In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Roger Satorra writes:You're talking about a scordatura.
I don't think of all cases of tuning a lower string down as scordatura. I associate that with notation that tells you where to put your fingers, but because the string is tuned in a non-standard manner, the pitch that comes out is not the one notated. That is what I recall from the Bach suites for unaccompanied 'cello. Do any readers know differently?
The article in New Grove runs almost 6 full column, and is quite complete. I summarize and excerpt:
"Scordatura. It. from scordare: 'to mistune.' A mistuning of string instruments, notablhy lutes and violins. Scordatura was first used early in the 16th century and enjoyed a vogue between 1600 and 1750. Thereafter it was used less and less, and it is now rare. ... Any tuning of the violin other than its established tuning is defined as a scordatura. On the other hand, since the viola d'amore probably had no standard tuning before about 17j50 (after which a D major/minor tuning was most common), any viola d'amore tuning before 1750 is more properly called 'accordatura.'
"Scordatura has certain advantages which prompted its use:
1. Extend the range downward by tuning the lowest string a tone lower.
2. Make certain passages easier or possible. [Example: Biber's 'Mystery' Sonata No. 11.]
3. Produce special effects. [Example: Stravinsky's 'Firebird Suite.']
4. Increase brilliance. [Examples: viola in Mozart's 'Sinfonie Concertante,' violin in Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1.]
5. Produce mixed sonorities. [i.e. change the sound of the instrument.]
"Out of consideration for the player (whose fingerings are based on the normal tuning), scordatura pieces are generally written so that the player reads the music as he would if playing in the normal tuning--in effect a a species of tablature for a kind of transposing instrument. ... In a few cases the actual sounding notes in a scordatura piece are given by the composer, and the player must work out his own fingering [examples given], but 'sounding-notation' is impractical for the player, and consequently it has seldom been used."
>I'm based in Europe and it's nothing usualfor double bass to tune the 5th string to B. Always C.
Not in the UK, in my experience,
A difference reflected in other usages. The UK bass trombone for years was an instrument in G without valve, which I don't believe was ever used in the U.S., although I'm not sure about Europe. I'm also not sure when the modern Bb/F bass trombone came into use in different places (and the more recent double and triple valve instruments), but it is the size of the bore and the bell that defines the tone quality of the modern bass trombone, not the key it's in. And of course the Viennese winds are quite different from those standard in the rest of the world, even today.
and the number of examples of low B being demanded suggests that Austrian practice may not be so, but I don't know for sure. I recall reading somewhere that tuning to B was more common in Europe and less so in the US. The point of tuning to B was mentioned earlier: it keeps the same relationship between the strings and therefore the same correspondence between intervals and finger spacing.
I would also think that keeping the string tension even across the bridge would be a consideration.
Six-string or five-string electric basses are now common in pop music, and I wonder how they are tuned. And John Denver is alleged to have used a scordatura tuning for his guitar, allowing him to play figurations that would have been unplayable in normal guitar tuning.
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
