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Yardsticks and Milestones: Reflections on Fifty Years of Cello Teaching

One of the advantages of "senior citizen" status is that those of us in that time bracket have simply been around long enough to have witnessed many changes, lived through several eras, seen many fads come and go; and that just possibly one at this time of life may have some observations, some reflections upon the human condition and one's vocation to pass on to the next generation. It certainly does not necessarily follow that the accumulation of years endows one with any special wisdom, though perhaps the experiences garnered over that time can speak with some validity and background to following generations. I, for one, am grateful to this magazine for providing a forum for expressing some thoughts and views on cello pedagogy and performance from the perspective of some fifty years involvement. Much has been written and said to the effect that here in the twentieth century cello technic and playing have been revolutionized-have "arrived"-under the aegis of such masters as Casals, Piatigorsky, etc.; and indeed there have been significant advances in technic and certainly in our solo repertoire. However, I tend to disagree with this assessment of the state of our cellistic art. Rather it would seem that our art has followed a line of evolution-the developing and crystallization of certain principles of fingering, bowing,