Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer

Etudes 1

Friedrich Dotzauer (1783–1860) learned several instruments in his childhood, but decided on the cello as his main instrument, since 'the violoncello alone let the unforgettable soulful alto voice of his dear mother resonate' (Art. 'Dotzauer', Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 1877). Between 1829 and 1850, his retirement as a court musician in Dresden, he composed and published an extensive oeuvre of etudes for the cello.

For this first of three volumes, the British cellist and musicologist George Kennaway compiled thirty of Dotzauer's 'easier' etudes from the popular '18 Exercices d'une difficulté progressive' op. 120 as well as the collections op. 47, 107, 126, 160 and the 'Méthode de violoncelle'. In this selection, there is hardly any use of double stops, string transitions or the tenor clef, the pieces rarely move beyond the fourth position and contain a mixture of fast and slow, often expressive exercises.