after the techniques themselves; it was conscious and deliberate.

Salzedo, in his early example of a handbook to modern instrumental technique, shows no desire to separate techniques by language, despite the pioneering nature of his methods. He writes of technique in general: There is nothing difficult. There are only NEW things, unaccustomed things.97

More important than proving inconsistencies in definition of extended technique is to consider the effect of the word, its synonyms and the atmosphere that created them. I believe that the use of new terminology has been fractious. Separating extended technique from traditional technique, without being able to define the difference, causes problems. This fracturing of technique is closely linked to the catalogue problem defined above: techniques have been divided and organised into catalogues under frameworks that do not exist. The context of newly developed techniques is obscured. The extent to which performers can apply traditional technical practice to new methods is unclear.

MY APPROACH I propose joining the separate ideas of technique (extended, unconventional, traditional, etc) and viewing cello technique as a flexible whole that can be developed. Where links exist between catalogued techniques they should be acknowledged and described as aspects of a single method or family of methods. The theoretical importance of my proposal is: if it is possible to imagine a hypothetically complete space of every sound that can be produced on the cello, then outside the techniques of the past and past musics (overlapping and constantly shifting with time) and present (whether labelled conventional and/or extended) are undiscovered techniques, or improper playing that are yet to be treated musically. In reality, all technique is bounded by the physical abilities of the performer and the instrument, and this is the true limit on technique. Technical development (historical and personal) then can be understood as taking place within a whole potential space.

97

Carlos Salzedo, Modern Study of the Harp, 6.

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