In music, a double stop is the technique of playing two notes simultaneously on a
stringed instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
such as a
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, a
viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
, a
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
, or a
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
. On instruments such as the
Hardanger fiddle
A Hardanger fiddle ( no, hardingfele) is a traditional stringed instrument considered to be the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than fo ...
it is common and often employed. In performing a double stop, two separate strings are bowed or plucked simultaneously. Although the term itself suggests these strings are to be fingered (stopped), in practice one or both strings may be open.
A triple stop is the same technique applied to three strings; a quadruple stop applies to four strings. Double, triple, and quadruple stopping are collectively known as multiple stopping.
Early extensive examples of the double stop and string chords appear in
Carlo Farina
Carlo Farina (ca. 1600 – July 1639) was an Italian composer, conductor and violinist of the Early Baroque era.
Life
Farina was born at Mantua. He presumably received his first lessons from his father, who was '' sonatore di viola'' at ...
's ''Capriccio Stravagante'' from 1627, and in certain of the sonatas of
Biagio Marini
Biagio Marini (5 February 1594 – 20 March 1663) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer in the first half of the seventeenth century.
Marini was born in Brescia. He may have studied with his uncle Giacinto Bondioli. His works were p ...
's
Op. 8 of 1629.
Bowing
On instruments with a curved
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
, it is difficult to
bow more than two strings simultaneously. Early treatises make it clear that
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
s did not expect three notes to be played at once, even though the notes may be written in a way as to suggest this. Playing four notes at once is almost impossible. The normal way of playing three or four note chords is to sound the lower notes briefly and allow them to ring while the bow plays the upper notes (a
broken chord
A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves.
An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...
). This gives the illusion of a true triple or quadruple stop. In
forte
Forte or Forté may refer to:
Music
*Forte (music), a musical dynamic meaning "loudly" or "strong"
*Forte number, an ordering given to every pitch class set
*Forte (notation program), a suite of musical score notation programs
*Forte (vocal gro ...
, however, it is possible to play three notes at once, especially when bowed toward the
fingerboard
The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...
. With this technique more pressure than usual is needed on the bow, so this cannot be practiced in softer passages. This technique is mainly used in music with great force, such as the
cadenza
In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...
-like solo at the beginning of the last movement of
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's
violin concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
.
Bach bow
The "Bach bow" with its arched back uses a system of levers to slacken or tighten bow hair immediately while playing so as to (according to its advocates) facilitate the performance of polyphonic music. Such a bow was conceived early in the 20th century by
Arnold Schering Arnold Schering (2 April 1877 in Breslau, German Empire – 7 March 1941 in Berlin) was a German musicologist.
He grew up in Dresden as the son of an art publisher. He learned violin at the from which he graduated in 1896. Thereafter he studied v ...
and Albert Schweitzer and constructed by Rolf Schröder in 1933. A similar device called the "Vega bow" was built in 1954 under the sponsorship of the violinist
Emil Telmányi
Emil Telmányi (22 June 1892 – 13 June 1988) was a Hungarian violinist.
Telmányi was born in Arad, Partium, Transylvania, then in the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1911 he gave the Berlin premiere of the Violin Concerto of Sir Edward Elga ...
. Neither of these bows bears any particular relation to historical
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
bows and neither has ever been widely employed. In 1990, German cellist
Michael Bach invented a curved bow for cello, violin, viola and bass. He named it "BACH.Bogen" (BACH.Bow) after his own name.
Notation
In longer three-note or four-note chords, either the top note or the top two notes are sustained after the lower notes have been played as grace notes. Sometimes the noteheads for the lower notes are filled in to show they are of short duration while the noteheads for the notes to be held are left open. This notation occurs, for example, at the beginning of the fourth movement of
Beethoven's fifth symphony
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor of Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 67, was written between 1804 and 1808. It is one of the best-known compositions in classical music and one of the most frequently played symphonies, and it is widely considered one of ...
.
Simultaneous notes in a single part for an orchestral string section may be played as multiple stops or the individual notes may be distributed among the players within the section. Where the latter is intended, ''
divisi In musical terminology, ''divisi'', or as typically printed ''“div.,”'' is an instruction to divide a single section of instruments into multiple subsections. This usually applies to the violins of the string section in an orchestra, although v ...
'' or ''div.'' is written above the staff.
George Heussenstamm
George Heussenstamm (born July 24, 1926) is an American composer. His most well-known works include jazz-classical chamber styles, such as ''Etudes (7) for oboe, clarinet & bassoon, Op. 77'' (1964), ''Alchemy for solo oboe and tape, Op. 60'' ( ...
(1987), ''The Norton Manual of Music Notation'', W. W. Norton, 117.
Plucking
Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
double stops are commonly used in
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
,
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
, and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
music.
They are often played by
fingerpicking
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of guitar picking, playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with ...
or
hybrid picking
Hybrid picking is a guitar-playing technique that involves picking with a pick (plectrum) and one or more fingers alternately or simultaneously. Hybrid picking allows guitar players who use a pick to perform music which would normally require ...
, but can also be
strummed
In music, strumming is a way of playing a stringed instrument such as a guitar, ukulele, or mandolin. A strum or stroke is a sweeping action where a finger or plectrum brushes over several strings to generate sound. On most stringed instrumen ...
, or executed with
hammer-on
A hammer-on is a playing technique performed on a stringed instrument (especially on a fretted string instrument, such as a guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on to the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This ...
s or
pull-off
A pull-off is a stringed instrument playing and articulation technique performed by plucking or "pulling" the finger that is grasping the sounding part of a string off the fingerboard of either a fretted or unfretted instrument. This intermediate- ...
s.
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
was especially known for utilizing double stops on the guitar.
When three or more notes are played simultaneously on a
plucked string instrument
Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucki ...
, it is simply called a
chord rather than a triple stop or quadruple stop.
See also
*
Glossary of music terminology
A variety of musical terms are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special mus ...
References
{{Violin family
String performance techniques
Extended techniques