Scordatura (; literally, Italian for "discord", or "mistuning") is a
tuning
Tuning can refer to:
Common uses
* Tuning, the process of tuning a tuned amplifier or other electronic component
* Musical tuning, musical systems of tuning, and the act of tuning an instrument or voice
** Guitar tunings
** Piano tuning, adjusti ...
of a
string 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 ...
that is different from the normal, standard tuning. It typically attempts to allow special effects or unusual chords or timbre, or to make certain passages easier to play. It is common to
notate the finger position as if played in regular tuning, while the actual pitch resulting is altered (scordatura notation). When all the strings are tuned by the same interval up or down, as in the case of the viola in Mozart's ''Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra'', the part is transposed as a whole.
Bowed string instruments
The invention of scordatura tuning has been attributed to
Thomas Baltzar
Thomas Baltzar ('' c''. 1630 – 24 July 1663) was a German violinist and composer. He was born in Lübeck to a musical family; his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all musicians.Holman, Peter. "Baltzar, Thomas". Grove Music Online' ...
, a prodigious German violinist and composer who is known to have used the technique in around the 1660s, at least a decade before Biber composed his ''Rosary Sonatas'' in which he employed the tuning technique. Of course, German violinist Hans Hake (1628 – after 1667) includes three works in ''Vorstimmung'' ("upset tuning") for two violins (#25, #29, & #33) in his collection "Ander Theil Newer Pavanen,…" (Stade: Elias Holwein, 1654) making this attribution false.
Scordatura was much used by composers for
viola d'amore
The viola d'amore (; Italian for "viol of love") is a 7- or 6- stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin.
Structure and sound
The vio ...
,
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 ...
and
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 ...
, including
J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
,
Biber,
Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widesprea ...
,
Ariosti,
Vilsmayr, and others in compositions for violin during the early 18th century. A special type of notation was used to make it easier to read. This notation was also used to notate music for the viola d'amore, an instrument played and composed for by composers such as Biber and Vivaldi. The viola d'amore used a great number of different tunings and writing music for it in scordatura notation was a natural choice for composers of the time.
Notable usage of ''scordatura'' in Western art music
Violin
*
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( bapt. 12 August 1644, Stráž pod Ralskem – 3 May 1704, Salzburg) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and violinist. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Prince-Bishop Karl L ...
's ''
Rosary Sonatas
The ''Rosary Sonatas'' (''Rosenkranzsonaten'', also known as the ''Mystery Sonatas'' or ''Copper-Engraving Sonatas'') by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber are a collection of 15 short sonatas for violin and continuo, with a final passacaglia for solo vi ...
'' for
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 ...
and
continuo (c. 1674). Aside from the first ("Annunciation") and last works ("
Passacaglia
The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass- ostinato and written in triple metre.
Origin
The t ...
", for solo violin) of this collection, wherein 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 ("Resurrection") is a special case: in addition to a unique scordatura, the two inner strings of the violin are interchanged between the bridge and tailpiece of the instrument, thus creating a tuning (from top string to bottom string) of G-g-D-d. "Harmonia Artificiosa no. VII" in C minor is written in a form of scordatura on a nine line stave. See
viola d'amore
The viola d'amore (; Italian for "viol of love") is a 7- or 6- stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin.
Structure and sound
The vio ...
for more information.
*
Johann Joseph Vilsmayr
Johann Joseph Vilsmayr (1663 – 11 July 1722) was an Austrian violinist and composer. From 1 September 1689 he worked at Salzburg's Hofkapelle, where he almost certainly became a pupil of Heinrich Ignaz Biber
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber ( ...
"Artificiosus Consentus Pro Camera", a set of six partitas published in 1715. The middle four partitas use scordatura tunings.
*
Johann Pachelbel's ''Musikalische Ergötzung'' ''bestehend in 6 verstimmten Partien'' (Musical Entertainment consisting of six suites for mistuned violins, 1691), six suites for two violins and continuo. Tunings include C-F-C-F, C-G-C-F, B-E-B-E, B-E-B-E, C-G-C-F, and B-F-B-E.
*
Antonio Vivaldi, violin concerto in A major, Op.9, No.6, in which the violin's G string is tuned up to an A, allowing for a beautifully resonant scale and arpeggio motif ending on the retuned string.
*
Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hild ...
, Concerto in A Major for two Violins,
TWV 43:7.
