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Violoncello Without a Master: Alwin the Auto-Didact
Alwin Schroeder’s status as a self-taught cellist gained widespread notoriety from at least as early as 1885. That year the Leipzig...
Geoffrey Dean
May 15, 20225 min read
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Have Cello, Will Travel: Alwin's Toothbrushes
In the late 1890s, Alwin Schroeder and his family spent their summers in the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine. In her book The Islanders,...
Geoffrey Dean
May 1, 20226 min read
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Telo-melo Cello: Step-Child of Gasparo?
My recent post on cello poetry brought to mind the writings of Robert Haven Schauffler, who studied cello with Alwin Schroeder at...
Geoffrey Dean
Apr 10, 20225 min read
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Alwin Schroeder's Bach Cello Suites Edition
Alwin Schroeder's 1888 edition of the Bach Cello Suites is often overlooked in the literature on the suites. I believe it deserves...
Geoffrey Dean
Mar 23, 20227 min read
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1 comment


Bulgarian Rhythms: Lyubomir Pipkov's Spring Caprices
Listen to Five Spring Caprices by Pipkov, arranged for cello and piano by G. Dean In Bulgaria, the month of March is named after Baba...
Geoffrey Dean
Mar 5, 20222 min read
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More Cello Verses: Sonnets and Songs
As on most days, today I was answering the ever-present question of “who WAS that cellist?” when my query results led me off in another...
Geoffrey Dean
Feb 5, 20223 min read
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19th Century Cellists in the US: Frederick Bergner
Listen to my performance of Bergner's Reverie Best known as the first cellist of the New Philharmonic Society for 47 seasons, Frederick...
Geoffrey Dean
Jan 31, 20227 min read
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19th-century Cellists in the US: Theodore Ahrend
Born in Germany in 1829 or 1830, cellist Theodore Ahrend studied in Brussels, where he may have worked with Francois Servais./1/ In 1849...
Geoffrey Dean
Jan 16, 20226 min read
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1 comment


The UNC Greensboro Cello Collections, in Four Haikus
Before the winter break I spent a few days among the Cello Collections at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Although I have...
Geoffrey Dean
Jan 8, 20222 min read
60 views
9 comments


US Cello Performances, 1891-2: An Annotated Timeline, Part 2
See Part 1 here January 1892 9 Liederkrantz Hall, NY Anton Hekking among the solo performers on Liederkrantz 45th...
Geoffrey Dean
Dec 4, 20216 min read
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US Cello Performances, 1891-2 Season: An Annotated Timeline, part 1
The 1891-2 season, Alwin Schroeder's first in the US, saw an extraordinary convergence of musical talent in this country, and the...
Geoffrey Dean
Nov 24, 20215 min read
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Hugo Becker's Love Scenes, Op. 7
Liebesleben (Love Scenes), a "little suite" for cello and piano, was published in Liepzig by Max Brockhaus in 1894. I discovered it in...
Geoffrey Dean
Nov 14, 20211 min read
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Bel Canto Cellists: Cesare A. Casella pere et fils
Listen to my performance of Chanson Napolitaine by C. A. Casella fils A second-generation member of an Italian cello-playing family,...
Geoffrey Dean
Oct 30, 20216 min read
137 views
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"Soak 'em": Thomas Edison's Advice To A Cellist
The following anecdote in an item from the Lewisburg (PA) Chronicle (Oct. 15, 1891, p. 3) concerns an Edison engineer who was also a fine...
Geoffrey Dean
Oct 23, 20211 min read
31 views
2 comments


"Sing, Cello Sing": Jane M. Mattingly's "The Cello"
In the early 1920s the Willis Music Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, published A Happy Journey for Little Fingers, a set of six Practical...
Geoffrey Dean
Oct 16, 20211 min read
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Schroeder Student Spotlight: Hugo Schlemueller
One of Alwin Schroeder’s students at the Leipzig Conservatory was Hugo Schlemueller (1872-1918), the son of a Leipzig music critic. There...
Geoffrey Dean
Oct 9, 20213 min read
27 views
1 comment


Encore: More Music by Hermann Heberlein
Listen to the first part of Heberlein's Concertstuck, Op. 8 Heberlein and other cellists performed this work in Detroit during the 1890s....
Geoffrey Dean
Oct 2, 20211 min read
35 views
1 comment


Sounds of Bulgaria: The Music of Lazar Nikolov
It was a world beyond anything I had yet experienced or imagined. When I recall it, the sounds come back to me first. I hear the...
Geoffrey Dean
Sep 25, 20214 min read
38 views
1 comment


On This Day in 1891: Schroeder Arrives in the US
Listen to David Popper's Adagio, Op. 65, No. 1, published in 1891 and dedicated to Alwin Schroeder 130 years ago today, Alwin Schroeder...
Geoffrey Dean
Sep 22, 20213 min read
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Bel Canto Cello: Adrian Bradbury Plays Piatti's Opera Fantasies
Bradbury and Davies perform Piatti's Fantasy on Bellini's La Sonnambula British cellist Adrian Bradbury’s 2020 2-CD release of Alfredo...
Geoffrey Dean
Sep 11, 20212 min read
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