IT armonico bowing core term Support my free tools
- Abbreviation
- arm.
How is armonico played?
For a natural harmonic, touch a node lightly on an open string; for an artificial harmonic, stop the string firmly with one finger and touch a higher node lightly with another, commonly a fourth above for the standard touch-four form. Read circle or diamond noteheads, written sounding or fingered pitches and any string indication together. The touch suppresses incompatible modes so a higher partial dominates; it does not produce a literally single spectral component.
How does armonico sound?
A pure, glassy, flute-like tone, thinner and higher than a normal stopped note, with the woody body of the string drained away. Fragile at low dynamics, faintly whistling, and easily coloured further by bowing sul tasto (more breath, more float) or sul ponticello (more glint and overtone hiss).
In context
Guhr prints Arm. in a violin discussion of suoni armonici, Musicca lists arm. for armonico, and Frary independently records the same form. Vienna Symphonic Library and Dorico distinguish natural harmonics from stopped-plus-touched artificial harmonics and their notation. Arm. is accepted for the Italian term, but it does not by itself specify the fingering system.
Music theory and score context
See also
- String harmonic — Wikipedia
- Harmonics (natural & artificial) — The Orchestra: A User's Manual (Andrew Hugill)
- Harmonics notation — Steinberg Dorico documentation
- Ferdinand Guhr, L’arte di suonare il violino — Italian edition
- Vienna Symphonic Library Academy — Violine
- Steinberg Dorico Pro 6.1 — appearances and styles of harmonics