Dotzauer’s Twenty-Four Pieces for Two Cellos, Op. 159
dedicated to the very beginners
Please find the original article with a thorough analysis of the pieces here. This article only covers the announcement of the second edition. A thorough list of changes will be published subsequently.
Notes on the Second Edition
The Second Edition celebrates the long-lost finding of the first edition of this collection, published in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel (plate n° 6337) around 1840. One of the most striking differences was already evident on the cover. Where the previous four books were all titled “Twelve Pieces”, this is simply called “Pièces” (Pieces in French), and adds “dedicated to the very beginners” as a subtitle. It is, indeed, the only book for two cellos of Dotzauer’s production to include pieces that are possible for students who are starting the cello as their first instrument. This was not possible even ten years before, but now (ca. 1840), small cellos were starting to become available. All these discoveries obliged me to restructure the entire edition, which is now composed of four versions:
- The translation into modern notation of the first edition, including Dotzauer’s original fingering and bowing suggestions. I hope you will appreciate his minimalistic approach.
- Carl Hüllweck’s version, with several corrections and improvements. A complete list of changes will be published on the blog.
- Johannes Klingenberg’s version, with several corrections and improvements. Most notably, since his collection did not contain pieces n° 8 & 16, they have been removed entirely, and the pagination rearranged.
- Finally, my own version based on A, including personal fingering and bowing suggestions. The digital version also includes one additional copy with the changes between D & A highlighted.
The collection is now offered—as is the case with the previous four books—in Standard & Collectors’ Editions. The Standard Edition will contain score and parts of version A, while the Collectors’ one will include all four versions together in a single bundle.
A few symbols have been employed in version D that may not be familiar with every cellist.
- For bow division, I have chosen to use the German system, where ‘G.’ suggests using the whole bow, ‘OH.’ the upper half of it, ‘UH.’ the lower half, ‘Fr.’ the lower third, ‘M.’ the middle third, and ‘Sp.’ the upper third. When recommending using the lower or upper two thirds of the bow, I have used a fraction with either “1•2” or “2•3” as the numerator and “3” as the denominator.
- To propose the quantity of bow to use when not clear from the context, I have employed what my teacher, Marcio Carneiro, used with me: a double-headed arrow pointing outward when wanting to recommend using a lot of bow, and pointing inward when suggesting the use of a compact bow.
- A vertical arrow pointing up next to a fingering digit will suggest lifting the finger quickly after the note has been played.
- Two vertical lines crossed by a single horizontal line suggests placing the finger shown previously flat on two strings. When this has to be prepared in advance, an equal sign (=) is added after the finger digit.
- A lowercase character ‘i’ next to finger n° 1 indicates a backward extension of that finger.
- An uppercase character ‘A’ next to finger n° 4 indicates the need to shift the whole hand forward of a half-step, while remaining in closed position. This is used mostly in descending scales in 1st position.
- An ‘x’ character before finger n° 2 or 4 warns of the need for an extended position between fingers 1 & 2 (mostly) or 3 & 4 (more rarely).
You can find the updated edition here.
Thank you for your support and interest.
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