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1.266 scordatura

ES: encordado, I: scordatura, F: à cordes ravallées, D: Skordatur, NL: ?, DK: ?, S: ?, FI: epätavallinen viritys.

[Italian: scordare, ‘to mistune’] Unconventional tuning of stringed instruments, particularly lutes or violins. Used to:

• facilitate pitch combinations that would otherwise be difficult or impossible
• alter the characteristic timbre of the instrument, for example, to increase brilliance
• reinforce certain sonorities or tonalities by making them available on open strings
• imitate other instruments
• etc.

Tunings that could be called scordatura first appeared early in the 16th Century and became commonplace in the 17th.

See also

No cross-references.