The realisation of recitative accompaniment by the Handelian cellist: a dialogue between historical and modern pedagogies

There survives only sparse documentation of the performance practices of the cello as its repertoire and techniques matured during the first half of the eighteenth century. Anecdotes suggest that the professional Italian cellists who migrated across Europe's musical centres were performing beyond the page, but the nature of their extemporisation is unclear; only very recently has notable work by Olivieri and Barbati on /partimento/ sources begun to lay a historical foundation for the musicianship of the early cello. In particular, the accompaniment of recitative in Italianate opera, described later in the century as the zenith of the cellist's craft, remains obscure and is still infrequently heard today. Although there exists, from 1774 onward, a hundred years of pedagogical and analytical description of the techniques employed by cellists in recitative, this practice is only described in its maturity. The origins and the development of the skill remain uncertain.

This paper explores the relationship between my own practices as a continuo cellist and historical sources encompassing the cello in the first half of the eighteenth century. The confluence of research and practice has allowed me to potentially locate the development of the accompaniment of recitative by the cello in the increasingly substantial theatres of the early-eighteenth century. In doing so, I have developed, from first principles, a practice that is conceivably reminiscent of one that may have been heard, say, in London during the 1730s. This, however, remains a modern practice, emerging from modern continuo sections and opera houses; there is potential for conceptual conflict between modern harmonic thought and the increasingly understood historical pedagogy. The paper concludes by noting that current practices require a far greater plurality of realisation than may have been expected in the eighteenth century – the recording studio demands an entirely separate set of techniques from theatrical performance.