While researching Mara for "Lovers lying two and two", and not being able to admit I was researching Mara, I ran across this article about his cello.
High points:
- Made in 1711. - Johanna Mara its first known owner. - Mara was accused by contemporaries of playing too fast. - Also accused of beating his wife Schmeling when drunk. - Apparently spilled some alcohol on the cello, which left streaks where the varnish was removed, still visible in 1902. - Schmeling left him in 1799 (the year of Mara's visit to Heinrich). - After she stopped paying his expenses, he was so short on money he had to sell his cello in 1802. - He died 6 years later. - The cello went down on a sinking ferry boat in Argentina in 1963, but it was miraculously retrieved in its case and reassembled from pieces.
You can see pictures of both the whole instrument and what it looked like in fragments in the article.
LOLOLOLOL so first I was like "ooh easy cello playing is sexy" and then I was like "WAIT I'm thinking about Romantic cello music, what did Classical period cello sound like" and then I had to listen to a bunch of recordings to figure out what would be appropriate for a period sound, lol. You historically accurate people are rubbing off on me! Is Mara playing a solo (e.g. Bach cello suites) or as part of an ensemble?
Someting like this, maybe?
Mara bent over his cello, his long fingers coaxing deep sounds from the instrument. Heinrich felt the pressure of each bow stroke as if it were against his skin.
Sorry that I had not figured out that you could listen to his very instrument when I asked that question! But now here's a musical RMSE treat. :D
Btw, I only tweaked her suggested passage in the fic--she is responsible for its existence!
The Mara Stradivari
High points:
- Made in 1711.
- Johanna Mara its first known owner.
- Mara was accused by contemporaries of playing too fast.
- Also accused of beating his wife Schmeling when drunk.
- Apparently spilled some alcohol on the cello, which left streaks where the varnish was removed, still visible in 1902.
- Schmeling left him in 1799 (the year of Mara's visit to Heinrich).
- After she stopped paying his expenses, he was so short on money he had to sell his cello in 1802.
- He died 6 years later.
- The cello went down on a sinking ferry boat in Argentina in 1963, but it was miraculously retrieved in its case and reassembled from pieces.
You can see pictures of both the whole instrument and what it looked like in fragments in the article.
You can also listen to it here!
Oh, that reminds me!
Oh, and if you do happen to have any ideas for one or two sentences about how to make cello playing sexy, I'm all ears. :D
LOLOLOLOL so first I was like "ooh easy cello playing is sexy" and then I was like "WAIT I'm thinking about Romantic cello music, what did Classical period cello sound like" and then I had to listen to a bunch of recordings to figure out what would be appropriate for a period sound, lol. You historically accurate people are rubbing off on me! Is Mara playing a solo (e.g. Bach cello suites) or as part of an ensemble?
Someting like this, maybe?
Mara bent over his cello, his long fingers coaxing deep sounds from the instrument. Heinrich felt the pressure of each bow stroke as if it were against his skin.
Sorry that I had not figured out that you could listen to his very instrument when I asked that question! But now here's a musical RMSE treat. :D
Btw, I only tweaked her suggested passage in the fic--she is responsible for its existence!