Cello Rankings

Title: Cello Rankings

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Vincent Chen was born in Arlington, Texas, on March 4, 1996. He grew up in Taiwan and moved back to the United States with his sister, brother, and mother when he was eight. His father stayed in Taiwan to teach at a university. He currently lives in Santa Barbara. He began playing the cello when he was nine years old, under the instruction of Ervin Klinkon. At the age of 12, he was accepted into the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony. He became principal cellist when he was 16. He continued playing the cello in college, in the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. He currently sits third chair.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Just by the nature of how cellists are seated, ranking is obvious and important. The cellist nearest the conductor is most highly ranked and is called the principal cellist or the first chair. Sharing a stand with the principal is the assistant principal, or the second chair. They’re collectively called “the first stand”. Behind them sits the second stand, behind whom sits the third stand and so on. Players are assigned their seating based on their skills.
Social Context: I interviewed myself and thought about the most essential characteristic in the cello sections of which I have been a part. I found that hierarchy was most important. I learned that there was a ranking the day I joined my first symphony. I offered to my cello section an interpretation for a particular section of a piece of music. No one said anything, but I felt the mood change, and I understood that there was a pecking order. Afterwards, I was mostly silent during practice, until I became the principal cellist. The hierarchy ensures that there is uniformity and consistency in how the cello section interprets and plays a piece of music. The primary goal of any section is to sound like a single instrument.

Item:

Technical instructions and musical interpretations flow in a single direction and always from the principal. For example, a cellist in the second stand would never turn around and give suggestions to the third stand without consulting the principal first. It is also uncommon for the second stand to tap the principal on the back to offer a suggestion.

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

Typical symphonic seating. The cello section is on the bottom right. Note that two cellists share a stand.

Informant/Collector’s Comments:

There are other, smaller ways that hierarchy is reinforced. For example, the inside players, who sit on the side of the stand that does not face the audience, turn the pages and hold the stand when the outside players want to write on the music. In the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, the inside players also receive photocopied music, while the outside players receive the original music sheet.

Collector’s Name: Vincent Chen

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive