Empty string

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When empty string ( ital. Corda vuota, . Engl open string; fr. Corde à vide ) the oscillating full length string of a plucked or stringed instrument designated. The string is struck, bowed or plucked without being shortened by placing the finger on the fingerboard . This is how the root note , the lowest possible note of the string , sounds .

In terms of timbre , the open string sounds different - more open - than a tone generated by tapping in the positions on the fingerboard. In the case of string instruments, vibrato is only possible using a bow as a bow vibrato ; in the case of string instruments, the tone can only be influenced at most in the volume range. If the composer wants an open string , he can indicate this with a zero above the note.

Even with the Aliquotsaiten , sympathetic strings and sympathy string is empty strings. In contrast to the playing strings, they are not made to sound directly, but rather vibrate through resonance . Also drone strings sounded as empty strings.

Such empty strings can be found in string instruments such as the viola d'amore , the baryton , the hurdy-gurdy , the Bulgarian gadulka , and in various types of fiddle as well as in plucked instruments such as the lute and theorbo , the Indian instruments sarangi , sarod and sitar and the Swedish Nyckelharpa . Also wings were built around the turn of the century in 1900 with additional sympathetic strings, for example, the Blüthner Aliquotflügel.

For instruments that always play the full length of the string, such as B. harp , lyre or the form of the monochord used as a musical instrument, the sound of the open strings determines the overall character of the instrument. There is no need to use the term “open string”.

Music on Open Strings

With her symphony Musik on Open Strings (1973/74) for string orchestra , the American composer Gloria Coates had an international success at the Warsaw Autumn Music Festival in 1978 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aliquot strings. In: Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon . P. 244.
  2. ↑ Empty string. In: Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon . P. 5911.
  3. ^ Julie Anne Sadie, Rhian Samuel (Eds.): The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers . Macmillan 1994, ISBN 0-333-515986 , p. 123. CD: CPO 999 392-2 .