celli

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A form of cello — A bowed bass instrument held between the knees.

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Meanings

noun
  1. pluralrareplural of cello

    Now, against the Beethoven rhythm and the antiphonal outcry (E), the 'celli intone a spacious and somber melody whose beginning is shown at F.

    1968, Donald N. Ferguson, Masterworks of the Orchestral Repertoire: A Guide for Listeners, page 349
    2 more examples

    The dynamics of the celli have to be extended to the basses, for it would not make sense to have the basses operating under their last dynamics mark, of the previous bar, which is ppp.

    1971, Richard Korn, Orchestral accents, page 119

    The balance of strings in these two orchestras emphasized the lowest tessitura; Charles Burney criticized the Italians for having more double basses than celli and for playing the instrument "... so coarsely that it produced a sound no more musical than the stroke of a hammer."

    1988, Elliott W. Galkin, A history of orchestral conducting: in theory and practice, page 38
Cite this entry
APA

celli. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/celli

MLA

“celli.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/celli. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “celli,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/celli.

Source: celli on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.