History of the Cello string

To talk about the history of the cello string it probably makes sense to start at the very, very beginning – the origins of the stringed instrument itself! Greek mythology tells the story of Hermes, son of Zeus, and how he invented of the first stringed instrument, the lyre.

Hermes steals Apollo’s precious white cattle and while hiding kills one of the cows and a tortoise to create the lyre. He uses the shell of the tortoise, the horns of the cow as well as its intestines for the strings to make the lyre, and so invented gut strings as well! Apollo, god of music, upon finally finding Hermes forgives him for stealing the cattle in return for the lyre, the sound of which he found irresistible.

...So that’s the myth!

And the facts?

From the facts we know, the earliest stringed instrument probably was the lyre in the ancient Sumerian civilization. The civilization spanned over 3000 years between 6000 BC to 3000 BC in what would be now modern day Iraq and often referred to as the “cradle of civilization”. Bowed instruments, which the cello of course is, are a more recent invention of the last 1000 years, likely coming from nomadic horse riding cultures of Central Asia spreading through Islam to Europe and eastwards to Asia. Gut strings were used during all of these periods.

Despite the evolution of stringed instruments by the 17th century to include the viola di gamba, the cello and the violin, the gut string was still used. For the cello, these strings were made entirely from gut using various winding techniques to vary its weight to allow for different tensions. But it took to the early 20th century for technology and innovation to catch up and allow for the steel string to be born (a steel core string with another metal spun on the outside).

Dr. Franz Thomastik, an Austrian violin maker, and Otto Infeld, a civil engineer, together invented this new breed of string. The biggest key improvement was volume. Given the move towards performances in large concert halls, this benefit was hugely important.

It wasn’t long before many of the 20th century’s greatest string players opted for these types of strings. Gaspar Cassadó, the Spanish cellist and composer, was perhaps the earliest well-known user of this type of cello string. Other famous cellists who subsequently “switched” to steel core strings included Rostropovich, Piatigorsky and Fournier to name but three. During this time the cello string evolved to include hybrid cello strings (gut core and metal winding) which attempted to provide a compromise between the gut string’s warm sound and the steel string’s stability and volume. Lastly with the discovery of plastics, synthetic cored strings were brought to the market to offer cellists a new budget alternative.

Find out more on the differences between gut, synthetic & metal strings read how to choose cello strings.