Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a
string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of
stringed instrument. On bowed string instruments it is a
method of playing by plucking the strings with the fingers, rather than
using the bow. This produces a very different sound from bowing, short and
percussive rather than sustained. On a keyboard string instrument, such as
the piano, pizzicato may be employed as one of the variety of techniques
involving direct manipulation of the strings known collectively as "string
piano". On the guitar, it is a muted form of
plucking, which bears an audible resemblance to pizzicato on a bowed
string instrument with its relatively shorter sustain. For details of this
technique, see palm mute. When a string is struck or plucked, as
with pizzicato, sound waves are generated that do not belong to a
harmonic series as when a string is bowed. This complex timbre is called
inharmonicity. The inharmonicity of a string depends on its physical
characteristics, such as tension, stiffness, and length. The inharmonicity
disappears when strings are bowed because the bow's stick-slip action is
periodic, so it drives all of the resonances of the string at exactly
harmonic ratios, even if it has to drive them slightly off their natural
frequency. History
The first recognised use of pizzicato in classical music is found in Tobias
Hume's Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke, wherein he instructs the viola da gamba
player to use pizzicato. Another early use is found in Claudio Monteverdi's Il
combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, in which the players are instructed to use
two fingers of their right hand to pluck the strings. Later, in 1756, Leopold
Mozart in his Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule instructs the player to use
the index finger of the right hand. This has remained the most usual way to
execute a pizzicato, though sometimes the middle finger is used. 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. = Use in various styles of music=
In jazz and bluegrass, and the few popular music styles which use double
bass, pizzicato is the usual way to play the double bass. This is unusual for a
violin-family instrument, because regardless whether violin-family
instruments are being used in jazz, popular, traditional or Classical music,
they are usually played with the bow for most of a performance. In Classical
double bass playing, pizzicato are often performed with the bow being held in the
hand; as such, the string is usually only plucked with a single finger. In
contrast, in jazz, bluegrass, and other non-Classical styles, the player is not
usually holding a bow, so they are free to use two or three fingers to pluck the
string. In classical music, however, string
instruments are most usually played with the bow, and composers give specific
indications to play pizzicato where required. Pieces in classical music that
are played entirely pizzicato include: J. S. Bach: the ninth movement of the
Magnificat Franz Schubert: the first movement of
the The String Quintet in C major Josef Strauss: Pizzicato Polka.
Johann Strauss II: Neue Pizzicato Polka. Edvard Grieg : Act IV – Anitra's Dance
in Peer Gynt Léo Delibes: the "Divertissement:
Pizzicati" from Act 3 of the ballet Sylvia
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: the third movement of the 4th symphony
Jean Sibelius: the second movement of his 5th symphony
Béla Bartók: the fourth movement of the String Quartet No. 4
Benjamin Britten: the second movement of the Simple Symphony
Leroy Anderson: Plink, Plank, Plunk!. Antonio Vivaldi, in the "Ah Ch'Infelice
Sempre" section of his cantata Cessate, omai cessate, combined both pizzicato
and bowed instruments to create a unique sound. He also included pizzicato in the
second movement of "Winter" from The Four Seasons.
Notation In music notation, a composer will
normally indicate the performer should use pizzicato with the abbreviation
pizz. A return to bowing is indicated by the Italian term arco. A left hand
pizzicato is usually indicated by writing a small cross above the note,
and a Bartók pizzicato is often indicated by a circle with a small
vertical line through the top of it above the note in question or by writing
Bartók pizz at the start of the relevant passage.
Bowed string instrument technique = Practical implications=
If a string player has to play pizzicato for a long period of time, the performer
may put down the bow. Violinists and violists may also hold the instrument in
the "banjo position", and pluck the strings with the thumb of the right
hand. This technique is rarely used, and usually only in movements which are
pizzicato throughout. A technique similar to this, where the strings are
actually strummed like a guitar, is called for in the 4th movement of
Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, where the violins and cellos are
instructed to play pizzicato "quasi guitara"; the music here consists of
three- and four-note chords, which are fingered and strummed much like the
instrument being imitated. = Other pizzicato techniques=
Another colorful pizzicato technique used in the same Rimsky-Korsakov piece
mentioned above is two-handed pizzicato, indicated by the markings m.s. and m.d.;
here, the open E string is plucked alternately in rapid succession by the
left and right hands. One can also use the left hand fingers
for pizzicato, either when they are not in use or as they are leaving their
previous position. This allows pizzicati in places where there would not normally
be time to bring the right hand from or to the bowing position. Use of left-hand
pizzicato is relatively uncommon and is most often found in the violin solo
repertoire; two famous examples of left-hand pizzicato are Paganini's 24th
Caprice and Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen. Left hand pizzicato can also be used
while bowed notes are being held, an effect appearing primarily in repertoire
of the late 19th century and beyond. Examples of this technique can be found
in the works of Wieniawski, Berg, Stravinsky and many others.
Maurice Delage calls for slurred pizzicati in the cello part of his
Quatre poèmes hindous for soprano and chamber orchestra. This is achieved by
playing one note, and then stopping a new note on the same string without
plucking the string again. This technique is rarely used on bowed
instruments. A further variation is a particularly
strong pizzicato where the string is plucked vertically by snapping and
rebounds off the fingerboard of the instrument. This is sometimes known as
the Bartók pizzicato, after one of the first composers to use it extensively.
Gustav Mahler famously employs a Bartók pizzicato in the third movement of his
Seventh Symphony, in which he provides the cellos and double basses with the
footnote 'pluck so hard that the strings hit the wood'. On the double bass, this
style of snap pizzicato, or "slapping", was used in jazz since the 1920s and
later used in rockabilly. Because an unamplified double bass is generally the
quietest instrument in a jazz band, many players of the 1920s and 1930s used the
slap style, slapping and pulling the strings so that they make a rhythmic
"slap" sound against the fingerboard. The slap style cuts through the sound of
a band better than simply plucking the strings, and allowed the bass to be more
easily heard on early sound recordings, as the recording equipment of that time
did not favor low frequencies. Pizzicato is also known as plucking to many
people; arco is playing with the regular horse-haired bow.
Bartók also made use of pizzicato glissandi, executed by plucking a note
and then sliding the stopping finger up or down the string. This technique can
be heard in his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.
References