Bariolage is amusical technique used withbowed string instruments that involves rapidly playing alternated notes on adjacent strings, one of which is generally leftopen,[1] thereby exploiting the differenttimbres of each string.[2][3] Bariolage may involve quick alternation between astatic note and changing notes that form amelody either above or below the static note.[4] The static note is usually an open string note, which creates a highlyresonant sound. Inbluegrass fiddling the technique is known as "cross-fingering".[2]
The termbariolage appears to have been coined in the nineteenth century to denote aneighteenth-centuryviolin technique requiring flexibility in the wrist and forearm, the mechanics of which are not discussed by nineteenth-century writers.[1] Etymologically, in French, the term wastaken from the nounbariolage meaning a 'disorderly mix of bright colors',[6] which in turn derives from the verbbarioler meaning 'to cover with a mix of bright colors'.[7] The bowing technique most often used for bariolage is calledondulé in French orondeggiando In Italian.[8] Bariolage may also be executed with separate bow strokes.[9]
The French violinist-composerPierre Baillot writes in his pedagogical treatise of 1834,L'Art du violon (perhaps looking back on what he considered an earlier, less advanced era),
The namebariolage is given to the kind of passage which presents the appearance of disorder and oddness, in that the notes are not played in succession on the same string where one would expect this or when the notes e2, a1, d1, are played not on the same string but alternately with one stopped finger and the open string, or else finally when the open string is played in a position where a stopped note would normally be required.[10]
Joseph Haydn used this effect in the minuet of hisSymphony No. 28, in the finale of the"Farewell" Symphony, No. 45, and throughout the finale of hisString Quartet Op. 50, No. 6. The "croaking"[11] or "gurgling"[12] unison bariolage passages on D and A gives this quartet its nickname ofThe Frog.
In the following example, from a violin sonata byHandel,[a] the secondmeasure is to be played with bariolage:
In this passage, the repeated A is played on the open A string, alternating with Fs and Esfingered on the adjacent D string. The notes on the D string (E and F natural) would be fingered as normal (first finger and low second), but the fingerings given above the second measure would be [2040 1040 2040 1040], indicating the switch (bariolage) from open A string to the stopped fourth finger on the D string, also playing the note A.
Another well-known example of bariolage is in Bach'sPreludio to the E majorPartita No. 3 for solo violin, where three strings are involved in the maneuver (one open string and two fingered notes).
Bariolage is much more rarely employed during theRomantic period in the nineteenth century, but some notable examples of its use are found inBrahms's works. Brahms used this device in theString Sextet in G Major (where it occurs at the very beginning in the viola) and in theThird Violin Sonata, Op. 108.[13]
Although bariolage has been an established violinistic technique since at least the early eighteenth century, incontemporary music it may be regarded as anextended technique when used simultaneously in different instruments, or in conjunction with complex rhythmic layering or microtonal tunings. Examples may be found inMauricio Kagel's 1993 string quartetNotturno and thecadenza ofGiacinto Scelsi's 1965Anahit.[2]
In the twentieth century, composers have adapted the bariolage idea to other instruments, particularly the trombone, where a constant pitch may be repeated while rapidly changing between different slide positions—a technique some composers callenharmonic change orenharmonic tremolo. Notable trombone pieces using this device areLuciano Berio'sSequenza V for solo trombone, andVinko Globokar'sEppure si muove for a conducting solo trombonist and eleven musicians.[14]
Elliott Carter adapted the technique to the harp in a solo work actually titledBariolage (1992), which blends the device with trills and a harp technique calledbisbigliando, "in a profusion of trilling passages and enharmonic unison colourings."[15]
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