning is d’ (above “middle c’”). The player may choose which is the best fit-for-purpose tuning.

It is difficult to say if composers wanted this sound as either something special on its own, or a particular sound-colour addition in the string ensemble mix. What we can be more certain about, however, is that thanks to its top string, the upper range of the violoncello piccolo greatly exceeds that of the 4-string violoncello, and some composers liked to exploit this feature.

JS Bach remains the standout composer for incorporating the violoncello piccolo into his compositions, specifying it for 12 of his church cantatas and the 6th Suite for Unaccompanied Violoncello BWV 1012. At the outset, Bach states the tuning for a 5-string instrument he names the viola pomposa: tuning C-G-d-a-e. There has been conjecture as to what that instrument might be. Some have suggested a viola da spalla (a very large viola with a neck strap, played on the shoulder), while others have suggested that the violapomposa and viola da spalla are two distinct instruments about which we are not so much the wiser. (GP Telemann was another of the select few who stipulated the viola pomposa in a couple of compositions.)

It seems another likely use of the violoncello piccolo is as a stand-in tenore viola. For The Networker concerts, this is how you will experience it being incorporated into the ensemble.