String Arranging
Friday, May 21st, 2010
The viola (like the cor anglais) is one of those often neglected instruments that has such a unique tone in it’s own right that it’s a surprise that it is not written for more often. It’s sound is warm, mellow, thick and less penetrating than the violin. A viola is also capable (in the right hands!) of being immensely passionate and powerful and not just an instrument to ‘fill out’ the quartet sound or provide chords whilst a violin or cello gets all the glory.
Sometimes when we are approached by clients to arrange strings, they ask for ‘violins and cellos’ and seem to be oblivious to the many possibilities which are opened up by using a viola effectively. Just like a violin, a viola can be played virtuosically with rapid scales and arpeggios, or with double stops such as octaves, thirds and sixths. Up on the A string (this is the highest string with the D, G and bottom C string below it) the viola can soar with a beautiful, high register that despite only being a fifth below the violin nevertheless takes on a completely different quality.
As a string arranger, if I were looking to create a thick sound that shared most of the range of a violin but could sing out in a slightly lower register I would write primarily for the viola (or viola section) with the other strings in more of an accompanying role. The secret to good writing, whether it be a string quartet or string orchestra is the constant interplay between the various instruments - if one instrument has the melody throughout, it soon becomes slightly monotonous but if there is a constant exchange and ‘conversation’ between all of the parts, this adds a much greater texture and sense of interest to a piece. Rather than being static, when all the instruments are exchanging melodies within the ensemble, the music becomes much more fluid and alive.
So, let’s banish the days where the violin is the ‘king’ of the string section and bring forward the viola for a gentler but no less distinguished sound!
Tags: Arranging for strings, hire a string section, hiring a string section, live strings for a track, Orchestrating for strings, session musicians, session viola, string arrangements, string arranger, string section, studio musicians, studio violin, viola, viola player, violin, violinist, violist
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Monday, May 17th, 2010
This is a technique reserved for the most skillful players and when executed rapidly and cleanly, up and down bow staccato can have a mesmerising effect. It is different from normal staccato in that the bow in effect scoops several times in an up or down direction with a gap in between each note. Slowed down, the bow presses into the string (like the martele) and then releases as the bow travels before stopping - and then the whole process starts again. The movements and distances involved are minute and many players find that stiffening the bow arm is a way of playing this effectively.
Up and down bow staccato is notated as a series of notes with dots above the note heads all slurred together, often as many as 24 notes in one bow. This is exactly the same notation as for an up or down spiccato passage and it is up to the players judgement as to which technique to use. As an example, in Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen there are many such passages but as they are notated so rapidly, they cannot be played as staccato at such a high speed and therefore must be spiccato whereas in Wieniawski’s second violin concerto (first movement), there are passages of semi quavers that are written at a speed where an up bow spiccato wouldn’t be impressive, but an up bow staccato would wow the audience!
In a string arrangement, it would probably only be written at a very slow speed - perhaps accented to create an attacking or percussive feel with the strings. Only in a string concerto that was designed to show off the talents of a virtuosic performer would the rapid up or down bow spiccato be written.
It may well be that putting a passage of rapid up (or down) bow staccato in front of a group of studio musicians could cause a few raised eyebrows and would generally be written for a solo instrument (where the player was warned in advance!)
Tags: down bow staccato, flying staccato, martele bowing, ricochet bowing, session musicians, session string players, string arranger, String Arranging, studio musicians, up bow staccato, Writing for stringed instruments
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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.
Tags: Left Hand Pizzicato, String Arranging, String Playing Technique, Violin technique, Writing for stringed instruments
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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.
Tags: accented notes, arranging string parts, Marcato, marked bowing, martele, notating string parts, off the string bowing, on the string bowing, Orchestrating for strings, percussive string sound, sautille bowing, spiccato
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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.
