Instruments - Part 15

 Cello

The cello or violoncello is an important orchestral instrument with an enormous range from bass to treble.

Above, Georg Kroneis is playing a viola da gamba, an older instrument that preceded the cello, so named because it is held between the legs (gamba means leg in Italian).

Georg playing his viola da gamba at a Mr. Leather competition in Poland.  I don't think he won Mr. Leather, but he did win another competition, as you'll see below.

Although holding the instrument between the legs blocks our view of the naked player, there's always the side view, like this painting of Georg by Robert C. Rore.

It turns out that Georg Kroneis was Mr. Bear Austria in 2015.  Always nice to know that a guy is multi-talented!

Study from Behind of a Naked Man Playing the Cello by Jose Garcia Hidalgo, 1693, is an early representation of a true cello.

The cello is also held between the legs, but its shape is different.  The "shoulders" at the top of the body of the viola da gamba slope up to a V shape, where the top of the cello's body is flat.  This 1996 photo by Bruce Weber shows DJ Frank Rempe learning to play the cello.

Also, the cello has four strings, where the viola da gamba has five to seven strings.

This guy is holding his cello wrong.  It should be held between the legs while playing, although I admit this gives us a better view of him.

French actor and cellist Maurice Baquet playing naked in 1957 for a somewhat jaded-looking audience.

This is Joey Chang, who calls himself Cello Joe, at the World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton in 2010. 

At the end of the bike ride he played for the WNBR crowd on the beach.  Before playing, he asked the crowd if he should get naked (above).

Then he stripped.  The video above shows him playing, along with some of his audience.

We end with a short video that I made from a photo of Cello Joe at Brighton when he wasn't hidden behind his cello.  I set it to a bit of cello music from another video of his called "Just funkin around."