Violin since 1820: Technique and performing practice

Special effects.

Universal acceptance of harmonics was slow to materialize, but interest was eventually aroused by virtuosos such as Jakob Scheller and Paganini. Paganini introduced the technique of artificial harmonics (see Harmonics, §3) in double stopping, and, by using harmonics, extended the range of the G string to at least three octaves. Chromatic slides, single trills, trills in double stopping, double trills, all in harmonics, and some pseudo-harmonic effects were incorporated into his vocabulary.

violin vibrato

The use of the index finger for pizzicato was customary in the 19th century, but the right-hand thumb was occasionally employed, the instrument sometimes being held guitar-fashion for sonorous arpeggiation of chords or for soft passages. Berlioz (1843) recommended the second finger for most pizzicatos but suggested using the thumb and first three fingers in appropriate rapid passages. Left-hand pizzicato was employed by Paganini and later composers such as Bartók and Penderecki, sometimes in combination with right-hand pizzicato or simultaneously with bowed notes (e.g. Bartók's Contrasts). Paganini's Introduction and Variations on Paisiello's ‘Nel cor più non mi sento’, for example, employs left-hand pizzicato in accompanying, melodic and decorative roles, and the 15th variation of his Carnaval de Venise involves pizzicato for both left and right hands. Sculthorpe also employs left-hand pizzicato extensively (e.g. in Requiem).

Pizzicato techniques demanded by composers in the 20th century included the prescription of various pizzicato locations (e.g. mid-point of the string, at or behind the bridge, or either side of the stopping finger) or specific plucking agents (e.g. with the nail or the fleshy pad of the finger), requiring strings to be stopped with the fingernail for pizzicato, perpendicular strumming and oblique strumming of chords, or specifying pizzicato with alternating fingers (e.g. Crumb, Four Nocturnes). A ‘scooping’ technique was developed to obtain mellow, resonant pizzicatos in single and double stopping. Other effects involved ‘flicking’ the string with the nail, pizzicato glissando using the finger or peg (Crumb), pizzicato tremolo (Bartók), ‘snap’ pizzicatos (introduced by Biber but popularized by Bartók), pizzicato natural harmonics (Crumb) and pizzicato with vibrato in varying degrees.

Scordatura gradually lost popularity during the 19th century, although it never became obsolete; Mazas, Spohr, Paganini, Bériot, Prume, Winter, Baillot, Bartók, Mahler, Scelsi and Ligeti are among those who have employed it. Ligeti's Ramifications (1968–9) for 12 solo strings, which requires half the ensemble to be tuned a quarter-tone higher than normal pitch, reflects 20th-century interest in microtones, initiated by Julián Carrillo's experimental ‘sonido 13’ system (of equal-tempered quarter-tones) of the 1890s. Among others who experimented with microtonal effects for expressive purposes or as an integral compositional device were Ives (Quarter-tone Chorale op.36), Bartók (Sonata, 1944), Hába, Vïshnegradsky, Penderecki, Cage, Boulez, Husa, Szymanowski, Takemitsu and Crumb.

Sculthorpe and other 20th-century composers have prescribed unconventional violin sounds, including tapping on various parts of the instrument or on the strings with the fingers or with a wood, metal, glass or plastic beater. Others have exploited sounds extraneous to the violin, using percussion, sounds such as floor stamping or finger snapping, or vocal sounds in combination with violin playing. Pre-recorded tape has further expanded the range of texture and effect, notably in Reich's Violin Phase.