Armonici (arm.): meaning and use in music

Armonici is the plural of armonico: play the marked notes, chord or passage as harmonics.

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Abbreviation
arm.

How is armonici played?

Treat the instruction as a span over the indicated material, but realize each note from its notehead, string and context. A chord may use several natural harmonics at once; a run or longer passage may mix realizable natural or artificial harmonics. Lightly touching a node suppresses incompatible string modes so a higher partial dominates, producing the clear, flute-like colour without implying that every marked note uses the same fingering or sounds simultaneously.

How does armonici sound?

A bank of pure, whistling, flute-like tones with almost no bow noise — the strings sounding like glass harmonica or distant wind. Stacked harmonics give a shimmering, weightless chord; a line of them floats high and disembodied above the normal range.

In context

Guhr writes ARMONICI and prints Arm. over a violin example; Musicca gives arm. for armonico and identifies armonici as the plural, while Frary explicitly lists arm. for armonici. The Italian Braille notation manual and Dorico documentation distinguish text labels from circle, diamond, stopped and touched-pitch notation. Arm. is accepted, but the score must still identify natural versus artificial realization.

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