Title: Cello Superstitions

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Kevin Shu was born in Miami, Florida on July 16th, 1996. When he was four years old, his family permanently moved to Prairie Village, Kansas because his maternal grandmother got ill and Kevin’s parents wanted to care after her. In their new lives at a completely new place, Kevin’s parents realized that they loved Kansas and the peace and quiet that came with the place. They have lived in Prairie Village from then on. The first instrument that he learned to play was the piano. He was really good, but he didn’t like it too much. So, when Kevin was 12 years old, he persuaded his mom to let him take cello lessons, despite the fact that he had been playing the piano for six years. Although playing the cello is one of Kevin’s passions, he did not pursue music at Dartmouth, as he is a computer science major with an economics minor.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: There is a “culture” that comes with every instrument. And in many cases, these cultures are what bring the people associated with a certain object together. In the case of cello-related superstitions, it brings cellists together because they are all trying to avoid the “bad luck” that is said to be inflicted upon them if they refuse to take caution and do what they must do to avoid the negative consequences.
Social Context: This was mentioned when Kyle was asked about any rituals, superstitions, or habits he and other cellists in DSO have regarding their cellos. Because Kyle is a freshman who just recently joined DSO, he said that he might not know much about the “cello culture” at Dartmouth, and specifically those associated with DSO.

Item:

During his interview, Kevin mostly talked about the superstitions that he was heard over the years regarding the cello. He brought up two superstitions to talk about. The first superstition was one that he found out about back in Kansas, that he ended up sharing to the other cellists in DSO. Now, they all share this superstition (among other superstitions). This is that if you don’t swing your bow up and down three times after rosin, then you will not play well that day.”
The second cello-related superstition that Kevin mentioned was that if you lose your rosin before finishing it, then it is bad luck.”
It is tradition to set down your cello on its left side when you are not playing.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Cellists set down their cello on its left, like shown in the picture.

Transcript:

Informant’s Comments:

According to Kevin, there are many, many superstitions that deal with cello, or just musicians in general. However, he said that only a few are actually practiced regularly by musicians to avoid bad energy/bad luck.

Collector’s Comments:

Surprisingly, Kevin did not mention the “tightness” of the cello section during this interview. I expected him to talk about the strong community that exists among the cellists in DSO, because all of the other informants that I interviewed talked at length about that. Perhaps Kevin did not mention this because he decided that he could not be a part of DSO his senior year of college because he was going to be missing a lot of practices/rehearsals due to personal issues. Maybe he wasn’t/isn’t able to spend a lot of time with other cellists in DSO after he left.

Collector’s Name: Junny Lee

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive