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Posts Tagged ‘writing for strings’

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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Cadenza

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!

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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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Col Legno

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Col Legno (meaning ‘with the wood’) is a special technique where the main wooden stick of the bow is tapped against the string - this percussive effect is rarely used but can have a distinctive sound when used in an orchestra or string section.

Col Legno is even less commonly used for a solo instrument and therefore it is at it’s most effective when a large group of players are doing it simultaneously.

Pieces to listen to that use Col Legno to great effect are Saint Saens’ ‘Danse Macabre’ where it is used to suggest the rattling of skeletons and also in Berlioz’s ‘Symphony Fantastique’ to represent the Dream of the Witches Sabbath, thirdly it is heard in Mars from Holst’s ‘Planets Suite’.

Some string players are nervous of using the technique as it can create scratch marks on the back of a pernambuco bow, however when used as Col Legno Tratto, the sound is very quiet and yet the pitch of the note is still evident with very little risk of damage to an expensive bow!

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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.

Stringed instruments 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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