* In
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
'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 fully pauses 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.
*
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (; 27 October 178227 May 1840) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices fo ...
's
Violin Concerto No. 1 initially required the strings of the solo violin to be tuned a semitone higher to match the original key of E major.
*
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
, solo
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 ...
in ''
Danse Macabre
The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death.
The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...
'', where the E-string is tuned to E. This changes the open intervals of the double stop A and E to the tritone (A and E), which is used as the opening motif of the work.
*
Gustav Mahler, scordatura
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 ...
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.
*
Franz von Vecsey
Franz von Vecsey (born Ferenc Vecsey; 23 March 18935 April 1935) was a Hungarian violinist and composer, who became a well-known virtuoso in Europe through the early 20th century.
Early life and career
He was born in Budapest and began his vi ...
's ''Nuit du Nord'', a 1921 work for violin and piano, requires the G string to be tuned down to F.
*In
Max Scherek
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
's Sérénade et boléro for solo violin, Op. 27, the violin must be tuned to F,F,D,B.
*
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
's ''
The Firebird
''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev' ...
'' makes a rare, perhaps unique, demand for the entire first violin section to retune the E string, in order to play the D major
harmonic glissandi of the introduction.
* In
Béla Bartók's piece ''
Contrasts'' for clarinet, violin and piano, the opening bars of the third movement utilize a different tuning on a separate violin (G-D-A-E) for a Hungarian folk effect.
*
Richard Strauss's
tone poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
''
Ein Heldenleben
''Ein Heldenleben'' (''A Hero's Life''), Op. 40, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The work was completed in 1898. It was his eighth work in the genre, and exceeded any of its predecessors in its orchestral demands. Generally agreed to be au ...
'' as well as his
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
''
Elektra'' include passages in which the violins must tune their G strings down in order to play a G or F.
*
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...
'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 ...
.
*
John Corigliano's ''Stomp'' for solo violin (2010) requires the outer two strings to be tuned lower, resulting in a E-D-A-D tuning.
*
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar".
Legend of the Ysaÿe violin
Eugène Ysa ...
's ''
Poème élégiaque'' requires the lowest string to be tuned down to F.
Viola d'amore
* In the original version of
Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widesprea ...
’s opera ''
Tito Manlio
Tito Manlio (; RV 738) is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi, to a libretto by Matteo Noris. It was written in celebration of the marriage of Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt (1671–1736),Eric Cross. "Tito Manlio." The New Grove Dictionary of ...
'' (Mantua, 1719), Servilia’s aria ‘Tu dormi in tante pene’ also contains an obbligato part for
viola d'amore
The viola d'amore (; Italian for "viol of love") is a 7- or 6- stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin.
Structure and sound
The vio ...
written in scordatura notation. This part would undoubtedly have been played by Vivaldi himself. He was the only known player of the instrument at the court of the Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt in Mantua, his employer at that time and for whom this opera was written. The obbligato part is on smaller paper inserted into the first violin part. Vivaldi would have led the orchestra from the concertmaster's chair and would have played the first violin part, presumably switching to viola d'amore for this aria. The aria "Quanto Magis Generosa" in Vivaldi's Oratorio "
Juditha triumphans
''Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie'' (Latin: 'Judith triumphant over the barbarians of Holofernes'), RV 644, is an oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi, the only survivor of the four that he is known to have composed. Although the rest of ...
" (1716) also contains an obbligato part for viola d'amore written in scordatura notation. This piece was written for the
Ospedale della Pieta and the obbligato part would have been played either by Vivaldi or by
Anna Maria del violino, one of the senior musicians there at the time who was a known player of the viola d'amore. Curiously, al
Vivaldi's other works for viola d'amore (eight concertos and two obbligato numbers in different settings of the "Nisi Dominus"), are written in normal notation at sounding pitch.
Viola
*
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
wrote the solo
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 ...
part for his ''
Sinfonia Concertante'' a semitone lower, with the viola strings to be tuned a semitone ''higher'' to D, A, E, B. Thus part is written in D major (the key of the work is E major). A common practice of the time, changing the pitch of the open strings was primarily intended to make the viola sound ''louder'', and so better discernible 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. Other
viola concerti employing this type of scordatura were written by
Carl Stamitz
Carl Philipp Stamitz ( cs, Karel Stamic; baptized 8 May 17459 November 1801) was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School.
