REVIEW: New Delhi, American Center Auditorium 2/25/07
Cello Takes a Bow
The e-version of the instrument played new sounds, thanks to an eager musician and a software
Pallavi Jassi
New Delhi, February 25: The Beatles may have pioneered the use of the cello in popular music by adding its delicate strains to the songs Eleanor and Strawberry fields but the instrument sings an entirely different tune in the hands of American musician Jeffrey Krieger. It is an e-world out there as he plays a uniquely shaped electric cello, plugged to a laptop, and reads the score on the monitor.
While the violin is admitted even to the hallowed hall of conservative Carnatic music, its cousin cello is a strange presence on the Indian stage. E-cello is even stranger. “An electric cello is like an electric guitar. However, in the case of the e-cello, it needs an amplifier. Otherwise you cannot hear a sound,” says Krieger after his performance at the American Center.
