🏷️ Über: The violoncello,[1] normally simply abbreviated as cello, is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 and A3.
By the turn of the 20th century, it had become common to shorten the name to 'cello, with the apostrophe indicating the missing stem.[3] It is now customary to use "cello" without apostrophe as the full designation.[3] Viol is derived from the root viola, which was derived from Medieval Latin vitula, meaning stringed instrument.
As a solo instrument, the cello uses its whole range, from bass to soprano, and in chamber music, such as string quartets and the orchestra's string section, it often plays the bass part, where it may be reinforced an octave lower by the double basses.
Figured bass music of the Baroque era typically assumes a cello, viola da gamba or bassoon as part of the basso continuo group alongside chordal instruments such as organ, harpsichord, lute, or theorbo.
The violoncello,[1] normally simply abbreviated as cello, is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family.
The term "violone" today usually refers to the lowest-pitched instrument of the viols, a family of stringed instruments that went out of fashion around the end of the 17th century in most countries except England and, especially, France, where they survived another half-century before the louder violin family came into greater favour in that country as well.
