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- Abbreviation
- c.l.
How is col legno played?
Turn the bow so the stick contacts the string. Many conventional passages use col legno for the struck battuto action, but that is not universal: score legends also assign generic c.l. to drawn wood, so sustained notes, articulation and an explicit battuto or tratto label control the reading. X, square or triangle noteheads are local graphic conventions rather than automatic substitutes for the text. The effect is usually quiet, and because repeated contact can mark a fine bow, the composer should consult performers and allow a suitable spare bow where necessary. Remain in the technique until the score gives arco, ord., nat. or another clear cancellation.
How does col legno sound?
A dry, brittle, faintly pitched sound dominated by mechanical noise. Pitch is clearer low and near the bridge and dissolves into a bare percussive click up high. Composers have reached for it whenever they want bone-dry rattle or the uncanny: skeletons, the grotesque, things rushing past.
In context
Col legno (“with the wood”) divides into battuto, where the stick strikes the string, and tratto, where it is drawn across it. Primary score legends by Lisa Streich and John Croft plus a Penderecki performance guide independently attest c.l., but they also show why a legend matters. The family runs from early uses associated with Farina and Biber through the macabre orchestral colours of Berlioz and Holst to modern concert and film writing.
Music theory and score context
See also
- Col legno — Wikipedia
- What Is Col Legno on the Violin? — tonebase
- Symphonie fantastique (col legno in the Witches' Sabbath) — Wikipedia
- The Planets ('Mars' opens col legno) — Wikipedia
- Elaine Gould, Behind Bars — strings notation excerpt
- Lisa Streich, AUGENLIDER — score and performance legend
- John Croft, String Quartet (2000) — score and performance directions