Mutes on
A damper is attached to the bridge to mute the sound. Notated: con sord
(Germ. mit Dämpfer). There are two types of mute: the clamp type (Ma Sihon) which is placed on the bridge, and the sliding type (Roth-Sihon) which is permanently attached to the strings. It is usually best to allow about 5 seconds for players to put on or remove a mute.
con sord, piano
con sord, forte
Mutes off
The mute is removed. Notated: senza sord. No need to specify this unless a muted passage has preceded.
Natural Harmonics
The string is lightly fingered at a nodal point to
produce a "fluted" sound. The notation of natural harmonics is often
inconsistent. Frequently it is either just a circle over the note,
as shown above, or the word harm, or indeed a diamond notehead to
indicate finger position, or some combination of the above! To be
completely accurate, a harmonic would be notated thus:
Here, the large round notehead indicates the
fundamental (open C-string in this case), the diamond notehead
indicates the finger position and the small note in brackets
is the resulting sound. However, violists would probably
regard this as over-fussy for a straightforward natural harmonic and would prefer a small circle over the note.
There are more natural harmonics, but these are relatively
unreliable.
Artificial Harmonics
The string is stopped normally, and then fingered (with the little
finger) at a point a 4th or a 5th above the stopped note. The same
notational practices apply for artificial harmonics as for natural
harmonics. Note that in the example shown the first will produce a
note 2x8ves above the stopped note, the second an 8ve+5th above the
stopped note. Often a small notehead in brackets is used to indicate
the sounding result. Where the word flag (= "flageolet") is written
over the note, a whispered bowing might help the 'whistling' sound,
but this instruction can also mean, quite simply, 'harmonic'. It is
possible to add vibrato and to play melodic lines in artificial harmonics,
but both techniques should be used with care. Two rarer artificial
harmonics are min 3rd above stop (gives 2x8ves+5th);
maj 3rd above stop (gives 2x8ves+maj 3rd)
Vibrato on artificial harmonics: