Early Start on the Cello, Volume 4
by Egon Sassmannshaus, Michael Corssen and Kurt Sassmannshaus
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2009
- Publisher
- Bärenreiter (BA 8999; ISMN 979-0-006-53859-1), 72 pp. German edition: Früher Anfang auf dem Cello 4 (BA 9694)
Purchase or download
About this piece
The fourth and last volume of Early Start on the Cello, prepared by the cellist Michael Corssen with Egon Sassmannshaus, with Kurt Sassmannshaus as co-editor of the English edition. It is devoted almost entirely to playing in positions. Second, third and fourth positions are introduced through familiar songs from the earlier volumes and short recital pieces, some written for the book by Bertold Hummel, and changes of position are first marked with a sign so they can be practised deliberately. Fingerboard charts show the normal and extended finger patterns in each position. The volume ends with a look at fifth and sixth positions and also introduces the tenor clef and harmonics. Bärenreiter suggests Sebastian Lee's Forty Easy Etudes, Op. 70 and Popper's Fifteen Easy Melodic-Harmonic Etudes, Op. 76 No. 1 alongside it.
Technical overview
Positions two to four with normal and extended finger patterns, found by comparing notes with open strings; the same tune is played first in one position and then another, and shifts are marked with arrows. Many pieces have a second cello part, including a Dotzauer Andante con moto in 3/8 with three-note slurs, hairpin dynamics and staccato, and short pieces by Michael Corssen.
Technical focus
- 2 Note Slurs
- 3 Note Slurs
- Accidentals
- Dynamics
- Ensemble Skills
- Extensions
- Hairpin Dynamics
- Shifting
- Staccato
- Theory