What Is a Violoncello? A Brief History of the Cello

The word “violoncello” is the formal name for the cello, the tenor instrument of the violin family. Sometimes spelled “violoncelo” or “violonchelo,” the violoncello can function as a solo instrument or in a larger choir of stringed instruments. A violoncello player is a cellist.

The violoncello reads both the tenor clef and bass clef in music notation. High passages on the upper extremes of the violoncello fingerboard are sometimes notated in treble clef.

The words “violoncello” and “cello” both refer to the same musical instrument. “Violoncello” is the full name, and “cello” is the name commonly used in everyday language. The violoncello, or cello, is a member of the violin family. It serves as the family's tenor voice alongside the violin (soprano voice), viola (alto voice), and double bass (bass voice).

These string instruments are made by craftspeople called luthiers. The earliest violoncello luthier was likely Andrea Amati, who worked in Italy in the sixteenth century. The most famous is arguably Antonio Stradivari, who worked in Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The violoncello, which first appeared in sixteenth-century Italy, derives from an earlier instrument called the bass violin.

• Etymology: The violoncello's etymology traces to the Italian words “violone” (meaning "big viola") and “cello” (meaning "little"). The word is a portmanteau of “violon” and “cello.” The Italian plural of violoncello is “violoncelle.”
• Ancestors: The instrument derives from the viol, or viola da gamba, family, which featured string instruments popular through the seventeenth century. A larger version of the viol called the bass violin, or basso de viola da braccio, appears to be a direct precursor to the violoncello.
• Featured in Baroque music: Although the violoncello existed in the Renaissance era, it received a more enthusiastic embrace from the Baroque-era composers of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. These included the German master Johann Sebastian Bach and the famed Italian Antonio Vivaldi. Bach's cello suites remain some of the most important literature for violoncello soloists. The violoncello also operated as an accompaniment instrument in the Baroque era, playing basso continuo lines while violinists played melodies on top of them.
• Growth in the Classical era: By the eighteenth century, the violoncello took on a more prominent role in both concert music and chamber music. It effectively replaced the bass violin in every musical culture except in France, where the viol family remained popular. Famous cello composers of the Classical era include Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, and J.S. Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.
• The Romantic era and beyond: From the nineteenth-century Romantic era onward, the violoncello has been one of the most important instruments in all of classical music. Composers from the German Johannes Brahms to the Czech Antonín Dvořák to the French Claude Debussy to the English Edward Elgar have created timeless cello concertos, sonatas, and chamber pieces.
• Modern cello: Beginning in the twentieth century, the violoncello began appearing in non-classical contexts. It features prominently in film scores and has also appeared on pop, rock, and bluegrass recordings. All the while, the violoncello still plays a prominent role in traditional string quartets and symphony orchestras.

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