|
Cello's Teardrop Melody
|
|
"Wood is the material favoured for construction, because the alteration of the winter
growth...and the summer growth of greater pliability provides the ideal 'palette' for the
enormous variety of tone colours and frequencies." - from
The Violincello by Christopher Bunting
|
|
When the hand that holds the bow moves like one slicing bread or brushing teeth, quick short notes remind the cello's spruce belly of the birds that flicked in and out of its living branches and the raiders who emptied the nest built in a crotch by nightingale thrush. When the hand drags the bow across the strings it pulls out slow sounds the shape of teardrops left in the grain of the backplate by migrating warblers the maple invited to leave but wanted to hold forever, and by winds that amputated prime branches, leaving stubs to search on their own for light. Only the cello can sing that song - melody of consolation, joyful lament, ominous harmony and stardust, Eden self-denied - love's refrain reached through trees life journeys apart, forests of England and far-away Pernambucco. by Paul Gillie
|