Break a string? I only needed three anyway
NewsFrom US violinist Stefan Jackiw:
Last week in a performance with my Junction Trio (@conradtao and @autocellic ) at @92ndstreety , my string broke during the climax of Shostakovich’s piano trio no. 2. I didn’t want to stop and lose the momentum of the performance so I attempted to keep playing on three strings.
Moral of the story: Pay attention in transposition class.
There is an urban legend that an early incarnation of the Boston symphony chamber players was performing Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale Suite. A couple of bars into it the violinist broke a string. He froze for several seconds and then continued to play immaculately on three strings. Firstly, can anyone confirm this story. Secondly, one could argue that the concertmaster of one of the world’s greatest orchestras should be capable of such a feat, but anyone who has themselves sat in the hottest of hot seats will say yeah, but!
No idea if the story is true, but Joey Silverstein could play anything.
No need to “pay attention in transposition class” as no transposition is done. Broken string here is the E string, the highest, so any pitch can potentially be played on at least one other string. Choosing which string to play a note on is a matter of artistic choice as well as technical consideration, and it is a frequent gesture to play something that happens more than once on a different string on the repetition. Well within his reach.
Paganini, as a stunt, used to secretly fray his gut strings and “accidentally” break them one by one during the performance, starting with the E string and working his way down, until he was wowing the crowd by continuing to play with just a single string. The show must go on, right? Of course, he was prepared for this, and indeed wrote repertoire for the occasion. I have a concert bill where he announces that he will play such a set of variations. An image can be seen here: https://www.taminoautographs.com/products/paganini-nicolo-original-concert-playbill-1832?srsltid=AfmBOooVfDtQouOgcDiRi6PPO7utA-T9QPszxpyHigLylRrBFPG4akyF
Adding to the fun for the violinist is that not only do you play the entire piece on the G string, but the G string has a scordatura tuning raising the pitch up to B-flat, messing with the heads of those with perfect pitch, and making the violin more difficult to play due to the increased string tension.
John Phillip Sousa tells a story of having broken all but his G string during a pit orchestra gig… and sawing on, none-the-less.
This is weird. I was there. Jackiw left the stage upon breaking his E string and returned with a new one on his violin. The trio picked back up roughly in the same place the string breakage occurred. An unfortunate occurrence that broke the mood of that intense movement.
Norman, transposing is changing the music to a different key to the original.
You don’t suddenly start playing in a different key to the musicians around you simply because you have broken a string. If you choose to continue playing you play the same notes on a different string.
THIS is legendary- a 14-year -old Midori: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkp8YSuePPM