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From Introduction: In the middle of the eighteenth century, when Haydn began composing his first string quartets, violin writing was highly advanced and the violin an established solo instrument, its supremacy already firmly endorsed by the Italian Violin Schools of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The pace of development of the cello, however, was not comparable to that of the violin, despite the fact that the first cello known to us was made in 1572.

Paul Tortelier's How I Play, How I Teach (1975) is an invaluable addition to the limited amount of comprehensive cello methods written during the second half of the 20th century. Although Tortelier's influence on cello performance is still being felt today, the application of his method has not been sufficiently explored. An exceptional performer and devoted pedagogue, Paul Tortelier (1914-1990) can undoubtedly be ranked among the greatest cellists of the 20th century. Influenced by Pablo Casals' (1876-1973) approach to cello playing, How I Play, How I Teach develops his views on intonation, sound production, shifting, and articulation. However, Tortelier also introduces numerous daring inventions of his own into his method. These include playing with a flattened last joint of the finger for a more expressive vibrato, "rolling the stick of the bow" while playing for a wider palette of tone colors, new pizzicato and thumb position techniques, new legato fingerings for double stops, and the "pianistic passing of the thumb," among others. Due to their highly unorthodox nature and often condensed, minimalistic explanations, many of Tortelier's ideas have failed to gain acceptance since their publication and are regularly considered to be types of extended technique, mostly applicable to contemporary music performance. By examining Tortelier's innovations and by employing them in selected excerpts from the cello literature, this research proves that even his most radical ideas are applicable within the standard repertoire. If paired with the other methods, the visionary contents of How I Play, How I Teach serve as a useful resource of technical ideas to any aspiring cellist and pedagogue.