Con sordino

What it means

Con sordino asks that a mute be put on. On string instruments this is a small piece of wood, metal, or plastic that is clamped onto the bridge and whose mass changes the transmission of the string's vibration to the body. The tone becomes quieter, but above all softer and poorer in overtones. Brass players use mutes in the bell that sharpen or alienate the sound rather than merely damp it. The instruction is cancelled by senza sordino or via sordino.

In the notation

The marking is written in italics above the staff at the point from which muted playing begins. Because putting on the mute takes time, good engraving places it a few bars earlier, usually in a rest. If this lead time is missing, the section leader in the orchestra has to divide the group or adapt the passage.

Musical use

The mute is not a mere volume control but a change of colour: a muted string section sounds dull, distant, sometimes shadowed, and this colour cannot be reached by simply playing more quietly. Composers have used it since the seventeenth century, often in slow movements, nocturnes, and funeral music; in the orchestra of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it becomes a fixed means of instrumentation. Entire movements for muted strings form a sound space of their own, out of which the removal of the mute acts like a brightening.

Performance practice

Keep the mute within reach: models that sit permanently on the strings behind the bridge can be slid on almost silently and are usual in the orchestra. Put it on during a rest and avoid shifting the bridge in the process. Expect the response to become more sluggish — you need a little more bow weight or a contact point closer to the bridge so that the tone still carries. After taking it off, check the tuning briefly, because the bridge may have suffered. In a section the rule is: put on and take off together, otherwise an unintentionally mixed sound results.

Remember that there are different types of mute that act with different strength: a heavy metal mute takes more sound than a light one of wood or rubber. Check this before rehearsal. With wind players the mute additionally changes the intonation, usually upward, which has to be compensated. Plan the moment of putting on and taking off and enter it in the part so that the group changes together.