Sigma Alpha Iota

20 Spring 2025 • sai-national.org 20 Spring 2025 • sai-national.org A Wld of Music Reflections on The Art of Cello Playing and Teaching By Jayne I. Hanlin M ention choir to me, and immediately I think of a cello choir. I've played in three such choirs in special performances with more than fifty cellists: in Luigi Silva's memorial concert at Juilliard (1962), in the American String Teachers Association program in Dallas (1965) scheduled to be conducted originally by legendary Pablo Casals (who was unable to attend at the last minute), and in Memoriam Pablo Casals at the Music Teachers National Convention in Denver (1975). It wasn't my decision to play the violoncello (or cello), but I shall ever be grateful to my mother for choosing it for me. My maternal grandmother played the piano, and her daughters were also musical. Mom played the violin, and her sister supported herself by teaching the piano for decades. Mom thought the cello would be a good instrument for me because I had large hands. I started taking private lessons with Louis Zopf in third grade. For over a year a and half, she taught me to shift my left hand up or down on the fingerboard to reach notes not directly under my fingers. However, in the summer of 1953 as a camper in the Junior Girls Division at National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, Louis Potter introduced me to the modern method of cello playing when he gave me private lessons twice a week. His technique used extended position, which reduced shifting. Extending my first finger back a half step lower or extending my second, third, and fourth fingers up a half step higher became second nature even at my young age. But after camp, this new approach meant I needed to find a different cello teacher back home to continue playing this way. Once a week after school, Mom would take me to the home of Bernice Schwartz, a member of the St. Louis Symphony, who lived on Degiverville Avenue, and Dad would pick me up on his way home from downtown. Later she helped me find a full-size cello when I needed one: a Mittenwald from Germany for $125—not a small sum in those days. Foolishly, I realize now, I later sold it for $300—a huge financial mistake, as its value has skyrocketed since then! I have never forgotten Mr. Potter teaching me how to tune my instrument myself that summer seventy years ago. Since cello strings are a fifth apart, all I had to do was sing the first three notes of "e Star Spangled Banner" with "Oh" as the higher string (such as A, D, or G) and "say" as the next lower one (such as D, G, or C). I taught my own cello students this same trick. And to this date, whenever I sing the beginning of the national anthem, I remember Mr. Potter and smile. Mr. Potter was in the Dallas Cello Choir over a half century ago. We reminisced there. I purchased a copy of his The Art of Cello Playing (Summy-Birchard Company, Evanston, Illinois) that had been published the year before. It covered everything a cello player needed—much more than extended position and tuning. Periodically through the years, he would send me cello music for ensembles of two, three, or four cellists with his own fingerings. Although his book has an appendix with a cello repertoire list, including cello ensembles— duets, trios, quartets, octets, and even a piece for twelve cellos—it does not list the quartets he sent to me, so I feel particularly blessed. Years later, Cellobration, my own cello quartet, performed this music at weddings to earn money for our community orchestra. The other day I invited six cellists to play some of this music. Before starting, I explained how I had obtained it and showed them Mr. Potter's book. One of the cellists remembered using the book herself in fifth grade. We alternated the parts we sightread and had a grand time. Afterward, I couldn't stop thinking about Mr. Potter. Amazingly, I was able to contact his son and tell him what a profound influence his father had on me and how his generosity continued to bring such joy. His wife told me The Art of Cello Playing is still published and that, once quite unexpectedly, their son heard a woman give a talk about how she had used it on her own to learn how to play the instrument. Now this anecdote speaks volumes about my great cello teacher!

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