The cello is the bass of the viola-da-braccio family, a genre of string instruments that developed in parallel to the viols in the 15th and 16th centuries. This family also includes today's violins and violas. These instruments had three or four strings tuned in fifths. Unlike the viol, some cellos received a spike on the underside of the body shortly after 1600. The spike became increasingly used in orchestras around 1820; however, soloists often played "spikeless" until about 1850. The author and professor Carl Schroeder describes in this volume the origin, history, technical structure, playing technique, performance, and more about the cello. Illustrated with 16 black-and-white images and numerous musical examples. Reprint of the original edition from 1890.