List of musical pieces which use extended techniques

Last updated


This is a list of musical compositions that employ extended techniques to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres.

"Dream of Witches' Sabbath" from Symphonie Fantastique. The violins and violas play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings ( Berlioz 1899 , 220–22).
Battalia (1673). The strings play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings, in addition to numerous other techniques ( Boyden 2001 ).
Le calife de Bagdad (opera, 1800), strings play col legno( Favre and Betzwieser 2001 ).
Passacaglia from Peter Grimes, rehearsal 6, "agitato", (pp. 16–17 of the score). The violins and violas play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings ( Britten 1945 , 16–17).
prepared piano pieces (1938)
Une heure de mariage (opera, 1804). Strings use col legno( Charlton 2001 ).
Watt, concerto for trombone and orchestra (1994). Features "ample use of extended techniques" ( Pace 1997 , 19).
Capriccio stravagante (from Ander Theil newer Paduanen, Gagliarden, Couranten, französischen Arien, 1627). The violins play glissando, pizzicato, tremolo, and in double stops, and use particular effects such as col legno (striking the wood of the bow on the strings) and sul ponticello (bowing close to the bridge), in order to imitate the sounds of a cat, a dog, a hen, the lyre, clarino trumpet, military drum, Spanish guitar, etc. (Boyden 2001; Pyron and Bianco 2001).
Concord Sonata , use of a 14+34-inch-long (37 cm) piece of wood to create a cluster chord in the "Hawthorne" movement ( Bruh 2011 , 179).
After TemA (1968), almost all works make extensive use of extended techniques ( Mosch 2001 ).
Symphony No. 1 in D major, third movement (p. 91 of the UE score) first violins, divisi a 3, play col legno tratto, stroking the strings with the wood of their bows ( Piston 1955 , 22).
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, first movement, bars 304–306, all the strings play col legno (some of the strings continue through 307), striking the wood of their bows on the strings ( Marsh and Marsh 2016 ).
Il Signor Bruschino , in the overture, the second violins rhythmically tap their bows on their music stands
Danse macabre, the strings play col legno to suggest the rattling of skeletons ( Latham 2002 )
Gurrelieder (1911), makes use of Sprechstimme ( Kennedy 2006 )
Die glückliche Hand (1910–1913), makes use of Sprechstimme ( Kennedy 2006 )
Pierrot Lunaire Op. 21 (1912) makes use of Sprechstimme ( Kennedy 2006 )
Moses und Aron (1930–1932), makes use of Sprechstimme ( Kennedy 2006 )
String Quartet No. 4, op. 37 (1936). Fourth movement (Allegro), bars 882–888, all four instruments play col legno battuto, col legno tratto, and col legno tratto ponticello, on single notes and in double stops, tremolo, and in harmonics ( Schoenberg 1939 , 101–102).
String Trio, op. 45 (1946). The violin and cello play col legno battuto; the violin plays col legno tratto in double stops; all the instruments play col legno tratto ponticello, double stops; violin and viola play col legno tratto ponticello in double stops, which are also played tremolo (Boyden 2001; Schoenberg 1950 , 1–5, 14, 18–19)
The Firebird , the strings occasionally play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings ( Stravinsky 1964 , 11, 40–43, 94–96, 102–103, 161–62)
Assobio a játo (1950), requires the flute to play "imitando fischi in toni ascendenti" (imitating whistles in rising tones), accomplished by blowing into the embouchure fff "as if one were warming up the instrument on a cold day" ( Villa-Lobos 1953 , 12, and an instruction slip inserted in the score).
Chôros No. 8 (1925), for orchestra and two pianos, requires one or both of the pianos to insert paper between the strings for a passage ( Villa-Lobos 1928 , 109–16).

Related Research Articles

In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, "to glide". In some contexts, it is equivalent to portamento, which is a continuous, seamless glide between notes. In other contexts, it refers to discrete, stepped glides across notes, such as on a piano. Some terms that are similar or equivalent in some contexts are slide, sweepbend, smear, rip, lip, plop, or falling hail. On wind instruments, a scoop is a glissando ascending to the onset of a note achieved entirely with the embouchure, except on instruments that have a slide.

Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music since at least 1676.

The trio sonata is a genre, typically consisting of several movements, with two melody instruments and basso continuo. It originated in the early 17th century and was a favorite chamber ensemble combination in the Baroque era.

