StringSection Blog

March, 2010

Left Hand Pizzicato

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Left Hand Pizzicato is a specialised technique which is generally employed in more virtuosic string music and involves the fingers of the left hand actually plucking at the string, often with another finger ’stopping’ the string to create the pitch. It differs in sound from a normal pizzicato because of the place on the string where the plucking occurs. Normally, a pizzicato would happen within two or three inches of the top of the fingerboard whereas by it’s nature, left hand pizzicato occurs much further down, a few inches from the ’start’ of the string, near the nut (raised area at the bottom of the strings).

When the strings are plucked in normal usage, the sound is fulsome and (depending on the string) will take a slight amount of time to die away, whereas in L.H pizzicato, the sound is much tinnier and has a thin, pecking sound. Paganini uses it in his 24th Caprice to great effect by alternating it with ‘up bows‘ which have a similar sonority.

In L.H Pizzicato, the strength of fingers is important and those string players with well developed finger muscles will find it easier to perform than those with weaker fingers. Like normal pizzicato, the string is plucked sideways with the finger applying lateral pressure in a ‘dragging’ motion followed by a rapid release.

Most importantly of all, it is marked by a cross (+) above a note. The effect of L.H Pizzicato is a surprising one and gives a very flashy touch to a piece. It very rarely occurs in orchestral music but appears more in the solo repertoire.

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Marcato - what it means to a string player….

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Marcato (from the Italian for ‘marked’) is an umbrella term that can apply to all instruments and therefore not a specific string instruction (like spiccato or sautille would be). In general terms, it is a stroke started with a fp (fortepiano) or sfz (sforzando) with a rest at the end of the stroke, meaning a note which starts with a bold attack, rapidly dying away with a gap before the next note. This can either be performed rapidly or slowly, but when performed slowly, there are big gaps between the notes. Marcato is a stroke where the bow does not leave the string in between notes and therefore is classified as a staccato bowing (as opposed to a spiccato bowing where the bow leaves the string in between notes).

My understanding is that the Martele stroke is the nearest to a true Marcato, in brief this stroke often performed in the upper half of the bow starts with a pressure (that brings the hair closer to the wood of the bow) and a rapid bow stroke with a simultaneous release of pressure. At the end of a stroke, there is a gap and the whole thing starts again!

A string arranger or composer would use marcato when they wanted to create a percussive sound with gaps in between. Slightly confusingly, an orchestrator could write dots underneath the notes to make them short - and this could be interpreted by a string player as lifting the bow off the string in between every note and could potentially be light in character. Marcato can also be written with a dot underneath the note, but on the other hand there is usually an accent with it and the length of the note is twice as long as the note is intended to be played (with the second half of the note being silence). To put it in context, Marcato is a heavier stroke and does not require the bow to leave the string. The analogy is that the spiccato can be like skipping or running and the marcato would be more like stamping or treading heavily, so a professional string player would usually know from the feel of the piece which stroke the composer intended.

Up until the mid 19th century, marcato was notated by a small downward v above the note, so if you come across very old sheet music that’s what it might be! It is less commonly used than spiccato.

As in all directions for bowings, context is everything and if written with a knowledge of what string instruments do, the players will always know exactly what stroke applies to a certain passage.

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Up and Down Bows

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Really, I don’t like the term ‘up and down bow’ very much because the motion of a bow is very fluid and when played artfully, gives a seamless, warm, glowing sound - nothing to do with ‘up’ or ‘down’ which sounds very rigid. My violin teacher (Kato Havas) says that all a bow going ‘up and down’ does is iron the music flat, so to get to the essence of the music the player should try and achieve a naturalness of phrasing which transcends the bow.

Nevertheless, there are instances when composers or string arrangers purposefully write a certain bow direction to attain a musical effect. For example, Stravinsky wrote several down bows (travelling in a downward motion repeatedly, lifted from the string in between notes) in a row to create an aggressive, percussive effect. An example of ‘up bows’ is in Paganini’s 24th Caprice where he alternates left hand pizzicatos (a future blog entry!) with ‘up bows’ played near the tip of the bow - the effect is of a whipping, pecking sound that goes well when alternated with the pizzicato.

Symbols are added to a score to indicate when there is a particular ‘up or down’ direction to the bowing. In 18th and 19th century music, this was often left to the discretion of the individual player but increasingly in the 20th century composers began to specify up and down bow markings more, frequently seeking the advice of professional string players on how best to ‘bow’ the piece.

In a live orchestral performance, bowings are marked into the parts in advance to enable each section to play with synchronised bows travelling in the same direction together - although Leopold Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra were famous in using ‘free bowing’ which the conductor felt achieved a more glossy sound, even though it didn’t look as impressively uniform.This leads onto the phrase ’staggered bowing’. This is where longer notes which would require more than one bow direction to keep sustained are bowed in such a way that members of a string section change in different places, this gives a smooth and continuous effect so that the change in bowing is inaudible.

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Rubato and working with a Click Track

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The literal definition of the Italian word ‘Rubato’ is ‘robbed time’, which doesn’t seem to be a particularly attractive way of describing something that adds such emotional meaning to a piece of music. In essence, it is where music is slowed down or speeded up to create an expressive effect. When done with artistry and musical sensitivity, rubato can subtly ebb and flow but without distorting the rhythmic pulse. What is taken away is always added back, rubato would never slow a pulse down and then not regain it later on, it is in a sense elastic.

In the studio, the only way of effectively playing rubato in an ensemble is through playing ‘live’, where all the musicians are actively listening to each other and making minute adjustments as they play. It would not be possible to achieve a natural ‘pulling up’ or quickening with a click track. A click track is frequently used in recording situations, especially where string parts are to be added over existing instruments or vocals - it takes the form of a metronome beat heard only in the headphones of the session musicians who are working on the track. A click can be speeded or slowed to suit the beat of the music players are working on and can even accelerate or slow down, but this rarely sounds very natural.

When music is of a metronomic nature (such as rock or pop music), then a click track can be highly effective and when used well, will not be betrayed in the end result. Recordings can sound perfectly natural where a click track has been used and often can have a tightness and accuracy that could only be achieved with a lot of rehearsing. Of course, if multiple overdubs are used then a click track is an essential tool and will cut down the studio time needed.

In more sophisticated music which is ever changing, the use of a click track can be more of a hindrance than a help and in that situation, musicians opt to use their ensemble skills and the end result will hopefully be far more natural.

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