Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In stringed musical instruments, an intentional deviation from the usual tuning of the strings for some special effect; the altering of the proper accordatura.
Wiktionary
- n. cross-tuning; a system of tuning a musical instrument to pitches other than the accepted standard, for example, tuning one or more strings of a violin to pitches other than the commonly accepted GDAE.
Etymologies
- From the Italian scordatura discord (Wiktionary)
Examples
“And that's not to mention the tuning of the concertmaster's violin "scordatura," or up a tone, to create a harsh sound symbolizing the dance of Death of the second movement scherzo.”
“Death has the power to call forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle represented by a solo violin with its E-string tuned to an E-flat in an example of scordatura tuning.”
“Now for a bit of dark humor: In an earlier version of the piece to be performed on the MATA festival, a rather extreme scordatura in the cello is required.”
“Since that incident, I have modified the scordatura.”
“In short, my attempt at creating a simple piece resulted in a fast microtonal composition for singing violist playing scordatura while using extended vocalizations.”
“Timbre anyone?...and Pianos are not tuned in the same way as a guitar so it is very possible that unless the piano was only used for 1 note (the F in question) the dissonance in tunning (guitars are tuned in perfect intervals and pianos are slightly out of tune by nature), there would have been a dissonance found in some of the other notes vis a vis the imperfectly tuned piano against the guitar(s)....also there is 2. scordatura tuning which means that the "g" on the guitar could well have been retuned to an "F”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scordatura’.
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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Back-to-Bach
A series of words discovered or revived from Paul Elie's Reinventing Bach
Victrola, Radiola, Cembalo, Lautenwerck, lautenwerck, well-tempered, Thuringia, Wanderjahr, fixity, 78s, Bonifatiuskirche, Widor and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scordatura.
fbharjo Bach's fifth cello suite uses this device. Feb 24, 2013
oroboros Obscure usage here. Sep 17, 2010