Klarinet Archive - Posting 000780.txt from 1997/12

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Four quickies
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 02:30:39 -0500

On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Edinger/Gilman wrote:

> 3) Beethoven's 7th symphony is, I believe, in G major, considered a
> great key for strings because there are so many open notes (or whatever
> they call it), where the left hand doesn't touch the strings. My
> question is: if that's the case, then how do they make a vibrato?
> There must be a lot of held notes with no vibrato that way, no?

Beethoven's 7th actually is in A Major, still a great key for strings.
However, the fact that there are some open strings tuned to the primary
pitches of the key of A major (A, E, and D) contributes in several ways to
the quality of that key to the string players. One is technical, in that
many scale-wise passages are more comfortable under the fingers, but that
is not because of the use of open strings.

The string player will usually try to avoid open strings anyway, for
several reasons, and if they don't, the conductor will insist on it. One
of these reasons is that the open notes have a particular, nasal tone
quality which is best avoided. Secondly, vibrato cannot be produced in
the normal way on an open note, but it is possible to approximate the
effect of vibrato just by moving the hand and arm as if playing vibrato,
even though not touching the string. This results in movement of the
instrument itself, just enough to cause the tone to vary slightly, much as
it would in actual vibrato. Thirdly, after the instrument has been tuned,
the player has no control over the pitch of the open strings while
playing. On other notes, they can make tiny adjustments to the pitch of
each note, and the good players do that on every note.

But, the main reason that such keys are preferred on the string
instruments has to do with the fact that for many notes, the open strings
which are not being used will vibrate sympathetically with others notes
being played in the normal way. This produces a tone quality which is more
resonant to the player, and presumably to the listener as well.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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