Tags: Arranging for strings, bow direction, bow markings, bowings, composing for strings, down bows, Live strings, orchestration, session strings, staggered bowing, String Arranging, string composing, String orchestra, string section, studio strings, up bows, use of the bow, violin bow
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Saturday, February 13th, 2010
To begin with, a Cadenza is not something a string arranger would usually write into an average 3 minute pop song or rock track but they can be added into other styles of music and apply to any instrument (not just strings!). A cadenza comes from the word ‘Cadence’ (a cadence is an ending either to a phrase or even section of a piece) and is essentially an ad libbed passage in a piece of music (usually at a Cadence) where a solo instrument breaks out from the rest into a flourish. In the baroque era, a singer would often embellish a cadence with an improvisation (normally near the end of an aria). Later, in the classical period the cadenza developed into an improvised solo at the end of the recapitulation section and before the coda of a first movement (normally a concerto). In this form, the soloist would take themes from the piece and develop them, often changing the form into something quite different yet still related to the original melody. Cadenzas became increasingly virtuosic, allowing the performer the chance to really demonstrate their skills on the instrument - and in many cases became quite a few minutes long. Nowadays, a cadenza is less commonly improvised and more often carefully composed before the performance to cleverly capture themes from the piece and gain the maximum impact whilst still feeling ‘improvised’. The performer has the complete attention of the audience during a cadenza so it’s important to ‘get it right’ and most cadenzas are carefully prepared beforehand.
In a string arrangement for a song, the length of the track will determine how long a cadenza might last but in modern pop or rock music it now takes the form of an instrumental break - where the vocalist and other instruments takes a pause and one of the instruments comes to the fore with a solo phrase or quick flourish, possibly only lasting a few seconds. An appropriate section could be at the end of the introduction, before the first verse begins.
So how does a cadenza differ from say, a guitar solo? In a guitar solo the beat or pulse of the track continues underneath - sometimes the same chords repeat, allowing the guitar to float over the top with improvised runs. In a cadenza, the beat of the music stops completely (like a pause), allowing the instrument to provide a fill in until the music starts where it left off. A cadenza is usually a solo instrument, but there’s no reason why a whole section of instruments couldn’t play one!
Tags: arranging for violin, cadence, cadenza, guitar solo, improvisation, instrumental break, scoring for violin, session strings, String Arranging, writing for orchestra, writing for strings
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
Now, I have to admit I don’t think I’ve used Scordatura more than a handful of times in my entire life, but thought it worth writing about anyway as it could be an interesting compositional technique to experiment with in relation to a string arrangement. Scordatura comes from the word ‘Scordare’ which means to ‘mis tune’ and applies to any piece or passage where the normal tuning of the strings is altered. One famous example is the violin solo at the beginning of Saint Saens’ ‘Danse Macabre’ which de-tunes the perfect fifth of the A and E string to a diminished fifth (the E coming down to an E flat) - to represent the dissonant interval of the devil! Some violinists however prefer to simply play the passage with normal tuning so that they don’t have to fiddle around re-tuning the violin during the piece.
Apart from when you want your strings to represent the devil (!) there are other reasons for using Scordatura: one is to extend the range of the instrument down or upwards and the other is to change the tone colour of the instrument, either making it brighter by tuning upwards or mellower by tuning downwards (an example is Paganini’s violin concerto no. 1 in D major which the composer instructed should be played in the key of E flat major by tuning the entire violin up a semitone to create added brightness).
In terms of string playing, I am scratching my head to think of a single instance where I ever de-tuned my violin during a piece of orchestral music, but that’s not to say that an innovative or enterprising composer should be put off from trying it, to create an effect. With a whole section (e.g violas) having a string de-tuned, it could create some striking sonorities and would be well worth trying out if a suitable mood is required from the strings.
Tags: Add new tag, Arranging for strings, De tuning string instruments, Paganini violin concerto, Saint Saens Danse Macabre, Scordatura, session musicians, Tuning of a violin, tuning of violins, violas
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Sunday, February 7th, 2010
The word vibrato comes from the latin ‘vibrare’ meaning ‘to shake’ and it is a slight (and often rapid) wavering of the pitch for emotional effect. Many singers, whether classically trained or not naturally have a vibrato to their voices and in terms of string playing this is often an ever present feature of music making.
