“More than 20 years ago I was called upon by friends, artists, and aficionados to write about fingerings for the violoncello,” then-famous Berlin cellist Jean-Louis Duport thus opens his “Essai” from 1806, dedicated to “Professeurs de Violoncelle”. His methodology revolutionized cello technique, and the 21 etudes printed in its appendix are still regarded today as perhaps the most important set of studies for all budding cellists. Modelled after the volumes of etudes for violin, Henle is also issuing the Urtext here, together with all original fingerings and bowings, while also offering alternatives by the famous cellist and teacher Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. This edition also offers a second cello part provided by Duport for accompaniment.
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Preface
Jean-Louis Duport’s (1749 – 1819) Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et sur la conduite de l’archet dédié aux professeurs de violoncelle (Essay on the fingering of the violoncello and on the use of the bow, dedicated to teachers of the violoncello) was published by the Parisian publishing house Imbault, probably during the course of the year 1805. For in January of … more
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About the authors
Norbert Gertsch (Editor)
Dr. Norbert Gertsch, born in 1967 in Rheinkamp/Moers, studied piano solo at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and read musicology and philosophy at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg and the Ruperto Carola University Heidelberg on a scholarship from the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. In 1996 he wrote his doctoral thesis on Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (as part of the New Complete Edition) under Ludwig Finscher.
In the following year, he began work at G. Henle Publishers, initially as an editor for electronic publishing. After working on a two-year project (1999–2000) sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) preparing a new Beethoven Catalogue of Works, he became a scholarly editor at G. Henle Publishers. In 2003 he became Editor-in-Chief and in 2009 Deputy Managing Director and Head of Publishing. Gertsch has published many Urtext editions for G. Henle Publishers, including volumes for a new edition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas together with Murray Perahia.