Dictionary of Music - Birding America

370 scordaturascordatura (skôr′′dä too r′ä) Italian. A change inthe ordinary tuning of a stringed instrument, such asa violin, in order to play a particular passage or composition.It involves tuning one or more strings up ordown in pitch by one half tone, one whole tone, oreven more. In the seventeenth century scordatura wasfrequently used for lute compositions, the exact tuningrequired being indicated at the beginning of eachwork. Later it was used for violins and cellos. Themusic was written as though the tuning were normal;thus, if the strings were tuned one whole note higherthan usual, the instrument would sound G for a writtenF, F for a written E, and so on. (The normal tuningfor the violin’s four strings is E, A, D, and G.)Paganini often tuned all four of his violin strings asmuch as a third (two whole notes) higher in order tobrighten the tone. In Mozart’s Sinfonia concertantein E-flat, K. 364, for violin, viola, and orchestra, thesolo viola is tuned one half tone higher than normal(its part is written in D) so that it can be heard abovethe orchestra’s viola section. Tuning down is usuallydone to increase the range (downward). Since the latenineteenth century, scordatura has been used mainlyfor special effects, as in Saint-Saëns’s Dansemacabre (“Dance of Death”), where the solo violin’sE-string is tuned E-flat to obtain an eerie effect. Incountry music an old-time fiddler might tune thestrings to E, A, E, and A for one song and then retunethem to E, A, D, and A for the next. Other instruments,like the banjo, may similarly be retuned.score The written notes to be performed by all theinstruments or voices (or both) in a particular composition.Today they are arranged on a series of stavesplaced one under another, vertically aligning all thenotes to be sounded together at one time. The term“score” alone is loosely used to mean any writtenmusic, and one speaks of a piece being “scored for”the particular voices and instruments involved. —full score Also, orchestral score. A score that showsall the parts, for voices and instruments, sometimesrequiring thirty or more staves. Pairs of instruments,such as first and second oboes, share a staff. Ordinarilya full score is used only by the conductor. The generalorder of an orchestral score is woodwind parts at thetop, then brass instruments, then percussion, then keyboardinstruments, and last stringed instruments. Aharp part is placed between keyboard and stringedinstruments, and parts for voices are placed betweenkeyboard and strings, as is a solo instrument in a concerto(the solo violin in a concerto for violin andorchestra). Within each group the order is usually fromhighest to lowest pitch. The order of a typical score is:Woodwinds:Brasses:treble clefbass cleftreble clefPercussion:bass clefKeyboard:Voices:tenor clefbass clefStrings:treble clefalto clefbass clef{PiccoloFlutesOboesEnglish hornClarinets{Bass clarinetBassoonsDouble bassoon{French horns(first and second)French horns(third and fourth)Trumpets (two to a staff)Trombones{ (first and second){Trombone (third; sometimescombined withtuba)Tuba{{{{TimpaniOther percussion (a seriesof one-line staves)Celesta (two staves)Piano (two staves)Organ (three staves)Soprano, alto, tenor, bass(two staves)Harp (two staves)Violins (first)Violins (second)ViolasCellosDouble bassesAlthough full scores were used until about 1200,from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries polyphonicchurch music (music with more than one voice-part)was written in choirbooks, with each part written