A scordatura (literally Italian for "mistuning") is an alternate tuning used for the
open strings of a string instrument. It is an
extended technique used to allow the playing of otherwise impossible melodies,
harmonies, figures, chords, or other note combinations.
Scordatura in classical music
Violin with strings inverted for Biber's
Resurrection sonata
- H.I.F. Biber's "Rosary Sonatas" for violin and
continuo. Aside from the first (Annunciation) and last works (Passacaglia, for solo violin) of this collection, where in the instrument is set to the common G-D-a-e
tuning, the violin for each sonata is tuned to a different array of pitches. Sonata XI (the Resurrection) is a special case: in
addition to a unique scordatura, the two inner strings of the violin are inverted between the bridge and tailpiece of the
instrument, thus attaining a tuning (from top string to bottom string) of G-g-D-d.
- Mozart, viola in Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. Changing the
pitch of the open strings to a semitone higher was in this case probably primarily intended to make the viola sound
louder, and so better discernable in the symphonic orchestra: indeed, increasing the tension in a string, not only
sharpens the pitch, but also makes it sound louder, the loudest sound being obtained just before breaking.
- Georg Philipp Telemann, Concerto in A Major for two Violins, TWV 43:7
- Mahler, scordatura violin soloist in the 2nd movement
of his 4th Symphony. In this case the composer probably desired the specific
tone of the sound produced by a scordatura violin, which is less "suave" than the sound of a standard tuning.
- Saint-Saëns, solo violin in Danse Macabre, where the E-string is tuned to Eb.
- Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird is a rare,
perhaps unique, piece which calls for the entire violin section to retune a string, in order to play some natural
harmonics. Similarly, the final chord of his Rite of
Spring requires the cellos to retune a string so it may be played "open" (unstopped by the fingers and consequently more
resonant) as part of a quadruple stop.
- Richard Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben includes a passage in which the second violins must tune their G strings down in order
to play a G-flat.
- Ottorino Respighi's tone poem The Pines of
Rome requires the cellos to tune the low C string down to a B in the third movement. Also, the basses must either have a
fifth low B string or tune a C extension down to the B in the third and fourth movements.
- Bach's fifth cello suite is often
performed with the highest string tuned down from an A to a G. Bach probably intended for it to be played this way, but many
cellists prefer to play it in standard tuning.
- the cello in George Crumb's chamber work Vox Balaenae (scored for electric
flute, electric cello, and electric piano). The traditional C-G-D-A tuning is changed to B-F#-D#-A, which serves to emphasize the
key of B major that emerges in the final movement.
- Zoltán Kodály's solo cello sonata in B minor requires the cellist to tune down the two
lower strings from G and C to F# and B, to emphasize the key with reoccurring B-minor chords.
- Ligeti's Violin Concerto
- Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 6 in D Major
- Schnittke's Monologue for viola and strings
- Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op.47, requires the cellist to retune the C
string down to B-flat for the finale.
- In some double bass solo music, a specific solo tuning (F#-B-E-A) that requires a
different set of strings is used. This is to allow the bass to be heard better over the piano or
orchestra. With better instrumental technology and string manufacturing, orchestrally tuned
(E-A-D-G) bass editions are becoming more common.
- In Haydn's Symphony No. 60 in C (Il Distratto), the first and second violins
start the finale of this unusual six-movement symphony with the lowest string tuned to F, but tune up to G in the course of the
music to create a comical effect. The title of the symphony means "the absent-minded man" – so it is as if the violins have
"forgotten" to tune their strings. The music actually stops for the violins to re-tune before continuing! Haydn also uses a
violin with the lowest string tuned to F in the trio of his Symphony No. 67 in F.
- In Béla Bartók's piece "Contrasts" for clarinet, violin and piano, the opening bars of
the third movement utilize a different turning on the violin for a Hungarian folk effect.
Scordatura in folk music
Scordatura is commonly used on the fiddle in folk music of
Appalachia, the southern United States and
Scandinavia. The fiddle may be re-tuned in any number of ways in these musical idioms, but
there are two common re-tunings. While the standard tuning for open strings of the violin is
GDAE—with the G being the tuning of the lowest-pitched string and the E being the tuning for the highest-pitched string—fiddlers
playing tunes in the key of D major sometimes employ a tuning of ADAE. In this tuning the open G string is raised to the A
directly above it. Even more frequently used is a scordatura tuning of AEAE for music played in the key of A major. Among
fiddlers this is referred to as "cross-tuning." In both of these scordatura tunings, scordatura facilitates a drone on an open string next to the string on which the melody is being played. Relatively well-known
American folk tunes that are often played in cross-tuning include "Breaking Up Christmas," "Cluck Old Hen," "Hangman's Reel,"
"Horse and Buggy," and "Ways of the World."
GDAE is known in some North American Old-Timey fiddling circles as "that Eye-Talian
tuning," the implication being that it is only one of many possibilities. Other tunings include:
- FCGD = Cajun Tuning (one whole step down from GDAE)
- GDGB = Open G Tuning
- GDGD = Sawmill Tuning
- GDAD = "Gee-Dad"
- DDAD = Dead Man's Tuning, or Open D Tuning, or Bonaparte's Retreat Tuning, or "Dee-Dad"
- ADAE = Old-Timey D Tuning
- AEAE = High Bass, High Counter (or High Bass, High Tenor) similar to Sawmill Tuning
- AEAC# = Black Mountain Rag Tuning, Calico Tuning, or Open A Tuning
- AEAD for Old Sledge, Silver Lake
- EDAE for Glory in the Meeting House
- EEAE for Get up in the Cool
Scordatura in rock music
-
Many rock acts, for example Korn, System of a Down,
Metallica and Slayer use altered tunings. Sonic Youth is the band with the most extreme approach. They own a few hundred guitars and for each song
they tune or detune their guitars in the most appropriate way to play or create a specific timbre. As Glenn Branca used unusual guitar tunings, many assumed that his approach influenced Sonic Youth's. This was
only partly true, and Branca served more as an inspiration than as a model: Branca's tunings were based on exacting application
of music theory and were calculated with rigorous detail, while Sonic Youth's tunings were more freewheeling, based on whatever
wild experiments sounded interesting. Said Lee Ranaldo, among other approaches, Sonic Youth
"used modal tunings, open tunings (ones we made up), octave pairs, two or three strings tuned to the same note, same gauge
strings in different places or even half step tunings like pair of D strings and then a pair of D sharps."[1] The latter examples (such as D and D# alongside each other) are very rarely
used in pop music, and offer a distinctly jarring dissonance, imparting the teeth-rattling quality so especially prominent on the
group's early albums.
Some tunings on Sonic Youth songs:
- F# F# G G A A (Schizophrenia, Tom Violence, White Kross)
- D D D D A A (Schizophrenia, Catholic Block)
- G G D D G G (Teen Age Riot)
- A C C G G# C (Silver Rocket)
- C C E B G D (The Sprawl, Cross The Breeze)
- F# F# F# F# E B (Catholic Block, Kool Thing, Death Valley '69, Shadow of a Doubt)
- E G D G E D (Dirty Boots, Titanium Expose, Tunic)
- C G D G C D (Rain On Tin, Plastik Sun, The Empty Page)
In addition, indie artists Elliott Smith and Dante O'Donnell have both used the
following tuning in their songs.
- D A D F# B D (Smith's Clementine and O'Donnell's Watching Over Me)
Notes
- ^ Prendergrast, Mark. The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance, the
Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age; Bloomsbury, 2000; ISBN 1-58234-134-6, pg. 326
See also
External links
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