<i>Col legno</i> Using the wood backing of a bow to hit the strings of an instrument

In music for bowed string instruments, col legno, or more precisely col legno battuto, is an instruction to strike the string with the stick of the bow across the strings.

Sprechgesang and Sprechstimme, more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, Sprechgesang is directly related to the operatic recitative manner of singing, whereas Sprechstimme is closer to speech itself.

<i>Pierrot lunaire</i> Musical setting by Arnold Schoenberg of 21 selected poems by Albert Giraud

Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire", commonly known simply as Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21, is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg. It is a setting of 21 selected poems from Albert Giraud's cycle of the same name as translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben. The work is written for reciter who delivers the poems in the Sprechstimme style accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble. Schoenberg had previously used a combination of spoken text with instrumental accompaniment, called "melodrama", in the summer-wind narrative of the Gurre-Lieder, which was a fashionable musical style popular at the end of the nineteenth century. Though the music is atonal, it does not employ Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, which he did not use until 1921.

20th-century classical music is art music that was written between the years 1901 and 2000, inclusive. Musical style diverged during the 20th century as it never had previously, so this century was without a dominant style. Modernism, impressionism, and post-romanticism can all be traced to the decades before the turn of the 20th century, but can be included because they evolved beyond the musical boundaries of the 19th-century styles that were part of the earlier common practice period. Neoclassicism and expressionism came mostly after 1900. Minimalism started much later in the century and can be seen as a change from the modern to postmodern era, although some date postmodernism from as early as about 1930. Aleatory, atonality, serialism, musique concrète, electronic music, and concept music were all developed during the century. Jazz and ethnic folk music became important influences on many composers during this century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Septet</span> Musical group that consists of seven people

A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subject (music)</span> Musical melody on which a composition is based

In music, a subject is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. In forms other than the fugue, this may be known as the theme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serenade</span> Musical composition or performance

In music, a serenade is a musical composition or performance delivered in honour of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Italian word serenata, which itself derives from the Latin serenus. Sense influenced by Italian sera "evening", from Latin sera, fem. of serus "late".

A fantasia is a musical composition with roots in improvisation. The fantasia, like the impromptu, seldom follows the textbook rules of any strict musical form.

Bariolage is a musical technique used with bowed string instruments that involves rapidly playing alternated notes on adjacent strings, one of which is generally left open, thereby exploiting the different timbres of each string. Bariolage may involve quick alternation between a static note and changing notes that form a melody either above or below the static note. The static note is usually an open string note, which creates a highly resonant sound. In bluegrass fiddling the technique is known as "cross-fingering".

In music, instrumentation is the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and the properties of those instruments individually. Instrumentation is sometimes used as a synonym for orchestration. This juxtaposition of the two terms was first made in 1843 by Hector Berlioz in his Grand traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modernes, and various attempts have since been made to differentiate them. Instrumentation is a more general term referring to an orchestrator's, composer's or arranger's selection of instruments in varying combinations, or even a choice made by the performers for a particular performance, as opposed to the narrower sense of orchestration, which is the act of scoring for orchestra a work originally written for a solo instrument or smaller group of instruments.

Concertino is the diminutive of concerto, thus literally a small or short concerto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Octet (music)</span>

In music, an octet is a musical ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or a musical composition written for such an ensemble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Händel-Gesellschaft</span>

Between 1858 and 1902, the Händel-Gesellschaft produced a collected 105-volume edition of the works of George Frideric Handel. Even though the collection was initiated by the society, many of the volumes were published by Friedrich Chrysander working alone. The wording on the title page of the volumes is "Georg Friedrich Händel's Werke. Ausgabe der Deutschen Händelgesellschaft" which translates as "Georg Friedrich Handel's works. Edition of the German Handel Society". Chrysander's work has been criticised, however the scale of his achievement is also praised. The collection's abbreviation of "HG" can be used to identify individual works by Handel; for example Handel's Messiah can be referred to as "HG xlv". For practical use, the HG system has been superseded by the HWV numbering system. The 105 volumes do not contain the complete works of Handel—with at least 250 of his works unpublished in the collection.

Gertrud Bertha Schoenberg was an Austrian opera librettist. She was the second wife of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, whom she married in 1924, and the sister of his pupil, the violinist Rudolf Kolisch.

String Quartet No. 4 is the fourth of six chamber music works in the string quartet medium by the American composer Milton Babbitt.

References