Bernhard Romberg

German composer Bernhard Romberg (1767–1841) became one of the leading cellists of his time. He was born in Dinklage and performed first in public at the age of seven. Together with his cousin, Andreas Romberg, he joined the court orchestra of the Prince Elector Archbishop of Cologne in Bonn (conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi) in 1790. They met there the young Beethoven, who admired and respected Bernhard Romberg as a musician. Romberg made several innovations in cello design and performance. He lengthened the cello's fingerboard and flattened the side under the C string, thus giving it more freedom to vibrate. He is responsible for simplifying cello notation to only three clefs, the bass clef, the tenor clef and the treble clef. Until his time, it was common to use several C clefs, as many as six to eight. Most of Romberg’s compositions are for the cello but he did also write a few light operas, three symphonies and 11 string quartets. He composed a total of six cello sonatas all of which were extremely popular and frequently performed in concert throughout the 19th century.