by Eric Siblin
House of Anansi Press Inc., 2009
First of all, let me say, I LOVE THE CELLO.
I first heard an unaccompanied cello, in all its glory, when we lived in a small farming/ university city and two music majors happened to play a cello duet at our church.
I fell in love.
I love how the cello looks. I love how the cello sounds. I how the cello is is played...
Now ask,
Do I play the cello?
No.
Do I play any string instrument?
No.
Do I play any instrument at all?
Well, yes.
I grew up playing the piano, but not what I would consider successfully.
I also happen to play the flute. Or did.
But it comes down to this,
Music was never“my thing”. Refer to The Hidden Art of Homemaking for more on this.
Despite this sad but true fact however, I think I might like to give it a try once again.
On my terms.
(Not so) secretly, I hope one of my children will be “my cello player”. But I have also considered the possibility of taking lessons myself once all the kids are in school.
Why can’t I be “my cello player”?
So, that brings me to The Cello Suites.
My eyes gravitated to the title listed in the “must read” section of one of our community newsletters. I’m not sure how many people actually took that recommendation seriously as I quickly got a hold of a copy at the library, not generally what happens with popular books in our library system.
In short, I absolutely loved this book. In fact, I picked up a copy for my brother-in-law for Christmas.
The Cello Suites basically follows three true stories.
1) The life and times of famous music composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote the actual “Cello Suites”. The book explores the circumstances surrounding the Suites' composition and the ensuing mystery of their disappearance from the eighteenth century.
2) The life of world-renowned cellist, Pablo Casals, who re-discovered the Cello Suites in the late nineteenth century and made them famous. Apparently he found the music in a small second-hand music shop in Spain then practiced them for 12 years before actually playing them in public.
3) The quest of author and journalist, Eric Siblin, to uncover the mystery of the Cello Suites. Siblin heard the Cello Suites at a recital in Toronto, Ontario and was completely taken in by the music and the explanation given in the program,
...the Cello Suites were seen as only a collection of exercises. But since Casals had started playing the suites at the dawn of the twentieth century, “we now know how lucky we are to possess these extraordinary masterworks. What most music-lovers don’t know, however, is that no known composer’s manuscript of these works exists...There exists no truly reliable source for the suites.” (page 4)
Whatever happened to Bach’s original manuscript? Spoiler alert: Siblin did extensive research in order to answer this question, but in the end, it remains a mystery.
The Cello Suites (as in the book) is certainly not a boring book by any means!
Interestingly enough, I had no idea what the (now speaking of the music) Cello Suites were when I picked up the book, but once I started reading, an idea popped into my head. On the soundtrack for the Hollywood movie, Master and Commander starring Russell Crowe, there is a cello piece and I wondered....
On the soundtrack is:
Prelude (From the Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BMV 1007)
Composed by, you know who, Johann Sebastian Bach
Performed by Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Performed by Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Absolutely beautiful.
What is actually quite fascinating about the Suites is this: In classical music, at least in my own experience, the performer must follow all the notes, rests, time and other musical indications to a tee.
No poetic license is allowed.
However, since no original manuscript exists for this music, no one really knows what Bach intended. Therefore, the cellist can be as poetic as they like!
As Siblin describes it on page 117,
The Cello Suites are a blank slate, a Rorschach test that allows cellists to put their own stamp on Bach and interpret the music as they see fit - or as they think Bach would have wanted his music played.
This really is so.
As it turns out, I actually have two different CD's with the Prelude of Suite No. 1 ,played by two different cellists. The versions are very different, indeed.
Speaking about the cello and speaking about books related to the cello, another terrific read is author Steven Galloway’s, The Cellist of Sarajevo.
This book is inspired by actual events,
At four o’clock in the afternoon on 27 May 1992, during the siege of Sarajevo, several mortar shells struck a group of people waiting to buy bread behind the market on Vase Miskina. Twenty-two people were killed and at least seventy were wounded. For the next twenty-two days Vedran Smailović, a renowned local cellist, played Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor at the site in honour of the dead (page 259).
I read this book as part of a book club several years ago, and, if I remember correctly, I was the only one who liked it! Basically, everyone’s complaint was that there was not enough action, but my perspective was completely different. There was action, but it was subtle and the climax of the story, internal.
I thought it was a really touching book in a non-traditional sort of way.
Any other cello reads?
