String bowed instruments: description of the group

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The basis of a symphony orchestra is a group located in the center, directly in front of the audience and the conductor. These are string instruments. The vibration of strings is the source of sound. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification, bowed stringed instruments are called chordophones. When two violins, viola and cello play together, a string quartet is formed. This is chamber music of bowed string instruments.

Precursors

Double basses, cellos, violas and even violins were not the first to appear, they were preceded by viols, which became popular in the fifteenth century. Their sound was soft and gentle, so very soon they became favorites of all sorts of orchestras. Bowed string instruments as such appeared long before the viola, but they are still much younger than plucked instruments.

The bow was invented in India, even the ancient Greeks did not know about it yet. Arabs, Persians, Africans passed it from country to country like a baton, and gradually (by the eighth century) the bow came to Europe. There formedstringed bowed instruments, which, changing, gave life first to the viola, and then to the violin.

Viola

The viols were of different sizes and with different voice heights, some stood between the knees, others - on their knees, others - larger ones - stood on the bench and had to be played standing up. There were also small violas, which, like the violin, were held on the shoulder. Viola da gamba is still in orchestras, she has a very peculiar and beautiful "voice". She victoriously existed until the eighteenth century, then for some time the cello performed her parts. Only in 1905 did the viola da gamba return to the orchestra. Stringed musical instruments have greatly enriched their sound thanks to her return.

In general, viols have long been more acceptable for aristocrats: they have an exquisite, as if muffled sound, music sounds organically by candlelight, when the musicians are in velvet robes and powdered wigs. Violins first conquered folk music, so they were not allowed into palaces and salons for a long time, viols and lutes reigned there.

Musical viols were made from the most valuable materials and were also very beautiful, even the heads were often artistically carved in the form of flowers, animal or human heads.

Masters

In the fifteenth century, with the advent of the violin, lute and viol makers began to retrain as folk fair instruments supplanted the old aristocratic,because they had much more opportunities to extract sound, expressive and technically skillful. The famous school of Andrea Amati was founded in Cremona, which became hereditary. His grandson was able to make violins that were extremely enhanced in tone, while retaining the warmth, softness and variety of timbre.

Violins began to be able to do everything: express human feelings and even imitate intonations of the human voice. A century later, another master - Antonio Stradivari, a student of Nicolo Amati, opened his own workshop and also succeeded. Also an outstanding master was Giuseppe Guarneri, who came up with a new design of the violin, more perfect. All these schools were family-run, and children and grandchildren continued the business. They made not only violins, but also all other bowed stringed instruments.

Names of orchestral instruments

The violin has the highest register of bowed strings, and the double bass has the lowest. Closer to the violin sound - a little lower - the viola sounds, even lower - the cello. All stringed bowed instruments are shaped like a human figure, only in different sizes.

The body of the violins has two soundboards - lower and upper, the first is made of maple, and the second of spruce. It is the decks that are responsible for the quality and power of the sound. On the top there are curly cuts - effs, and they look like the letter "f". A neck is attached to the body (on which the violinist's fingers "run"), usually it is made of ebony, and strings are stretched over it - there are four of them. They are fastenedpegs, twisting on them and stretching. Here the pitch depends on the tension, the violinist tunes the violin by twisting the pegs.

How they are played

The viola is larger than the violin, although it is also held on the shoulder. The cello is even larger and is played while sitting on a chair, placing the instrument on the floor between the legs. The double bass is much larger than the cello, the bass player always plays standing up, in rare cases he sits down on a high stool.

A bow is a cane made of wood, on which thick horse hair is stretched, which are then smeared with rosin - pine resin. Then the bow slightly sticks to the string and, as it were, pulls it along. The string vibrates and therefore sounds. All bow-string instruments of a symphony orchestra work exactly on this principle. When required by the score, bowed strings can be plucked (pizzicato) and even struck with the wooden part of the bow.

Alto

The viola looks very much like a violin, it's just wider and longer, but its timbre is special, the sound is lower and thicker. Not every violinist will be able to play the viola with a body length of forty-six centimeters plus a neck. The fingers should be strong and long, the hand should be wide and also strong. And, of course, you need special sensitivity. All these qualities together are quite rare.

Although not as popular among composers as the rest of the group of bowed string instruments, it is still very important in a symphony orchestra. And when, for example, Yuri Bashmet plays solo, the value of this instrumentfeels especially good.

Cello

There is no instrument better suited to express feelings such as grief, sadness, sadness, even despair. The voice of the cello has a special timbre that pierces the soul, unlike any other instrument. Alexander Grin in his "Scarlet Sails" compared the violin with a pure girl named Assol, and the cello with the passionate Carmen. Indeed, the cello can convey strong feelings and a vivid character very deeply.

Cellos were made simultaneously with violins by the very first masters, but Antonio Stradivari brought it to perfection. This instrument was not noticed in the orchestra for a long time, leaving the accompaniment parts to it, but when this voice was truly heard, the composers wrote a lot of solo and chamber music for the cello, and the performers improved the technique of playing this instrument more and more.

Double bass

This is the lowest register string instrument. The shape of the double bass does not look too much like a violin: a more sloping body, its shoulders are close to the neck. His sound is booming, thick, low, and without the bass register the orchestra will not sound good, so the double bass is simply irreplaceable there. Moreover, it takes root in almost any orchestra - even jazz. You can't do without it.

If we compare an orchestral score with a human body, then the bass part is a skeleton on whichaccordingly, "meat" is a harmonic accompaniment, and the melodic line is "skin", it is visible to everyone. If we imagine that the skeleton is removed from the body, what happens? Yes, the bag is shapeless. Bass is just as necessary, everything rests on it. What string-bowed instruments can keep the rhythm of the whole orchestra? Double basses only.

Violin

Stringed bowed instruments rightfully consider her the queen when the violin sings, the rest can only sing along. The sound is extracted in a tricky way that no other instrument of this group can do. A bow with hard, rough, coarse horsehair, rubbed with rosin, is almost a file, because strong rosin is poured into powder. When the bow touches the string, it immediately sticks and pulls the string along for as long as its elasticity is enough, then it breaks off to immediately stick again. This is the movement of the string - uniform when the bow pulls it, and sinusoidal on return - and gives that unique timbre.

There is also such a subtlety: for other instruments, for example, for guitars, the strings are stretched on hard metal nut, and for the violin they rest on a wooden, rather flimsy stand, which oscillates when played in both directions, and these vibrations transmits to all strings, even those that the bow does not touch. So subtle overtones are added to the overall picture, which further enrich the sound of the instrument.

Tool features

The intonation freedom of the sound of the violin is simply endless. She may notonly to sing, but also to whistle, and mimic the creaking of a door and the chirping of a bird. And once on television they showed an April Fool's humor, where the violinist made the audience laugh by imitating sounds that were completely unrelated to music. For example, the unintelligible voice of the dispatcher at the station, announcing the arrival of the train. The word "pavtaryaaaayu" was pronounced by the violin. The mastery of this instrument depends most of all on the quality of the performer's hearing, and the training should be long. It is not in vain that children begin to be taught as early as three or four years old, so that the results are worthy.