Campanella
Bell-like playing figure, often with harmonics.
What it means
Campanella means “little bell” and designates a playing figure whose sound recalls a glockenspiel: bright, clearly separated notes in a high register that ring into one another. The impression arises less from a particular sequence of notes than from the manner of execution.
On string instruments the effect is achieved by playing neighbouring notes of a scale on different strings, so that they overlap instead of breaking off one after another; harmonics reinforce the bell-like colouring. On the guitar this way of playing is familiar as a technique in its own right.
The term is to be distinguished from the arpeggio, which breaks the notes of a chord. With the campanella it is a continuous line whose notes ring into one another.
In the notation
There is no separate, binding notation. The effect is prescribed by position and string indications, by fingerings, and by tie marks or the word itself. In guitar music there is often a string indication in circles that fixes the path across the strings; with harmonics, the usual diamond signs are added.
Musical use
The technique is used where a bright, floating sound is to be produced — in virtuoso pieces for string instruments, in arrangements, and in passages of a sound-painting character. As a movement title the word appears in the virtuoso literature of the nineteenth century for pieces that make this sound their subject.
Famous is La Campanella by Liszt, the third of the Grandes études de Paganini (1851; first version 1838), after the finale of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, in which a small bell accompanies the theme. On the piano, wide leaps of the right hand into high registers imitate the sound of the bell.
Performance practice
Choose the fingering so that successive notes lie on different strings, and let each note ring instead of damping it. Aim for even volume; the notes lie in different registers and speak differently. Practise the figure slowly at first and listen to the notes ringing into one another. And check the tuning, because overlapping notes make deviations audible immediately.