[70] P. 29. [71] “That which renders Boccherini’s compositions unlike all others of the kind is that he commonly assigns the principal part to the first violoncello.”--(_Tr._) II.--GERMANY. The Violoncello had already found its place as an orchestral instrument about the year 1680 at Vienna, and in 1709, in the Dresden Royal orchestra, as we saw. Towards 1720 it had penetrated also into Northern Germany, since the band of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp evidently possessed one. At the same period this stringed instrument must have been extensively used in other parts of Germany--otherwise Joh. Seb. Bach would scarcely have conceived the idea of composing for it his solo sonatas, which were already extant between the years 1717-1724. There were even at that time two German violoncellists who appeared to Gerber of sufficient importance for him to give them a place in his Dictionary of Music. Their names are: Triemer and Riedel. JOHANN SEBALD TRIEMER was born at the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, in Weimar, where he was instructed in instrumental playing by the Ducal Chamberlain and Musician, Eylenstein, and in the theory of music by Ehrbach, an old musician of Weimar. As soon as Triemer had made progress sufficient to figure as a soloist, he undertook a concert tour which led him to Hamburg, for, in 1725, he was a member of the theatre orchestra there. Two years after he went to Paris, and remained until 1729. During this time he pursued the study of composition under the direction of Boismortier.[72] He then went to the Dutch city of Alkmaar, and, later on, to Amsterdam, where he died in 1762. At Amsterdam he had six “Sonate a Violoncello solo e continuo” published. The Silesian, RIEDEL, was not only a cellist, but also chief of the Fencing School at Liegnitz. He must have been a very good player for his time. About 1727 he went to St. Petersburg, and was there the instructor of the EMPEROR PETER II. (who, as is known, only reigned three years--1727-1730), both in cello playing and in fencing. Riedel was also member of the Russian Court band, where he still was in 1740. The number of German violoncello players very soon increased. Amongst them, Werner must next be mentioned, born at the beginning of the eighteenth century in Bohemia, and died in Prague, 1768. He must have been a most excellent player, since, as Gerber says, in his time no foreign cellist ventured to play in Prague. Werner was for some time established at the Crusaders’ Church, in Prague. Of his numberless concertos and solos for violoncello, none seem to have been printed.