Coll'arco

Coll'arco (Italian; "with the bow"), nowadays almost always abbreviated as arco , means for the playing technique of string instruments that the designated note or the following musical passage should be played with the hair of the bow . Arco is the normal way of playing, according to a directly preceding Pizzicato -Passage (pizz.) Must be described.

Furthermore, the game instruction arco can undo a previous col legno instruction. The more correct name is arco ord. ( ordinario = "normal, usually"), abbreviated to ord. ; because with col legno the bow is also used in that its wood hits the string or is brushed with the wood (col legno tratto) . The situation is similar with special techniques such as flautando , sul tasto or sul ponticello : These instructions are often revoked with arco instead of ordinario .

The time it takes a musician to return to the arco style of playing depends on the weight of the bow. The transition from arco to pizzicato or col legno is faster than the other way around, because the bow has to be held correctly again in order to play with it regularly. Accordingly, a change from other playing techniques to arco requires a slow tempo or a previous pause, depending on the type of string instrument and the weight of the bow.

literature

• Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Hrsg.): Riemann Music Lexicon, subject part. Schott, Mainz 1967, p. 49.