This technique is rarely used, usually in movements which are pizzicato throughout. If a violinist or violist has to play pizzicato for a long period of time, they may put down their bow, hold the instrument in the "banjo position" (resting horizonally on the lap), and pluck the strings with the thumb of the right hand.
The bow is held in the hand at the same time unless there is enough time to put it down and pick it up again between bowed passages. This has remained the most usual way to execute a pizzicato, though sometimes the middle finger is used. Later, in 1756, Leopold Mozart in his Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule instructs the player to use the index finger of the right hand. The first known use of pizzicato in classical music is in Claudio Monteverdi's Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (around 1638), in which the players are instructed to use two fingers of their right hand to pluck the strings. There are some pieces in classical music which are played entirely pizzicato, such as the second movement of Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony, or the fourth movement of Béla Bartók's String Quartet No.
In classical music, however, string instruments are most usually played with the bow, and composers give specific indications to play pizzicato where required. In jazz, and some forms of popular music, pizzicato is the usual way to play the double bass. This produces a very different sound, short and rapid rather than sustained. When a note is marked pizzicato in the written music, it is played by plucking the string with a finger rather than with the bow.
0 kommentar(er)
