Scordatura

Scordatura is an alternative tuning of a string instrument’s strings from their usual pitches. It changes the instrument’s open-string notes to alter its range, resonance, or playing possibilities.

Open string: A string played without being stopped by a finger or other device. Scordatura directly changes the pitches produced by the instrument’s unstopped strings.
Violin: A bowed string instrument with four strings, usually tuned in perfect fifths. Scordatura is especially associated with the violin’s flexible tuning and repertory.
Baroque music: European art music composed roughly from 1600 to 1750, marked by distinctive approaches to harmony, counterpoint, and performance. Scordatura became a prominent compositional resource in Baroque string music.
Standard tuning: The conventional arrangement of pitches to which an instrument’s strings are normally tuned. Scordatura is defined by departing from the instrument’s standard tuning.
Sympathetic string: A string that vibrates in response to sound from another source without being directly played. Scordatura can bring sympathetic strings into new harmonic relationships with played notes.
Retuning: The adjustment of an instrument’s strings or other pitch-producing elements to different pitches. Scordatura is a deliberate form of retuning that departs from standard string pitches.
Niccolò Paganini: An Italian violinist and composer whose virtuosic performances and compositions reshaped nineteenth-century violin playing. Paganini used altered violin tunings to facilitate particular keys and effects.
Mystery Sonatas: A collection of fifteen violin sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, composed around 1674. The collection is a landmark use of changing violin tunings, with a different setup for most sonatas.
De-tuning: The lowering of a musical pitch from its intended or reference frequency. Scordatura may raise or lower strings; detuning usually names pitch deviation rather than a composed alternative setup.
Double stop: The simultaneous sounding of two notes on a bowed string instrument. Altered open strings can make otherwise difficult double stops easier or change their sonority.

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