WebFacts 1
For readers who are not string players, these terms may be unfamiliar. If a passage
is marked pizzicato, the string player plucks the strings instead of bowing them. Bartók is famous
for his "snap pizzicato," in which the plucked string snaps back against the fingerboard. Other
special string techniques include col legno (playing with the wood of the bow), sul tasto (playing
on the fingerboard), and sul ponticello (playing near or on the bridge of the instrument). Each of
these techniques produces a distinctive timbre. A good reference book is Samuel Adler's The
Study of Orchestration (New York: Norton, 2002).
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