Scordatura ([skordaˈtuːra]; literally, Italian for "discord", or "mistuning") is a tuning of a string instrument that is different from the normal, standard tuning. It typically attempts to allow special effects or unusual chords or timbre, or to make certain passages easier to play. It is common to notate the finger position as if played in regular tuning, while the actual pitch resulting is altered (scordatura notation). When all the strings are tuned by the same interval up or down, as in the case of the viola in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, the part is transposed as a whole. Cross-tuning is the same concept, but that term is used particularly in a folk music context.
Bowed string instruments
The invention of scordatura tuning has been attributed to Thomas Baltzar, a prodigious German violinist and composer who is known to have used the technique in around the 1660s, at least a decade before Biber composed his Rosary Sonatas in which he employed the tuning technique. German violinist Hans Hake (1628 – after 1667) included three works in Vorstimmung ("upset tuning") for two violins (#25, #29, & #33) in his collection "Ander Theil Newer Pavanen,..." (Stade: Elias Holwein, 1654), however, suggesting that this attribution may be inaccurate. Scordatura was much used by composers for viola d'amore, violin and cello, including J. S. Bach, Biber, Vivaldi, Ariosti, Vilsmayr, and others in compositions for violin during the early 18th century. A special type of notation was used to make it easier to read. This notation was also used to notate music for the viola d'amore, an instrument played and composed for by composers such as Biber and Vivaldi. The viola d'amore used a great number of different tunings and writing music for it in scordatura notation was a natural choice for composers of the time.
Notable usage of scordatura in Western art music
Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Rosary Sonatas for violin and continuo (c. 1674). Aside from the first ("Annunciation") and last works ("Passacaglia", for solo violin) of this collection, wherein the instrument is set to the common G-D-A-E tuning, the violin for each sonata is tuned to a different array of pitches. Sonata XI ("Resurrection") is a special case: in addition to a unique scordatura, the two inner strings of the violin are interchanged between the bridge and tailpiece of the instrument, thus creating a tuning (from top string to bottom string) of G-g-D-d. "Harmonia Artificiosa no. VII" in C minor is written in a form of scordatura on a nine line stave. See viola d'amore for more information. Johann Joseph Vilsmayr "Artificiosus Consentus Pro Camera", a set of six partitas published in 1715. The middle four partitas use scordatura tunings. Johann Pachelbel's Musikalische Ergötzung bestehend in 6 verstimmten Partien (Musical Entertainment consisting of six suites for mistuned violins, 1691), six suites for two violins and continuo. Tunings include C-F-C-F, C-G-C-F, B♭-E♭-B♭-E♭, B-E-B-E, C-G-C-F, and B♭-F-B♭-E♭. Antonio Vivaldi, violin concerto in A major, Op.9, No.6, in which the violin's G string is tuned up to an A, allowing for a beautifully resonant scale and arpeggio motif ending on the retuned string. Georg Philipp Telemann, Concerto in A Major for two Violins, TWV 43:7. In Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 60 in C (Il Distratto), the first and second violins start the finale of this unusual six-movement symphony with the lowest string tuned to F, but tune up to G in the course of the music to create a comical effect. The title of the symphony means "the absent-minded man" – so it is as if the violins have "forgotten" to tune their strings. The music fully pauses for the violins to re-tune before continuing. Haydn also uses a violin with the lowest string tuned to F in the trio of his Symphony No. 67 in F. Niccolò Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 initially required the strings of the solo violin to be tuned a semitone higher to match the original key of E♭ major. Camille Saint-Saëns, solo violin in Danse Macabre, where the E-string is tuned to E♭. This changes the open intervals of the double stop A and E to the tritone (A and E♭), which is used as the opening motif of the work. Gustav Mahler, scordatura violin soloist in the 2nd movement of his 4th Symphony. In this case, the composer probably desired the specific tone of the sound produced by a scordatura violin, which is less "suave" than the sound of a standard tuning. Franz von Vecsey's Nuit du Nord, a 1921 work for violin and piano, requires the G string to be tuned down to F♯. In Max Scherek's Sérénade et boléro for solo violin, Op. 27, the violin must be tuned to F, F, D, B♭. Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird makes a rare, perhaps unique, demand for the entire first violin section to retune the E string, in order to play the D major harmonic glissandi of the introduction. In Béla Bartók's piece Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano, the opening bars of the third movement utilize a different tuning on a separate violin (G♯-D-A-E♭) for a Hungarian folk effect. Richard Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben as well as his opera Elektra and Salome include passages in which the violins must tune their G strings down in order to play a G♭ or F♯. György Ligeti's Violin Concerto. John Corigliano's Stomp for solo violin (2010) requires the outer two strings to be tuned lower, resulting in a E-D-A-D♯ tuning. Eugène Ysaÿe's Poème élégiaque requires the lowest string to be tuned down to F.
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