Great is the capacity of the violin. Its notes may be crisp, sharp, decisive, brilliant, or long-drawn-out and full of emotion. It has greater precision of attack than any other instrument in the orchestra. And right here it is interesting to note that while the multiplication of instruments gives greater sonority, it also gives much finer effects in soft passages. The pianissimo of one hundred violins is a very much finer pianissimo and at the same time infinitely richer and further carrying than the pianissimo of a solo violin. It is the very acme of a musical stage whisper.
In this very first and most important group of the orchestra we can find examples of utilizing subdivisions of groups. Although the violin cannot be played lower than its G string, which sounds the G below the treble clef, the violin group nevertheless has been employed entirely by itself, and even subdivided within itself. The most exquisite example of this, one cited in every 183 work on the orchestra worth reading, is the “Lohengrin” prelude. To this the violins are divided into four groups and on the highest register, with an effect that is most ethereal.
[[Listen]]
Modern orchestral virtuosity may be gauged by the statement that while Beethoven but once dared to score for his violins above the high F, Richard Strauss in the most casual manner carries them an octave higher.
A little contrivance of wood or metal, with teeth, can be pressed down over the strings of the violin so as to deaden its vibrations. This is called the sordine, or mute. A famous example of the use of the violins con sordini is the Queen Mab Scherzo in Berlioz’s “Romeo et Juliette Symphonie.” Another well-known use of the same effect is in Asa’s Death, in Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” Suite. Nothing can be more exquisite than the entrance of the muted violins after a long silence, in the last act of “Tristan und Isolde,” just before Isolde intones the Love Death.
An unusual effect is produced by using the back of the bow instead of the horsehair. Liszt uses it in his symphonic poem, “Mazeppa,” for imitating the snorting of the horse; Wagner in “Siegfried,” for accompanying the mocking laugh of Mime; and Richard Strauss in “Feuersnot,” to produce the effect of crackling flames. But, as Strauss remarks in his revision of Berlioz’s work on instrumentation, it is effective only with a large orchestra. The plucking of the strings with the fingers—pizzicato—is a familiar device. Tschaikowski employed it almost throughout an entire movement, the “Pizzicato Ostinato” in his Fourth Symphony.