He was the eldest son of Jo ...
,
Johann Baptist Wanhal
Johann Baptist Wanhal (12 May 1739 – 20 August 1813) was a Czech classical music composer. He was born in Nechanice, Bohemia, and died in Vienna. His music was well respected by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert. He was an instrumental p ...
,
Johann Andreas Amon
Johann Andreas Amon (1763 – March 29, 1825) was a German virtuoso guitarist, horn player, violist, conductor and composer. Amon composed around eighty works, including symphonies, concerti, sonatas, and songs. He also wrote two masses, vario ...
,
Jiří Družecký,
Johannes Matthias Sperger and
Johann Georg Hermann Voigt
Johann Georg Hermann Voigt (14 May 1769 – 24 February 1811) was a German organist, cellist, violist and composer.
Life
Born in Osterwieck, Voigt was the son of Stadtmusikus' C. C. Voigt from the town of Osterwieck in the northern Harz fore ...
.
The fragment of Mozart's ''Sinfonia Concertante'' for violin, viola, and cello similarly is written in A major, but the viola part is written in G major with the strings to be tuned a whole tone higher.
* In Richard Strauss's ''
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
'', the solo viola tunes the C string down to B.
*
Géza Frid
Portrait painting by Vilmos Aba-Novák
Géza Frid (25 January 1904 – 13 September 1989) was a Hungarian–Dutch composer and pianist.
Early years
Géza Frid was born in Máramarossziget in the Máramaros County of Austria-Hungary (presen ...
's 1946 Sonatina for viola and piano, Op. 25, requires the violist to tune the lower two strings up a semitone for movement IV, resulting in C, G, D, A.
Cello
*
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
's
Fifth Cello Suite is written with the A string, the highest string, tuned down a
whole step
In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more de ...
to a G. This tuning allows chords which would be difficult or impossible at regular tuning. The Suite is also played with standard tuning, but some pitches must be altered, and occasional notes removed to accommodate the tuning.
*
Robert Schumann's
Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47, requires the cellist to retune the C string down to B for the last 42 bars of the third movement.
*
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
's
The Rite of Spring
, image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg
, image_size = 350px
, caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of '
, composer = Igor Stravinsky
, based_on ...
, the final chord of ''
The Rite of Spring
, image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg
, image_size = 350px
, caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of '
, composer = Igor Stravinsky
, based_on ...
'' requires the cellos to retune A to G so it may be played "open" (unstopped by the fingers and consequently more resonant) as part of a quadruple stop.
*
Ottorino Respighi's tone poem ''
Pines of Rome
''Pines of Rome'' ( it, Pini di Roma, link=no), P 141, is a tone poem in four movements for orchestra completed in 1924 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is the second of his three tone poems about Rome, following ''Fontane di Roma'' ...
'' 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.
*
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music edu ...
'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 recurring B-minor chords.
*
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled '' Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...
's Sequenza XIV requires the G string to be tuned up to a G, to better depict the
kandyan drumming passages, as well as creating extreme dissonances over all four strings.
* The cello in
George Crumb's chamber work ''
Vox Balaenae
''Vox Balaenae'' (''Voice of the Whale''), is a work for electric flute, electric cello and amplified piano by the American avant-garde composer George Crumb. It was composed for performance by the New York Camerata in 1971.
Background
As the nam ...
'' (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.
* The cello in
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...
’s 2nd string quartet tunes their C string down to B♭ during part of the 3rd movement.
* The cello soloist's final note of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
''Variations'' requires the player to play and retune in one movement, creating a dramatic glissando effect to the A below the cello's normal lowest note of C.
Double bass
The double bass is sometimes required to play notes lower than the E to which its lowest string is normally tuned. This can be accomplished with a special mechanical extension with which some double basses are equipped or the composer may ask the double bass to tune down its E string, as in, for example, the third movement of
Brahms's Requiem, in which Brahms has some of the double basses tune the E-string down to D in order to sustain the low D
pedal point
In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes function ...
or in the 9th Movement of ''
Ma mère l'oye'' (Cinquième tableau – Laideronnette, impératrice des Pagodes), in which
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
has the double basses lower their E-strings a semitone. (George Crumb's ''A Haunted Landscape'' requires that two bassists use C extensions and still tune down past them to B.) Other kinds of scordatura occur most commonly in solo double bass literature, especially including one that raises all four strings a whole step to F'-B'-E-A.
