32 Johnson ⦁ Violin Intonation violin as well as the strings that held their tuning most effectively during Tartini’s time. The violin’s strings are tuned G, D, A, and E and there is much care involved in ensuring the tension and diameters of the strings. However, it is necessary to recognize proper aspects of tuning such as temperature changes. It is critical to understand the way in which temperature plays a role in a violin’s intonation. Leopold Mozart states in his Essay on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, that “in a warm room the pitch of the stringed instruments gradually falls, in a cold one it gradually rises.”26 Not only does the original tuning of the strings and the placement of the fingers have an impact on the intonation of the violin, but the temperature also affects intonation in ways that might not always be considered. Scordatura tuning is another process of violin tuning aside from the pitches of a stringed instrument. Theodor Russel states that scordatura can make “it easier, or even possible to perform some figures,” broaden “the scale of an instrument downwards through retuning the lowest string,” and “change the instrument’s timbre.”27 If complicated string crossings or fingerings in a piece prove challenging for a musician, scordatura tuning can make it more easily playable. Any string pitch can be modified through scordatura. Not only are the pitches of the strings altered, but so is the tension of the strings and overall timbre of the instrument.28 In addition to changing an individual violin’s timbre, the entire ensemble would be affected as well. Different pitches of the strings other than the original tuning would cause different harmonics to sound on the violin, also changing the way an ensemble would tune. If there were new open strings on an instrument due to scordatura, the entire ensemble would need to consider how these pitches fit into their own tuning. Musicians may have adjusted their pitches higher or lower to match the overall harmonic sound of the ensemble. A composer of the Baroque period that wrote many of his violin sonatas with scordatura tuning is Heinrich Franz Biber. His “Rosary” Sonatas, a collection of 16 sonatas, were all written with different tuning in place. Example 1 exemplifies the scordatura tuning in Biber’s third sonata in 26 Mozart, 859. 27 Stopczańska, 8. 28 Carter, 527–528.
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