List of musical pieces which use extended techniques

This is a list of musical compositions that employ extended techniques to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres.

• Luciano Berio

Sequenzas I–XIV

• Hector Berlioz

"Dream of Witches' Sabbath" from Symphonie Fantastique. The violins and violas play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings (Berlioz 1899, 220–22).

• Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

Battalia (1673). The strings play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings, in addition to numerous other techniques (Boyden 2001).

• François-Adrien Boieldieu

Le calife de Bagdad (opera, 1800), strings play col legno (Favre and Betzwieser 2001).

• William Bolcom

The Serpent's Kiss piano rag from the Garden of Eden suite (requires the pianists to slap the piano, stamp their feet and click their tongues to emphasise the piece's syncopated rhythm)

• Benjamin Britten

Passacaglia from Peter Grimes, rehearsal 6, "agitato", (pp. 16–17 of the score). The violins and violas play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings (Britten 1945, 16–17).

• Leo Brouwer

La espiral eterna for Guitar.

• John Cage

prepared piano pieces (1938)

One⁸ (1991), for curved bow

• Aaron Cassidy

All works make extensive use of extended techniques.

• Henry Cowell

Tides of Manaunaun (1915), large tone-clusters

The Banshee, Aeolian Harp, and Sinister Resonance, played inside the piano

• George Crumb

Black Angels, extended string techniques, including bowing with glass rods

Makrokosmos (1972), prepared and amplified piano

Vox Balaenae (1971), harmonic glissando (gull effect)

• Nicolas-Marie Dalayrac

Une heure de mariage (opera, 1804). Strings use col legno (Charlton 2001).

• Pascal Dusapin

Watt, concerto for trombone and orchestra (1994). Features "ample use of extended techniques" (Pace 1997, 19).

• John Eaton

Concert Music for Solo Clarinet (1960) makes use of many extended clarinet techniques, including multiphonics, alternate fingerings, and extremely high pitches.

• Julio Estrada

Miqi'nahual (1993) from his modular composition Doloritas (1992), stringed instrument with two right hand bows

• Carlo Farina

Capriccio stravagante (from Ander Theil newer Paduanen, Gagliarden, Couranten, französischen Arien, 1627). The violins play glissando, pizzicato, tremolo, and in double stops, and use particular effects such as col legno (striking the wood of the bow on the strings) and sul ponticello (bowing close to the bridge), in order to imitate the sounds of a cat, a dog, a hen, the lyre, clarino trumpet, military drum, Spanish guitar, etc. (Boyden 2001; Pyron and Bianco 2001).

• Carlo Forlivesi

Più Mesto (2003), for 2-bow cello

Rosenleben (2006), for clarinet, cello and piano

Lauda (2009), cello concerto (for Anssi Karttunen)

En la soledat i el silenci (2008), for hyper-tempered koto and guitar

Boethius (2008), for biwa

• Sofia Gubaidulina

String quartets

• Jonathan Harvey

Imaginings (1994), stringed instrument with two right hand bows

• Hans Werner Henze

El Cimarrón, which requires the baritone soloist to laugh, whistle, shout, scream and use falsetto

• Gustav Holst

"Mars, Bringer of War" from The Planets. The strings play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings.

• Tobias Hume
  • "Harke, Harke", from First Part of Ayres (1605). The viol da gamba plays col legno, with the instruction "Drum this with the back of your Bow" (Boyden 2001; Morrow and Harris 2001; Traficante 2001).
• Charles Ives

Concord Sonata, use of a 14³⁄₄ inch long piece of wood to create a cluster chord in the "Hawthorne" movement (Bruh 2011, 179).

• Panayiotis Kokoras

Holophony, for amplified string quartet. Scream sounds, duck sounds, saw sounds, reversed attack, energy control, oscillations.

Paranormal, for three amplified snaredrums. Wire brushes (Jazz rake, Dreadlock), metallic sweeping, granular sound, strumming, friction, slap.

• Nikita Koshkin

Piece with Clocks, for prepared guitar using cork, matches and a foam mute

The Prince's Toys - Suite for Guitar, cross string "snare" technique, string scraped with thumbnail, percussion (striking of the guitar), playing behind the nut or saddle

• Helmut Lachenmann

All works make extensive use of extended techniques.

• György Ligeti

Aventures

Nouvelles Aventures

Études pour piano: Toches bloquées, piano keys are depressed (blocked) by one hand and 'played' by another, thus not sounding but creating a sound gap.

• Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 1 in D major, third movement (p. 91 of the UE score) first violins, divisi a 3, play col legno tratto, stroking the strings with the wood of their bows (Piston 1955, 22).

Symphony No. 2 in D major, first movement, b. 304–306, all the strings play col legno (some of the strings continue through 307), striking the wood of their bows on the strings (Marsh and Marsh 2016).

• Krzysztof Penderecki

Anaklasis (1959), extended string techniques

Polymorphia (1961), extended string techniques

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), extended string techniques

• Gérard Pesson

All works make extensive use of extended techniques.

