Duport was delightfully modest, although everybody acknowledged his greatness and every violoncellist studied his famous _Essay on Fingering and Bowing the Violoncello_. In this he said: “Everybody knows the kind of bowing called _martelé_ (hammered), or _staccato_. It is an affair of tact and ease. There are some players who get it at once; others never learn to get it perfectly: _I am one of those_.” Then came Adrien François Servais (1807-1866), called “the Paganini of the ’cello.” He was a native of Brussels. Then Nicholas Joseph Platel (1777-1835), called by Rossini “the King of ’cellists and the ’cellist of Kings.” Platel is thought to have invented the peg as a convenient rest, for he was very stout and found his instrument difficult to hold. Then Alfredo Piatti’s lovely Amati ’cello and the way he played it are still remembered by many old American concert-goers, who heard him abroad. But instrument-makers and performers alone could not have brought the violoncello to its position as a favorite instrument unless the composers had helped. As Bach had been one of the _last_ to write for the old _viola da gamba_, he was one of the _first_ to write for the new violoncello. He wrote six famous solos for it. Handel took great pleasure in the violoncello. He made it play an _obbligato_ in several arias in his oratorios and cantatas. Alessandro Scarlatti also wrote for it; and, even better than he, Boccherini (1743-1815), who was a splendid performer himself. His Quartets particularly show it off to great advantage, as was natural to one who could play it so well. With the development of the String Quartet that was now taking the place of the old “concert of viols,” the importance of the violoncello was settled. It only remained for composers to discover its _singing_ qualities. Nobody understood these better than Mendelssohn. Next time you hear the oratorio of _Elijah_ listen to the ’cello _obbligato_ in Elijah’s aria _It is Enough_, which is even finer than the beautiful solo accompaniment to _Be thou faithful unto Death_ in Mendelssohn’s other oratorio, _Saint Paul_. Rossini’s _Overture to William Tell_ opens with five solo violoncellos accompanied by two others playing _pizzicato_ in first and second parts. Wagner made great use of the violoncello. It is very conspicious in the opening of the third act of _Die Meistersinger_, when Hans Sachs is sitting in his room reading and talking to himself; and in _Tristan and Isolde_ the violoncello speaks love-yearnings as never before.