In music forbowed string instruments,col legno, or more preciselycol legno battuto (Italian for 'with the wood [being hit]';pronounced[kolˈleɲɲobatˈtuːto]), is an instruction to strike the string with the stick of the bow across the strings.
The earliest known use ofcol legno in Western music is to be found in a piece entitled "Harke, harke", from theFirst Part of Ayres (1605) byTobias Hume.He instructs thegambist to "drum this with the backe of your bow".[1] Such 'drumming' orcol legno battuto also occurs in Mozart's 'Turkish'Violin Concerto No. 5, Haydn'sSymphony No. 67, Salieri'sLa Cifra, Chopin'sPiano Concerto No. 2, and Berlioz'sSymphonie fantastique.
Col legno tratto ("drawn") is rarer effect: Mahler felt the need to include a note "No mistake! to be stroked with the wood" in the third movement ofhis First Symphony[a].Tratto occurs in many works of theSecond Viennese School, such as Webern'sFour Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 7, Berg'sLyric Suite[b] and Schoenberg'sMoses und Aaron.
The percussive sound of battuto has a clear pitch element determined by the distance of the bow from the bridge at the point of contact. As a group of players will never strike the string in exactly the same place, the sound of a section of violins playingcol legno battuto is dramatically different from the sound of a single violin doing so.
The wood of the bow can also be drawn across the string – a technique calledcol legno tratto ("with the wood drawn"). This is much less common, and the plain markingcol legno is invariably interpreted to meanbattuto rather thantratto. The sound produced bycol legno tratto is very quiet, with an overlay of white noise, but the pitch of thestopped note can be clearly heard. If the sound is too quiet, the bow can be slightly rolled so that a few bow hairs touch the string as well, leading to a slightly less "airy" sound.
Some string players object tocol legno playing as it can damage the bow; many players have a cheaper bow which they use for such passages, or for pieces which require extended passages.[2] Some players tap the strings with pencils instead of bows, producing a further percussive, lighter sound.[3]
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