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Posts Tagged ‘string arrangement’

Little Star Lullabies…..

Sunday, May 20th, 2012

Little Star Lullabies’ – Track 1: The Stars Come Out to Say Goodnight

This album of music started life as a single track composed for the recent release entitled ‘Music for Healing, Relaxation and Massage’. On that album, all the tracks were timed at exactly five minutes in length and I ended up writing a piece that didn’t quite fit in with that (and as a result didn’t end up on the album). It was over eight minutes long and had a childlike lullaby feel to it that sounded out of place in the ‘healing’ context. I put it to one side and the idea of doing a sleep and relaxation album for babies and small children was hatched (that piece ended up being the final track called ‘Across the Milky Way’).

I wanted to start the album with music that was both warm and comforting (being mindful that many people would download single tracks and therefore play them in a different order!). Although this is increasingly how people are listening to their music, when you have an album in mind the track order is as important as the structure of the individual items. ‘The Stars Come Out to Say Goodnight’ is scored for a string orchestra of five different violin parts and a viola part (in contrast to a typical string orchestra which would consist of two different violin parts, violas, cellos and double basses) and it is this combination which gives the sound a light and airy quality. In addition there is a harp, a piano and a glockenspiel.

The piece begins with a harp lightly accompanied by some strings and a single piano line. It has suggestions of a musical box and the key of F major is warm and familiar. Soon the main theme is introduced on the piano and accompanied by the harp and glockenspiel and it’s this combination that suggests the stars of the title. Later, this theme reappears in the string arrangement with the six interweaving strands of violins and violas giving it a shimmering quality with the glockenspiel again adding a ‘twinkling’ effect above it all. Hopefully enough to help any child want to drift away into sleep!

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Saltando

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

‘Saltando’ is an Italian musical term used when string players are being asked to play with a rapid, bouncing stroke in the middle of the bow – rather like sautille bowing. The speed at which this is executed allows the bow to bounce slightly off the string between each note of it’s own accord. The natural springiness of the bow gives the feeling that the bow is actually bouncing without intervention (although the reality is that it’s momentum which allows this to happen).

Saltando strokes, like Sautille strokes are both rapid forms of playing ‘spiccato’ (a generic term meaning any bowing where there is a lift between each note).

From a player’s point of view, both saltando and spiccato seem to give the impression – both visually and by the sound they make – of a vertical bouncing of the bow. The reality is actually different, with the bow being encouraged to brush the string in a horizontal way, so there is only a fractional lift at the end of each stroke. When played loudly however, there can be a much more noticeable lift (for example in the final section of Sarasate’s ‘Zigeunerweissen’ which we have a sound clip of on the home page of the String Section website) which gives the sound an energy that lends excitement and dynamism to a string arrangement or composition.

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Open Strings in String Concertos

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

When a string player refers to an ‘open string’ it means that one of the four strings is being played without the left hand fingers being involved or touching the string. The word ‘open’ is appropriate as the sound the strings make is highly resonant and pure in sonority. Pieces of music based on scales or arpeggios that derive from open strings have a powerful, projecting quality that allows the stringed instrument to resonate freely. It’s no coincidence that many of the famous violin concertos have been written in the keys of an open string (G, D, A and E on a violin), for example the Beethoven and Brahms Concertos in D major or the Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor. Bach wrote violin concerto’s in E and A minor and Mozart’s three most famous violin concertos were written in G, D and A major. One notable exception of a great Concerto that is not written in an open string key is Elgar’s Concerto in B minor but this is still a very strong key on the violin with an open D string present in a B minor scale. It could be said that this work has a more complex key character which Elgar would have chosen for a reason.

Boccherini (who was himself an accomplished cellist) used the keys of the open strings of C, D, G and A on the cello in several of his cello Concertos, however two very celebrated Concertos for cello are written in less likely keys with the Dvorak Concerto being in B minor and Elgar writing in E minor. Elgar’s choice of key is interesting because it relates to his choice of key for the violin Concerto (both being a fifth above the highest open string of the respective instruments). The Dvorak Cello Concerto is a bit puzzling because B minor may not project as well on a cello as say G major but then a B minor arpeggio also can include an open D string.

Open strings on a viola are C, G, D and A (being an octave above the cello) and Concertos for this instrument include works by Bartok, Hindemith, Walton, Telemann, Stamitz and Rolla. Telemann, Walton, Stamitz and Rolla followed the norm of writing for open stringed keys and made the best use of the wonderfully resonant sound of the viola.

