Open string

What it means

An open string sounds along its full length without a finger shortening it. Its pitch is fixed by the tuning: on the violin G, D′, A′, and E″. Because nothing damps the vibration, it rings especially long, responds easily, and is richer in overtones than a stopped note. At the same time it cannot be coloured with vibrato and cannot be adjusted in intonation — it sounds exactly as the instrument is tuned.

In the notation

The open string is called for by a small zero above the note. Where it is not marked, the player decides. In some editions a Roman numeral additionally shows on which string a passage is to lie; a zero combined with a harmonic circle, by contrast, means an overtone on the open string.

Musical use

Open strings shape the character of whole keys. They sound sustaining and bright, ring along in sympathy when the same note is stopped elsewhere, and make possible double stops that would otherwise be unplayable. Drone-like accompaniments, open fifth sonorities, and the shimmering alternation of bariolage rest on them. At the same time players often avoid them in cantabile melodies, because the change of sound between open and stopped notes interrupts the line. In music since the twentieth century, precisely this difference is again deliberately used.

Performance practice

First check whether the open string fits tonally at the passage concerned: in a soft melody it easily sounds too bare, in a powerful passage it is a gain. If you want to avoid it, stop the note on the lower neighbouring string. With double stops involving an open string, you must adjust the stopped voice to the fixed pitch, not the other way around. Take care that the bow does not brush the neighbouring string, because open strings often lie at an edge of the string angle. Unwanted sympathetic ringing is damped with a lightly placed finger.

Bear in mind that open strings act as a source of resonance: a stopped note lets the open string of the same name vibrate along and thereby sounds fuller. This shapes the character of certain keys and can be used deliberately.