A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pizzicato

PIZZICATO (Ital. for 'pinched'). On the violin, and other instruments of the violin-tribe, a note or a passage is said to be played pizzicato if the string is set in vibration not by the bow, but by being pinched or plucked with the finger. The pizzicato is used as much in orchestral and chamber music as in solo pieces. A well-known instance of effective orchestral pizzicato occurs in the scherzo of Beethoven's C minor Symphony, just before the entry of the finale, and also in the adagio of the same master's B♭ Symphony. The canzonetta in Mendelssohn's Quartet in E♭, op. 12, affords an illustration of its use in chamber-music. In solo-playing a distinction is made between the pizzicato executed with the left, and that with the right hand. The former one is more frequently used, but not so much in classical as in brilliant modern pieces. Paganini made an extensive use of it, either by playing a pizzicato accompaniment to a tune played with the bow (a), or in quick passages with arco notes interspersed (b) and (c).

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(The notes marked * to be played pizzicato with the left hand.)

A natural harmonic note, when played pizzicato, produces an effect very similar to that of a note on the harp. Sterndale Bennett makes use of it in the serenade of his Chamber-Trio. There is, however, hardly another instance of this effect to be found. [App. p.749 "Add that early instances of the use of this effect are to be found in Handel's 'Agrippina,' 'Pastor Fido,' 'Terpsichore,' and in an air by Hasse, written for Mingotti in 1748."]

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