ABSTRACT
Pablo Casals’s long life spanned the rise of recording technology and increasing international mobility of musicians. He wrote no pedagogical book of his own, but endorsed those of two of his “disciples,” Diran Alexanian and Maurice Eisenberg. On film, Pablo Casals appears upright and balanced, his movements economical. His arms come away from his sides, a departure from the low-arm posture of pre-endpin players. Christopher Bunting warns against inefficient techniques such as “clinging and clutching” in posture and cello hold, treating these as emotional-psychological aspects of technique. Eisenberg teaches rounded finger shaping, with the unusual advice to keep the fingers “so closely knit to each other that they might have been stuck together by glue.” Vibrato drills vary the speed and amplitude in combination with a variety of bow dynamics. Alexanian teaches beginning double stops using the chromatic rather than diatonic scale so that the hand can keep the same shape when playing thirds.
