Description

The BENNY HILL THUMB-PLACING ETUDE! (2024)

prepared and fingered for SOLO  CELLO by David Johnstone

PDF 1 – Cello Music

A fun item for cello professors/teachers to give to their more advanced students! Enjoy the technique whilst you are working on the position and arm movement around thumb position changes!

Something lighter-hearted for summer practise, courses, cello meets etc. Enjoy the music!

Example:
 

Notes:

Alfred Hawthorne Hill (born 21st January, 1924 – Southampton; died in April 1992 -Teddington), was known with the artistic name BENNY HILL. He was a famed British actor and comedian who, for more than three decades, starred in his own ‘The Benny Hill Show’, generally considered one of the best comedy shows in history. In 1969 the programme was transferred from the BBC to Thames Television, where it remained uninterruptedly until 1989.

A man of many talents, he was equally at home in many fields, as his performances of Shakespeare displayed. Benny’s songwriting career also proved a great success with ‘Gather in the Mushrooms’, ‘Transistor Radio’ and ‘Harvest of Love’, all becoming Top 20 hits – however, his great No 1 hit was “Ernie: The Fastest Milkman in the West”, which topped the pop charts for many weeks and included numerous appearances on BBC’s ‘Top of the Pops’.

Some, towards the very end of his life, called his show sexist, although today that is now easy to do a half-a-century later. However, it is worth noting that the great Charles Chaplin and the American singer Michael Jackson were but just two high fans of Benny Hill’s works. So many celebrities expressed their admiration for the Englishman’s work: Burt Reynolds, Michael Caine, John Mortimer, Mickey Rooney and Walter Cronkite, among others.

Back to the Benny Hill show, and to the theme tune, which was based on “Yakety Sax”. This saxophone music has been adapted by other instrumentalists; the guitarist Chet Atkins recorded a version that he dubbed “Yakety Axe”. It is also sometimes heard on piano. Yet, for any performer, this tune employs such a high level of dexterity and agility. Even for the most skilled professional players, “Yakety Sax” is highly challenging to perform. Therefore, David Johnstone thought that the theme might be really interesting and useful as a CELLO number. On looking a bit further, he realized that given the idiosyncratic jazz melodic figures, this would be ideal as a THUMB movement and placement piece. Please try therefore, in this case, to follow the suggested fingerings! As such, this makes for an amiable advanced student/professional level ‘Cello Etude’ !

ENGLISH

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