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Cello Superstitious Practices

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Title: Cello Superstitions

General Information about Item:

  • Superstition folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Annette Chen
  • Date Collected: 2-25-18

Informant Data:

  • Annette Chen was born in Arlington, Texas, on July 27th, 1990. She grew up in Taiwan and moved back to the United States with her brothers and mother when she was fourteen. She began learning the cello with Ervin Klinkon when was fifteen years old. Her siblings followed her and picked up the cello three years after she began. When she was sixteen, Annette was accepted into the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, where she played for three years. After high school, she stopped playing the cello, except when she returned home during holiday breaks. Annette is currently working as a project manager at Mt. Sinai.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: A cellist usually learns to play the instrument from a single instructor for a period of years. Each cello instructor has a particular musical style, in addition to individual superstitions and practices. As students develop technically and move on to different instructors, the students carry with them all the practices of their instructors. There is some technical background that has to be explained. Cellists play the cello using a bow, which is a tensioned stick, usually made of wood, with hairs attached at each end. There is a screw at the end of the bow that allows the musician to adjust the tension of the bow. It is a common practice after rehearsals to loosen the bow’s hairs using the screw. Cellists rub their bow hairs on a piece of resin (“rosining the bow”) to increase the friction of the bow when it is moved across the strings of the cello.
  • Social Context: I interviewed Annette over the phone, and she told me about a number of cello superstitions she gained by watching her teacher, Ervin. A cello lesson is highly personal. It is just the instructor and the student in a room, so the student has a singular focus on the instructor. Annette said that her teacher was not always fully prepared for the lesson when she arrived. So, many times, she was able to see him unpack his cello, prepare his bow, and warm up his hands. Annette said that, over several years, she picked up his superstitious practices.

Item:

  • Annette described a series of steps that she always took before practicing or before a performance. After she takes out her cello, she tightens her bow by turning the screw on the bow four times clockwise and then loosening the bow slightly by turning the screw once counterclockwise. Afterwards, she rosins her bow by running a piece of rosin three times up and down the length of the bow, and then five more times just at the tip of the bow. Then, she rubs her fingers in a box of small, broken pieces of rosin. Only then is she ready to play the cello. She believes that if she does not perform each step, she will break a bow hair or lose grasp of her bow while she is playing.
  • Annette also told me that Ervin did not invent these superstitions, but instead acquired them from his instructor, Lieff Rosanoff, who learned them from his teacher.

 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file): A cello bow

Informant comment:

  • “Rosanoff and Ervin taught a lot of students. I wonder how many people share my superstitions.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • If each instructor has a unique set of superstitious practices that he or she passes down, then it should be possible to track a cello lineage based on a student’s superstitions.

Collector’s Name: Vincent Chen

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • Cello
  • Lineage

 

Cello Taboo and Rite of Passage

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Title: Cello Taboo and Rite of Passage

General Information about Item:

  • Taboo folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Lorenz Chen
  • Date Collected: 2-25-18

Informant Data:

  • Lorenz Chen was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 14th, 2000. He grew up in Taiwan and moved back to the United States with his sister, brother, and mother when he was five. His father stayed in Taiwan to teach at a university. He is currently a high school student in Santa Barbara. He began playing the cello when he was eight years old, under the instruction of Ervin Klinkon. His sister and brother also play the cello. At the age of eleven, Lorenz was accepted into the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony. He became the principal cellist of the symphony when he was fourteen and has held the position since. In addition, he has headlined several concerts with solo performances.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In amateur symphonies, new cellists are accepted every year, and they usually stay for a minimum of three years. All cellists, new and experienced, audition annually and are assigned their seating based on their skills. So, the ranking is constantly obvious. 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. The hierarchical structure creates competition, but it also ensures 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, so individuality is frowned upon.
  • Social Context: I interviewed Lorenz over the phone, and he told me about a taboo within the cello section: showing off during rehearsal breaks. The taboo was not taught to him by his cello instructor or by the other cellists in his section. He said that he did not know that playing a solo piece was taboo until he stopped doing it. Lorenz said that during a practice one day, he simply stopped feeling the need to show off. It was at that moment that he felt truly incorporated into his section and accepted by the other cellists. As the principal now, Lorenz believes that this taboo works to remove individuality and to promote uniformity and cohesiveness in the section.

Item:

  • It is considered taboo to play an individual piece during break. This is especially a problem for younger players, who are often placed at the back of the section and are eager to demonstrate their skills. They will often practice a concerto or an especially difficult etude.
  • This taboo is also a part of a rite of passage. A new player slowly loses the need to demonstrate his or her skills. When a player finally dedicates rehearsal breaks to practicing the symphonic music, instead of an individual piece of music, he or she is incorporated fully into the cell section and is accepted by the other cellists. Erasing individuality is an essential element of this rite.

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

Lorenz Chen performing the Elgar Cello Concerto

 

 

Informant comment:

  • “This is something every cellist, good or bad, does. I’m pretty sure when I join another symphony, I’m going to catch myself showing off during rehearsal breaks.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • As Lorenz’s brother, I realized while speaking with him that, when we were playing in the same symphony, I never tried to stop him from showing off during breaks. When I first joined a symphony, I also had to learn by myself that it was taboo to play an individual piece of music during rehearsals.

Collector’s Name: Vincent Chen

Tags/Keywords:

  • Taboo
  • Rite of passage
  • Cello
  • Symphony
  • New players

 

 

Cello Rankings

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Title: Cello Rankings

General Information about Item:

  • Customary folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Vincent Chen
  • Date Collected: 2-24-18

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:

  • Ranking
  • Hierarchy
  • Cello
  • Symphony