• Lou Reed

Metal Machine Music, album made completely with audio feedback of guitars

• Christopher Rouse

Ogoun Badagris (1976), for 5 percussionists, innovative percussion techniques

Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (1978), for 4 percussionists, innovative percussion techniques

Rotae Passionis (1982), for small ensemble, woodwinds and piano double on percussion, extended percussion, flute and clarinet techniques

Bonham (1988), for 8 percussionists

Rouse makes constant use of extended techniques for percussion and other instruments

• Marc Sabat

For Magister Zacharias, the mechanism of lifting the dampers without the hammers touching the keys is highly-amplified

• Camille Saint-Saëns

Danse macabre, the strings play col legno to suggest the rattling of skeletons (Latham 2002)

• Arnold Schoenberg

Gurrelieder (1911), makes use of Sprechstimme (Kennedy 2006)

Die glückliche Hand (1910–13), makes use of Sprechstimme (Kennedy 2006)

Pierrot Lunaire Op. 21 (1912) makes use of Sprechstimme (Kennedy 2006)

Moses und Aron (1930–32), makes use of Sprechstimme (Kennedy 2006)

String Quartet No. 4, op. 37 (1936). Fourth movement (Allegro), b. 882–88, all four instruments play col legno battuto, col legno tratto, and col legno tratto ponticello, on single notes and in double stops, trmolo, and in harmonics (Schoenberg 1939, 101–102).

String Trio, op. 45 (1946). The violin and cello play col legno battuto; the violin plays col legno tratto in double stops; all the instruments play col legno tratto ponticello, double stops; violin and viola play col legno tratto ponticello in double stops, which are also played tremolo (Boyden 2001; Schoenberg 1950, 1–5, 14, 18–19)

• Salvatore Sciarrino

All works make extensive use of extended techniques.

• Sonic Youth

The World Looks Red (on Confusion is Sex) on which Lee Ranaldo plays 3rd bridge guitar

• Igor Stravinsky

The Firebird, the strings occasionally play col legno, striking the wood of their bows on the strings (Stravinsky 1964, 11, 40–43, 94–96, 102–103, 161–62)

• Toru Takemitsu

Voice' for solo flute

• Heitor Villa-Lobos

Assobio a játo (1950), requires the flute to play "imitando fischi in toni ascendenti" (imitating whistles in rising tones), accomplished by blowing into the embouchure fff "as if one were warming up the instrument on a cold day" (Villa-Lobos 1953, 12, and an instruction slip inserted in the score).

Chôros no. 8 (1925), for orchestra and two pianos, requires one or both of the pianos to insert paper between the strings for a passage (Villa-Lobos 1928, 109–16).

• Kevin Volans String quartets like "White Man Sleeps" uses many extended techniques, both compositional and instrumental.

• Carl Maria von Weber

Concertino for horn and orchestra (1815), requires the hornist to sing while simultaneously playing

• Iannis Xenakis

Nomos Alpha (1966), for solo cello, uses harmonic glissando

• La Monte Young

Chronos Kristalla (1990), for string quartet using a special tuning and only natural harmonics

References

• Berlioz, Hector. 1899. Episode de la vie d'un artiste: Symphonie fantastique en 5 parties, op. 14. Eulenburgs kleine Partitur-Ausgabe Nr. 422. Leipzig: Ernst Eulenburg.
• Boyden, David D. 2001. "Col legno". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Britten, Benjamin. 1945. Passacaglia, op. 33b, from the Opera Peter Grimes. Hawkes Pocket Scores no. 84. London: Boosey & Hawkes.
• Bruh, Christopher. 2011. "The Transitive Multiverse of Charles Ives's 'Concord' Sonata". The Journal of Musicology 28, no. 2 (Spring): 166–94.
• Charlton, David. 2001. "Dalayrac [D’Alayrac], Nicolas-Marie". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Favre, Georges, and Thomas Betzwieser. 2001. "Boieldieu, (François-)Adrien". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Kennedy, Michael. 2006. "Sprechgesang, Sprechstimme". The Oxford Dictionary of Music, second edition, Joyce Bourne, associate editor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
• Latham, Alison (ed.). 2002. “Col legno”, in Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
• Marsh, Gregory and Elizabeth. 2016. "Col Legno". The Classy Musician Blog (19 April; accessed 19 April 2016).
• Morrow, Michael, and Colette Harris. 2001. "Hume, Tobias". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Pace, Ian. 1997. "Never to Be Naught". The Musical Times 138, no. 1857 (November): 17–20.
• Piston, Walter. 1955. Orchestration. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
• Pyron, Nona, and Aurelio Bianco. 2001. "Farina, Carlo". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Schoenberg, Arnold. 1939. Fourth String Quartet, Op. 37. G. Schirmer’s Edition of Study Scores of Orchestral Works and Chamber Music, no. 21. New York and London: G. Schirmer.
• Schoenberg, Arnold. 1950. String Trio, Op. 45. Hillsdale, New York: Boelke-Bomart Publications.
• Stravinsky, Igor. 1964. Zhar-ptitsa [The Firebird], Moscow: Gos. muzykal’noe izd-vo.
• Traficante, Frank. 2001. "Lyra [leero, leerow, liera, lyro] viol". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Villa-Lobos, Heitor. 1928. Chôros (No 8) pour orchestre. Paris: Éditions Max Eschig.
• Villa-Lobos, Heitor. 1953. Assobio a játo (The Jet Whistle). New York: Southern Music Publishing Company, Inc.

External links

• Carlo Forlivesi Official Website
• Panayiotis Kokoras' home page