Strings

Legato describes a gentle articulation where notes are smoothly connected to the notes on either side.  This is in contrast to other articulations like staccato where the notes are short and detached from one another.  This legato passage is found in the sinfonia for La Villana Riconosciuta by Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801), in the first movement, Allegro Con Spirito.  The legato section begins about four seconds into this recording.

Bowed vibrato is a performance technique used by stringed instruments often in eighteenth century or earlier Baroque music. Its sound is achieved when the musician uses their bow to create an undulating and pulsating movement all while moving the bow in a single direction. Often each “pulse” is in tempo and usually would last as long as a small subdivision of the beat, such as a sixteenth note. Bowed vibrato is a means of ornamenting a long note that would otherwise likely sound stagnant to the listener. In this recording, taken from the second movement, “Lento,” of Johan Helmich Roman’s Symphony No. 3 in B-flat Major, bowed vibrato is played over long notes and pulsates at the time value of sixteenth notes in the tempo of the music. This recording was taken from a clip from a YouTube recording of the Drottningholms Barockensemble performing this piece.

A player begins to do several warm ups before practicing piece. An excerpt of the warm up is selected, here is a 3 octave A major scale. You can hear the player go higher and higher in the octave. As octave got higher, noise isn't as strong so the sound is begin to be lost. You can also hear squeaks and the bow isn't in a continuous motion so you can hear pauses in between. Recorded on an iPhone 6s.

Symphony was a popular genre of music in the eighteenth century. It was developed from the overtures (also called 'sinfonia'), which were played at the beginning of operas. When we think of 'symphony', we always think of an orchestra consists of strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. However, the earliest symphonies in the world were actually consists of strings only. These symphonies were usually composed before 1760. Symphony in B flat major (Them. Index 65) by Franz Xaver Richter (1709-1789) is one of the earliest symphonies. It was written for a string orchestra that consists of 2 violins, viola, and basso (most likely to be cello). Also, the composer wrote figured bass (some numbers under the score) so that basso continuo like harpsichord could be played with the string orchestra. The audio presents the beginning of the third movement of the symphony, which is the fast and the last movement of the whole symphony. Since the piece have not been recorded by anyone, the audio is produced by Sibelius 7 Sounds Chamber. 

This typical string section of a galant/classical orchestra consists of first and second violins, viola, cello and bass. The string section of the orchestra plays an interlude between episodes of a movement. The first violins and violas play moving line in unison punctuated by second violins, cellos, and basses playing in unison.

Sound recording of a quartet coaching on a movement of Tchaikovsky's 3rd string quartet in a rehearsal room at UNCSA. Recorded on an iPhone 5s.

Sound recording of the finale to Duke University’s Ciompi Quartet playing of Schubert’s Quartet in A minor in the Blackwell common room. Recorded on Samsung Galaxy S6