For music of the 16th and 17th century, only a small and refined vibrato is occasionally used (if that!). The phrasing and expression generally comes from the bowing rather than the motion of the finger on the string, although in 1751, the famous Italian violinist Geminiani advised vibrato to be used ‘as often as possible’ and there is documentary evidence to support the use of vibrato for music of this period.
When a composer or string arranger specifically wants a passage to be played without vibrato at all, the direction ‘senza vibrato’ would be written in the score. Particularly when combined with a Sul Tasto sound, the use of no vibrato can be very effective when applied to the entire string section in giving a very ‘pure’ and gentle, velvety feel to the sound.
On the other hand, adding a lot of vibrato tends to make the pitches sound less pure and for some reason, thickens up the entire sonority of the strings. This could also be indicated by a composer or arranger by the direction ‘molto vibrato’ and gives a very romantic expression to the strings, particularly effective when played loudly. The music could start softly without vibrato and build up in intensity as the vibrato increases.
Tags: molto vibrato, senza vibrato, strings without vibrato, Vibrato
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Monday, February 1st, 2010
‘Double Stopping’ is a term used to describe the simultaneous playing of two notes on a stringed instrument. It is a versatile technique which can encompass melodies, harmonies, accompaniments and can be played in a virtuosic fashion at high speed. In the context of a string quartet, it can have the effect of making the group sound as if it is playing up to 8 parts at any one time which can create (when skillfully written) the impression of a far larger ensemble.
In the context of a string orchestra, the individual parts can either play double stopping - giving the music a thick and full feel, gaining in energy and effort or can ‘divisi’ - this means that on every ‘desk’ (two players to a desk) the left hand player plays the lower note whilst the person sitting on the right plays the upper note. This can thicken the harmonies with less effort required from the players, potentially sounding more lyrical and flowing.
One problem with writing double stops into a string arrangement, particularly when composed by non string players or composers writing at a keyboard is that they can end up being awkward or unplayable. If two notes are written on the same string (such as an E and a G to be played on the D string of a violin), this is not necessarily impossible to play as the musician can play it in a higher position but could in context make it uncomfortable or impractical to play. Composers must have a good insight into how stringed instruments work in order to write passages containing many double stops that feel ‘right’ under the fingers. Clients who have written their own arrangements, but who have less experience writing for strings are always welcome to send us through parts before a recording session. Sometimes it’s worth us spending a short amount of time re-notating some of the double stops so that they are written less awkwardly for the player - this saves time in the studio and gives a more natural feel to the music.
Tags: composing for strings, composing for violin, divided string parts, divisi, divisi parts, double stopping, double stops, String Arranging, string writing technique, writing for string orchestra, writing for strings
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Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
The ability to play a pianissimo on a stringed instrument might sound straightforward but it is an area that many amateur and student players can struggle with. I remember when I was at the Royal College of Music doing an orchestral technique masterclass with highly experienced Rodney Friend and he said that to create a real pianissimo as part of a big string section requires the ability to play infinitely more softly than you would ever be required to play in a chamber ensemble or as a soloist. It is a sound that is barely audible with only a few hairs of the bow in contact with the string, like the smallest whisper - but when 16 players are doing this simultaneously, the effect can be breathtaking.
In a studio, one must not be put off by the fact that the microphone picks up so much surface noise as the sensitivity of modern microphones can quite literally pick up the sound of the rosin against the string (as well as players breathing). Whether a full string section sound is gained by the accurate use of overdubbing or whether there are many players involved, the end result should be a blending of many players’ pianissimo creating a velvety sheen. Inexperienced session musicians can often make the mistake of individually playing a pianissimo that would be perfect if they were playing on their own, but with many people playing this way the result can be too loud and full for the desired effect.
Tags: capturing soft string sound, pianissimo, quiet string sound, recording a string orchestra, session musicians, soft strings, strings in the recording studio, studio strings
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