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TO THE EDITOR : In GSJ XLVII (1994), Agnes Kory (in 'A Wider Role for the Tenor Violin') showed that many of the earliest compositions for violoncello had a curiously high tessitura and upper range of pitch, and in CSJ XLVII (1995). Ephraim Segeman (in 'The Name Tenor Violin') proposed the five-string violoncello as a likely instrument for this music. Segerman's proposal is even more persuasive, if one also considers some early definitions of the term 'violoncello'. In 1695 Brossard wrote (in the glossary of his Elévations et motet's ) 'Violoncello ... propement nostre Basse de Violon, sur tout quand elle est cinq cordes' (above all when it has five strings'), while ill 1703 he also included six strings. Mattheson in 1713 gave only five or six strings for the violoncello, While Walther ill 1732 had four as well as five or six strings. Laborde in 1780 retrospectively gave d ´ as the tuning of the highest of the five strings.
Two undoubted examples of music for a five-string violoncello are that of the 'Basse de Violon à Cordes' (range D-b [flat ]´) in Charpentier's Sonata for eight instruments (c.1686), as given by J. A. Sadie in 1980, and that of the 'basses de violons, à 5 cordes' (highest note a ´) in Matho's opera Arion (1714), as given by J. Eppelsheim in 1961. A five-string 'cello is likely for the twelve Ricercate sopra il Violoncello of 1687 by G. B. Degli'Antonii (range C-c ´´): for the eleven Ricercarj per violoncello ... (and canon) of 1689 by D. Gabrielli (range C-a ´), with a likely tuning (suggested by some chords) of C G d g d ´: three sonatas (presumably for 'cello) by A. Scarlatti (lowest note C , not G as given by Kory); and the five sonatas 'per violoncello solo' of 1703 by Ruvo (lowest note D , not G as given by Kory). A five-string 'cello is well-suited to the violoncello parts in J. S. Bach's cantatas 106 (1707-8) and 70 (1716), and some viola parts in Handel's oratorios. (Handel's Solomon , of 1749, has a viola-part in the tenor-clef marked 'per Violoncelli duoi Ripieni' .) Prior to the Antonii ricercares , no major composition is known for any of the...