July 6, 2006
Pizzicato
I love pizzicato. It is quite possibly my favorite sound in the whole array of musical sounds. What is pizzicato, you ask? Pizzicato is a musical technique in which the player of a violin, viola, cello, etc plucks the strings instead of playing them with a bow. The sound is very subtle and bright, and frankly, the first word that comes to mind when trying to describe pizzicato is, “happy.” Though not all instances of pizzicato are, actually “happy,” to my ear, it applies to most pizzicati that I know of.
I’ve heard pizzicato used in many different contexts. Sometimes it is a driving force to a Classical piece, as either the baseline, melody, or both. Other times, it is merely used to accent a particular part of a song. I, personally think it is most effectively used as subtle accent, and most of my favorite pizzicati fit into that category.
For your listening pleasure, and to clarify what the heck pizzicato actually is, I’ve posted a number of instances of pizzicato. If you don’t know what pizzicato sounds like (and I imagine that is a good number of you), after you hear the first couple of songs, I think you’ll recognize the sound. Be forewarned, though. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a big nerd, and pretty much all of the instrumental song that I have listed are from a video games or orchestrations thereof. That being said…
Each of these clips are about 20 seconds in length, and I kind of arranged them into three categories. The first five songs are Classical/instrumental pieces in which pizzicato is a prominent, if not the only instrument. The first song, in particular, is pretty much nothing but pizzicato. The middle three songs are Classical pieces which feature a subtle pizzicato in the background. And the last three are pop/rock songs that feature pizzicato. I especially love the pizzicato in “Mirror” by Barlow Girl, for some reason.
I ordered these songs the way that I did in order to aid the untrained ear. The first few songs are basically all pizzicato, so you can hear what it sounds like. Then, as you work your way down the list, the pizzicato becomes more an accent than an apparent piece of the music.
”Death Mountain” from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
”Exploration” from Morrowind
”Balamb Garden” from Final Fantasy VIII
”Main Theme” from Super Mario Brothers
”Walz” from Final Fantasy IX
”Hyrule Field” from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
”Zora’s Domain” from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
”Main Theme” from The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
”Change Your Mind” by The All-American Rejects
”Mirror” by Barlow Girl
”Here Comes The Rain Again” by The Eurythmics
And if you feel so inclined, you can download an MP3 of all the clips played back-to-back by clicking right here.
Will the wonders never cease?