Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
THE VIOLIN
The four strings of the violin are normally tuned in fifths, with the fourth string tuned to g, the third to d′, the second to a′ and the first to e″. The top string, the e″ string, is also known as the ‘chanterelle’. When the left-hand fingers are not modifying the pitch by shortening the portion of string set in motion by the bow, the strings are termed ‘open’ strings. Notes to be played open are indicated by an ‘o’ marked above them.
Certain great players and composers have not felt under any obligation to tune the violin in this way. Paganini tuned all the strings a semitone higher, to a♭, e♭′, b♭′ and ƒ″, to give the instrument more brilliance. So by transposing the solo part he would be playing in D when the orchestra was in E♭, or in A when they were in B♭, thus keeping most of the strings open with their greater sonority without having to apply the fingers. This would not have been possible with normal tuning. De Bériot often tunes the g string up a tone in his concertos; Baillot, on the other hand, used to tune the g string down a semitone for soft, low effects. Winter even used ƒ instead of g for the same purpose.
Paganini's Violin Concerto in E♭, op. 6, was intended to be played on a violin tuned up a semitone; the soloist is thus playing in D (Mozart used the same scordatura for the viola in his Sinfonia concertante, K. 364). This scordatura is also found in Paganini's variations on ‘Di tanti palpiti’ from Rossini's Tancredi. […]
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.