In a string arrangement or composition for string orchestra, the use of open strings can have a striking effect as the simultaneous ringing of several open strings generates a marvellously full and resounding note. When a composer sits down with the aim of writing a work for string ensemble or solo stringed instrument, by harnessing the qualities of an open stringed key this can help the piece to be comfortable to play and utilise the benefits of open strings to the utmost.

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Up and Down Bow Staccato….

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!)

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Double Stopping

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.

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Harmonics and the Harmonic Series

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

All musical tones are based on the harmonic series – whether it be a length of brass pipe, a church bell or a taut length of string, all instruments are subject to harmonics. The harmonic series are a sequence of pitches relating to a lower pitch (or fundamental note,as it is often called). Therefore a sound of a certain number of vibrations will also cause overtones to resonate in a ratio to that sound eg. a 100 Hz sound will be accompanied by overtones of 200, 300 and 400 Hz,and so on. All musical sounds possess all the notes of the harmonic series and it is the way these notes are blended together that gives sounds their individual ‘timbre’ or texture. Therefore the blend of the harmonic series in an oboe is different from that on a violin.

The harmonic series has been at the heart of tuning and temperament for thousands of years, before the standardisation of pitch into what we call ‘equal temperament’. This tuning system which has only gained universal currency in the last hundred years is the least understood of all musical concepts as it has been so wholly embraced. In so doing, not only has it ironed out music into 12 strictly equal semitones (robbing it of much of it’s harmonic character) but it also goes against the natural laws of the harmonic series. This is why even the world’s finest orchestras can have irreconcilable tuning issues.

For a full explanation of this all-encompassing musical dilemma I would like to heartily recommend Ross W. Duffin’s ‘How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care). An organist friend of mine passionate about various tuning systems brought it to my attention it and it is scholarly, concise and a hugely entertaining read.

On all stringed istruments the harmonic series reveals itself as described above. Therefore when a string is foreshortened (or ‘stopped’) by a finger the same ratios apply eg. there is a harmonic exactly half way up each string (ratio 2:1) sounding an octave above the open string. The second one is a fifth higher than that (ratio 3:2) and so on. These notes are called harmonics and can be played by touching the left hand finger very gently on the string with a fast and light bow speed (in a similar way to making a wine glass produce a pitch by running one’s finger along the rim of the glass). The note thus produced is pure, clear with a flute-like quality different from any non-harmonic notes.

All the instruments in a string section are also capable of producing ‘artificial’ harmonics. These mimic the tonal qualities of a harmonic but produce notes of a higher pitch than the natural note in the same way. The lower finger ‘stops’ a note in the conventional way with a higher finger gently touching the string at the interval of a fourth above to produce a note two octaves higher than the lower finger. In this manner, it is possible to play whole melodies transforming the sound of the instrument into a completely different timbre.

In the context of a string arrangement, harmonics can produce an ‘other worldly’, ‘eerie’ quality that can add a real sense of mystery and magic to a piece, even when mixed in with other instruments in a track, the effect is haunting!

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Fast and aggressive strings

Monday, September 28th, 2009

This week I was asked to produce a string arrangement for a dance track where they had to be very prominent. The brief was to make them sound aggressive and fast right from the introduction. The existing track was structured around four chords: F minor, B flat major, D flat major and B flat minor so there was ample opportunity to add rhythmically vibrant chords which repeated in staccato quavers. The accents gave the strings a dynamic style which will be compatible with the rest of the track. The challenge was to build up subtly throughout the track without peaking too soon but  to give cohesion to the verses and chorus by retaining similar material. A string ‘hook’ appeared from the outset which then re-emerged later in the song, along with a counter melody in octaves in the violins which gave the piece added interest. The whole song died away at the end, the client seems pleased with the score and it’s now ready to be recorded by live session musicians.

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Arpeggiated accompaniment

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

When the strings are more in the background, there are many ways in which they can add interest to the track without becoming too dominant.

The use of a repetitive arpeggiated accompaniment is one such technique – what this means is that the string section can oscillate between the various notes of the arpeggio (for example if the chord is in G major, the first violins could play G,B and D in rapid succession), then the second violins and violas could simultaneously add moving parts, using the other two notes of the same chord. The cello often adds stability to the other parts, by providing a more static line.

These arpeggios can be slurred, played with seperate bows or staccato bowing, they can be quavers or semi-quavers and you can vary the patterns of them according to the context of the track. Arpeggios can be very simple, even alternating between just two notes (rather like the piano accompaniment in the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon), but they can also be quite elaborate – using notes of more than one octave.

As the chords change in a song, the arpeggios can simply remain in the same pattern but just progress to the next chord.

Using arpeggios in a string arrangement can add life and movement to the track while remaining quite subtle and they can ‘lift’ a song, giving it buoyancy.

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