Musical Strings: The Vessel of Expression
The art of string making is an ancient science. The materials used vary, as archeology has uncovered silk used for strings in the east, horsehair from Scandinavia, plant material and vines used in Mesoamerica, and animal intestine in the western European regions. The Egyptologist, James Burton uncovered strings made from gut for musical instruments in his excavations a Thebes, that to his account still produced tone after some two thousand years of storage, (Larson, Gamutmusic.com). The Mesopotamian instruments reveal the nature of their materials by their construction and pictorial evidence of use. In the instance of the asor, (a triangle style harp,) because of how the tension was set and the instrument was played, it is likely that its ten strings were made of silk. The cross beam of the frame suggests that the superior elasticity of silken strings would have allowed the use of a plectrum to play it. As Carl Engel states in his study of ancient instruments, “…we find silken strings used in some Asiatic instruments at present in use, which we know to be of high antiquity.” (Engel, p51).
Modern day string manufacturers produce a wide range of scientifically engineered marvels. The gut, hair, plant, and silk string trade has survived some thousands of years of human history, and by the time plastics and polyurethanes are experimented with, string makers had refined the trade to a significant art. By the 1700’s, gut had emerged as the preferred material for western European instruments, and areas of Germany and Italy had become renowned for their string makers. One of today’s top industry leaders, D’ Addario shows record as far back as 1680 of a baptismal form of their surname relating to the Italian cordaro, a regional variant of the word cordaio, meaning “maker or seller of ropes and strings”. The late 18th century, early 19th century saw the rise of several great modern string makers, like Aquila Corde, Tomastik, D’ Addario, and Pirastro to name a few. A number of specific factors participate in the precise quality and reliability of strings today, and the founders of these companies pioneered some of their most treasured techniques.
Each string has its own voice, much the same way every human vocal cord has its own voice. In the case of gut strings, the type of animal is not the only factor. Its diet, the climate it lived in, its age, and how quickly it was processed all make considerable difference to the string it will produce. The general procedure involves removing the intestine (quickly!), cleaning, fermenting, treating, selecting diameters, cutting, twisting, smoothing, oiling and final trimming and packaging. The detail of some traditional methods is quite striking. Mimmo Peruffo, a string maker for Aquila Corde describes the intricacies in the fermentation step:
“Controlled fermentation: the guts collected in clubs soak in cold water for a few days in order to start a slight fermentation that allows an easy action of scaring. The duration of the bath depends on the season: 1-2 days in the summer; 3-5 days in winter. Water is frequently reciprocated.”
Strings are not only a determining factor in the tonal reproduction of performance; they also often dictate the method by which the instrument is played. Metal strings are easier to strike then to pluck. Silk and nylon strings are more receptive to picking then hammering. All instrumental expression is ultimately up to the composition, but for general purpose and intended tonal capability and reproduction of a given instrument, the right strings mean everything. Upright bass players fill entire forums of the merits of gut strings for rockabilly and steel core of legato and resonance. Violinists use specific strings for volume, harmonics, and playability. One string can dramatically alter the voice of the instrument. The piano was affected enormously by the advent of steel-wound strings and additions of strings for individual notes, making its dynamic range exponentially deeper.
Connally Music makes particular note of the advent of additional windings. This refers to the outer core being wrapped in another layer of string. Winding made a huge impact on the durability and tonal range of strings. The String Ovation team cites,
“By the 1800s string makers began to experiment with additional windings. Materials like copper and silver were wrapped around the D and G strings, and towards the end of the century, steel was being utilized to create the whole string, especially the E… Crafters understood that other core materials provided increased volume and that windings, including steel, tungsten, and aluminum, produce different tonal qualities.”
The double bass was a special benefactor of this process, as the lower pitches were particularly susceptible to inferior volume and resonance if the strings lacked sufficient girth and strength. Domenico Dragonetti, double bass virtuoso of the late 18th- early 119th century was very picky about the gauge and specifications for his strings. He purchased from Giovanni Battista Romanin and Co. in Italy on a regular basis and was often frustrated by the delay in having orders shipped to England, where he performed most of his professional career. Fiona M. Palmer writes in her biography of Dragonetti,
“In 1839, Dragonetti wrote a strongly worded letter to Romanin, telling him that the last batch of strings had been too thick, and asking him to send two or three dozen ‘cantini’ (first string) made to the precise measurements of the piece of specimen string enclosed” (Palmer, p76)
String construction today still varies greatly depending on the company. Some larger distributors like Martin and D’ Addario rely on mostly automated manufacturing and machine precision to provide consistent results in every purchase, while companies like Pirastro and Aguila Corde are still mainly hand-made, especially in reference to gut strings. What is more important than the various commercial enterprises that flourish due to the demand and economics of string production, is the immense evolution and change to the sounds and technology surrounding music composition as the result of string making development throughout the ages. Some of the biggest changes in human history are represented in the sounds of stringed instruments. Metallurgy, chemical treatment and preservation, machine inventions and industrialization; these have all been bedfellows to the impact they have had on the sounds that play the songs surrounding their inceptions. If you want to think about an example of how impactful the evolution of string making is to what music sounds like today, one need look no further than the electric guitar. Distortion, sound effects, and feedback are all possible because of the specifications that modern string technology adds to this soundscape.
One might compare the musical instrument to the vessel of the string as much as the body is the carrier of the human voice. Strings are ass much the message as the sound box that amplifies it. Today’s listening example is of the Adagio for Strings, by Samuel Barber, Op. 11, from the Summer Night Concert, 2019 at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna/Austria.
Sources for this article:
· StringOvation Team: What is the Difference Among String Types Used”, (Oct 26, 2016) from www.connollymusic.com
· Mimmo Peruffo, “The Italian method of making the strings in whole lamb gut: a story of a rediscovery”, (sourced, 2020) from https://aquilacorde.com/
· Carl Engel, “The Music of the Most Ancient Nations” (London 1870)
· https://www.daddario.com/our-company/
· Patrick Sullivan, “Family Ties: How Pirastro’s Evah Pirazzi Strings Renewed the Family Business”, (June 26th, 2020) from https://stringsmagazine.com/
· Daniel Larson, “Making Gut Strings”, from https://www.gamutmusic.com/new-page
· Fiona M. Palmer, “Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794-1846), (Oxford University Press, 1997)