Guitar
Alternate tunings other than symmetrically stepped-down versions of standard or
drop-D tuning
Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitch (music), pitches to the open string (music), open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Musical tuning, Tunings are described by the particular pitc ...
(where the lowest string is tuned down two half-steps for simple barred power or fifth chords) are rare in modern
classical guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...
music, but before the nineteenth century they occurred more often. Drop-D tuning remains common.
[Grove Music Online, ''Scordatura'', ‘3. Lute and guitar’, James Tyler.] The sixteenth-century guitar typically had four courses (rather than six strings, as the modern classical does), and the seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century guitar typically had five courses. These were subject to a variety of tunings, such that there is some difficulty establishing which, if any, to consider the standard tuning from which the others deviate.
[Grove Music Online, ''Guitar'', ‘3. The four-course guitar’ and ‘4. The five-course guitar’, James Tyler.] It is sometimes suggested that classical guitarists wishing to read Renaissance
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
or
vihuela
The vihuela () is a 15th-century fretted plucked Spanish string instrument, shaped like a guitar (figure-of-eight form offering strength and portability) but tuned like a lute. It was used in 15th- and 16th-century Spain as the equivalent of t ...
tablature tune their guitar E-A-d-f-b-e' since these instruments in this period usually have the major third between the 3rd and 4th strings.
With the exception of bands using
seven-,
eight- or recently
nine-string guitar
A nine-string guitar is a guitar with nine strings instead of the commonly used six strings. Such guitars are not as common as the six-string variety, but are used by guitarists to modify the sound or expand the range of their instrument.
Variant ...
s to extend the instrument's range downwards, rhythm guitar for modern
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 ...
almost universally uses stepped-down versions of standard or drop D tuning, with professionals and amateurs alike commonly using terminology like “tuning to C” (same pattern as standard tuning, but all strings lowered by four half-steps) or “Drop C tuning” (drop-D tuning lowered two half-steps). Conversely, other tuning patterns are rare, with the few popular acts using them commonly widely recognized for the fact (prominent examples being the bands
Sonic Youth and
Soundgarden
Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil (both of whom are the only members to appear in every incarnation of the band), and bassist Hiro Yama ...
).
In certain kinds of folk music alternate tunings for guitar can be fairly frequently found, most typically
open tunings where the open strings are tuned to a full major, minor, suspended or extended
chord.
Piano
Relative to other stringed instruments, piano scordatura tuning is very rare, considering the relative difficulty of tuning and re-tuning a piano from
equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, wh ...
. However, some 20th and 21st century music calls for certain notes on the piano to be tuned differently, or the entire piano to be tuned altogether.
*
John Corigliano's ''Three Hallucinations'' from the film
Altered States
''Altered States'' is a 1980 American science fiction body horror film directed by Ken Russell and based on the novel of the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. The film was adapted from Chayefsky's 1978 novel and is his fi ...
requires a
piano tuner
Piano tuning is the act of adjusting the tension of the strings of an acoustic piano so that the musical intervals between strings are in tune. The meaning of the term 'in tune', in the context of piano tuning, is not simply a particular fixed ...
to tune 9 pitches to be a
quarter tone flat, and 10 pitches to be "out of tune".
*
Ivan Wyschnegradsky
Ivan Alexandrovich Wyschnegradsky; Is also transliterated as Vïshnegradsky, Wyshnegradsky, Wischnegradsky, Vishnegradsky, or Wishnegradsky (after he emigrated to France, he used "Wyschnegradsky" as spelling for his surname)., group=n ( ; Septe ...
wrote several pieces for
quarter-tone piano, many of which are recorded on two separate pianos tuned a quarter tone apart.
See also
*
Cross tuning
*
Slack tuning
*
Stringed instrument tunings This is a chart of stringed instrument tunings. Instruments are listed alphabetically by their most commonly known name.
Terminology
A Course (music), course may consist of one or more Strings (music), strings.
Courses are listed reading from ...
Notes
External links
Violadamore.com: About Scordatura and the Viola d'amore(http://www.violadamore.com is still good; this is probably the link intended: http://violadamore.com/index.php/scordatura.html)
WA's Encyclopedia of Alternate Guitar Tunings
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Musical tuning
Extended techniques
Italian words and phrases
String performance techniques