It is undeniably an addiction. The access and the ease of use. The searching and the thrill of seeing a new composer and the works associated with these composers. Sifting through thousands of musical pieces to discover those hidden gems is enjoyable.
There is almost always something new every time I check the website. Nearly each search is done as a <<Cello>> or <<Cello and Piano>> query. (Or starting out with a known composer and narrowing it down to cello later.) There are loads of works on dozens of pages. Each page contains 200 titles and each of those titles can be a single work or a collection of pieces.
It is never uninteresting. Hours of purposeful searching can be spent with the goal of gathering dozens and dozens of works for beginner and intermediate cello.
With my Youtube channel TravelingCello the quest is to find, sort, and decide on works to study and record. Building a library of works that are accessible to the beginner and intermediate is my goal.
It seems that there is no library of opus numbers from single composers being recorded. I do not know of Goltermann or Juilis Klengel or Hugo Schlemüller recorded in their entirety. This project will be somewhat unique! I am quite pleased about this.
With supporters it would make it much easier to focus on quality. For now, I am hoping simply to make cellists aware of the huge selection available to them. I do my best, given my circumstances and the hodgepodge of mediocre equipment and vast amounts of time in shooting and editing videos to produce something of quality.
I invite you to join me on this adventure to broaden the base of cello repertoire. In a way, it is somewhat in the vein of purpose that Rostropovich sought out composers. The difference being that he was commissioning works or simply being the dedicatee without solicitation. He had an unprecedented number of works written for him—in the hundreds(?). While not every piece will stick and become standard repertoire the work is no less important and can be used as an example of boldly seeking to broaden the scope of repertoire, which it did and is still being felt today.
Obviously I am of not the same repute as Rostropovich, but I believe in this mission—for lack of a better word—just as much as he did.
It is my hope that some of these composers will be accepted into the main repertoire and get some deserved playing time.
Come along with me and support this long and over-do work. Change the way teachers and students look at neglected, unknown, and the so-called “lesser composers”. Repetition brings familiarity.
It will be a long, enjoyable trip of discovery. Beginning mainly with beginner-intermediate pieces it will eventually encompass more advanced works.
Visit my Youtube Channel Traveling Cello. Stop by my Facebook page, also Traveling Cello. Importantly, for supporting this work, consider looking at and donating any amount at my Patreon. Patreon may be found by searching Aaron Sinnett.
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TravelingCelloJourney 