Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich in 1978.
In Tuesday’s (6/17) New York Times, Max Keller writes, “Picture an orchestra. How are the cellists holding their instruments? Chances are, in your mental image, they’re playing with endpins—the pointy-tipped metal rods that anchor the cello to the floor and raise it to a comfortable playing height. Musical instruments, like technologies and fashions, adapt to the changing times. These days, playing the cello with an endpin is considered the default, but it hasn’t always been that way. Before endpins became standard, cellists often played by gripping the instrument between their calves, a position that requires strength and finesse. Even today some cellists opt not to use an endpin. At Trinity Church’s holiday performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in December, the cellists cradled their instruments between their legs for the three-hour performance—no small feat of endurance. Uptown on the same night, the New York Philharmonic was playing the same repertoire. Those cellists used endpins. This divide between Baroque cellists … and modern players … is often explained by a generalization: Cellists after 1850 or so used endpins, whereas before 1850 they didn’t…. But the history of the endpin is far more complicated, having to do with issues of gender, disability and plain stubbornness.”
