What is Col Legno violin?

In music for bowed string instruments, col legno, or more precisely col legno battuto (pronounced [kol ˈleɲɲo batˈtuːto], Italian for ‘”with the wood [being hit]”‘), is an instruction to strike the string with the stick of the bow, rather than by drawing the hair of the bow across the strings.

What is Col Legno in music?

: with the wood —used as a direction in music to players of bowed instruments to use the wood and not the hair of the bow in playing.

What techniques are used to play the violin?

Here are some of the standard bow strokes for the violin:

• Legato: Smooth, connected bow strokes.
• Détaché: Broad but separate bow strokes.
• Martelé: Detached, strongly accented notes.
• Staccato: Detached, short notes with accents.
• Spiccato: Detached notes played with a bouncing bow (the bow comes off the string).

What is double stop in violin?

In music, a double stop is the technique of playing two notes simultaneously on a stringed instrument such as a violin, a viola, a cello, or a double bass. Although the term itself suggests these strings are to be fingered (stopped), in practice one or both strings may be open.

What is Detache in violin?

Detaché is a playing technique on violin and other string instruments that calls for broad but separate bow strokes. In printed sheet music, the notes simply are not slurred. Sonically, detaché achieves a median balance between the fluid legato technique and jaunty staccato technique.

What does Sul Ponticello mean?

: with the bow kept near the bridge so as to bring out the higher harmonics and thereby produce a nasal tone —used as a direction in music for a stringed instrument.

Why is Col Legno used?

Col Legno Butatto means to bounce the wood of the bow and creates a much more percussive sound, this is used by Chopin in Piano Concerto no. 2 in the final movement. It gives a feel of wood being struck together sticking with the peasant dance theme that he had throughout the final movement.

Are horses killed for violin bows?

Michael Sowden, who has been in the business for some 40+ years and is probably the best-known supplier of bow hair, has stated that 95% or 98% of hair comes from dead horses which are killed for meat and other products. He has also said that it takes about 5 horse tails to get enough good hair for a violin bow.

What is the hardest violin technique?

You’ve come to the right place.

• 24 Caprices – Paganini. Often cited as the hardest works for solo violin, Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices make up 24 fiendishly demanding pieces for the string instrument, packed with double stops, left-hand pizzicato and endless spiccato bowing.
• 6 Caprices – Sciarrino.

Can violin play 2 notes at once?

In music, a double stop is the technique of playing two notes simultaneously on a stringed instrument such as a violin, a viola, a cello, or a double bass. On instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle it is common and often employed. In performing a double stop, two separate strings are bowed or plucked simultaneously.

What is a Martele stroke?

Martelé is a playing technique on violin and other string instruments that calls for each successive note to be isolated within its own bow stroke. Often you’ll use large and very rapid bow strokes for martelé. These are sometimes marked in music with a line or an accent over the note, but not always.

Who was the first violinist to play col legno?

Joseph Haydn directs the strings to play col legno at the end of the slow movement of his Symphony No. 67. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart uses this technique in the final movement of his Violin Concerto No. 5, where the low strings play col legno accompaining the soloist, which gave this concerto the nickname “The Turkish”.

Which is the first piece of music to use col legno?

The earliest known use of col legno in Western music is to be found in a piece entitled “Harke, harke,” from the First Part of Ayres (1605) by Tobias Hume, where he instructs the gambist to “drum this with the backe of your bow”.

Why do some string players not play col legno?

Some string players object to col legno playing as it can damage the bow; many players have a cheaper bow which they use for col legno passages, or for pieces which require extended passages of col legno. Some players tap the strings with pencils instead of bows, producing a further percussive, lighter sound. Some notable examples are:

What kind of sound does col legno tratto make?

The sound produced by col legno tratto is very quiet, with an overlay of white noise, but the pitch of the stopped note can be clearly heard. If the sound is too quiet, the bow can be slightly rolled so that a few bow hairs touch the string as well, leading to a slightly less “airy” sound.