Performing the Devilish Scordatura Violin Solos in Mahler 4
Violinist William Shaub plays on one of the finest violins in the world – an 1865 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. When he takes the stage of the Tennessee Theatre on January 25-26 as Concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, he will carry his beloved Vuillaume. But a second violin will await him, carefully placed on a bench near his orchestral chair. And for this added layer of orchestral complexity, we can thank composer Gustav Mahler, whose Symphony No. 4 is about to be heard in Knoxville for the first time in over 20 years.
It’s hard to imagine why a composer would require a single violinist to perform on two instruments over the course of one symphony. Was Mahler a sadist? Genius? Prankster? All of the above?
I’m going with genius. You see, Mahler wrote a violin solo for his fourth symphony, but he didn’t want it to sound like any ordinary violin solo. He wanted it to sound like a fiddle. And a "deathly" sounding fiddle at that.
Mahler’s widow, Alma, believed a 1872 painting by Swiss artist Arnold Bocklin entitled "Self-Portrait with Death playing the Fiddle" inspired the eerie violin solos, which appear in the second-movement scherzo.
Left, "Self-Portrait with Death playing the Fiddle" by Arnold Böcklin, 1872, Berlin: Alte Nationalgalerie; right, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster William Shaub.)
Mahler went about creating that eerie sound by by requiring the solo violin to be tuned completely differently than a regular violin. Shaub’s Vuillaume strings will be pitched, from bottom to top, at G, D, A, and E – which is how violins are supposed to be tuned. Shaub’s second violin, which he will pick up for the deathly solos, will be ratcheted one step higher, so, A, E, B, and F sharp.
This alternate method of tuning, called scordatura (or "discord," in English), has been used as far back as the Baroque period. It’s a rarity, however, and poses myriad problems. The first is that the music is notated based on the notes the violinist expects to hear when placing down fingers on a properly tuned violin.
Let’s have Shaub explain. "If I put my index finger down on the second string of my regular violin, I get a B natural. If I put my index finger down on the second string of my alternatively tuned violin, I get a C sharp."
Rather than ask the violinist to abandon decades of muscle memory, Mahler writes the notes based on the fingerings. Shaub continues, "Mahler knows a violinist who sees a printed B natural will automatically put down his first finger on the second string. So, if Mahler wants to hear a C sharp, he prints a B natural. Bottom line – the notes I see printed on the page are not the notes I hear."
This is confusing, at best, and a nightmare, at worst, for those players with perfect pitch. Further, by being tuned to a higher level than the violin was designed to be tuned, the violin’s sound becomes more strident and intense. Which is exactly what Mahler is going for.
As Shaub explains, "This particular scordatura gives the violin a darker quality, one in which the violin becomes a character in the piece – a character that is a bit more sinister." In this context, Shaub must become an actor playing a part, rather than simply a violinist playing his instrument.
Shaub is fortunate to have a violin shop directly across the street from the Tennessee Theater. Luthier Wesley Rule of Knoxville Fine Violins loaned Shaub an instrument that was up to this daunting task – a modern Italian violin dated 1915 (yes, that is modern in violin years).
Says Shaub, "Tuning upwards like this, you lose a lot of what is good about the violin’s sound. The higher-tuned instrument equalizes the sound from violin to violin, and not in a good way. You need to start with a healthy instrument that can take the extra pressure. And then hope to heaven your E string doesn’t break under the strain!"
A few other distinguishing features of Mahler’s fourth. It is about an hour in length, making it one of Mahler’s shorter symphonies. It features a soprano soloist in the final movement – Laura Strickling for the KSO performances. The orchestration is smaller and somewhat classical in feel, but features sleighbells as an enchanting flavor. And members of the brass and wind sections will be on prominent display. (Spoiler alert: The horn solos are tremendous!)
Mahler said of his Symphony No. 4 that it is "quite fundamentally different from my other symphonies. But that must be. I could never repeat a state of mind – and as life drives on, so too I follow new tracks in every work."
And we, dear Gustav, will be right behind you.
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For information about the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's performances of Mahler Symphony no. 4 on January 25-26, please click here. This story first appeared in Arts Knoxville. The original article can be viewed here.
You might also like:
- Scordatura in Mahler 4: There’s a Skeleton in My Ear
- Violinist William Shaub: Recital Programming for the 21st Century
- Los Angeles Philharmonic's Mahler Project; Martin Chalifour on Mahler 4
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I enjoyed your article, Diana. I'm surprised though that Knoxville has not heard Mahler's 4th for 20 years. Were I within reach, I'd be in the audience: this symphony transports audiences to a 'himmlischen freuden' so I hope you find the time for a further report once the music lets you return to earth!
Albrecht - I don't think anyone need worry about stress on the instrument. Over the last 500 years violins have been tuned (and mistuned!) in all sorts of ways and I'm sure the design is fundamentally robust enough to cope with a mere two semitones increase in pitch. The strings likewise.
Biber in his sonatas calls for many kinds of scordatura far more radical than Mahler's, each one notated as if the strings are tuned in the usual manner. I think trying to play Mahler's part on an uptuned violin from music notated at concert pitch would be far more stressful for the player!
I was going to go with Mahler as a "sadist" after reading your article! But after listening to the music on youtube, I have to agree with genius. Wish that I could experience the 'himmlischen freuden' in person.
Albrecht: I think a player could certainly write it out, but I agree with Steve's comment below. And I defer to him on the gut string question as well. As a side comment, I sent this article to the principal horn in the KSO who quipped that he performs scordatura every time he puts a finger down on a valve. ("Don't get me started on transposition issues," he wrote!)
Richard: I do look forward to being transported to heaven! And I do wish you lived closer. Thank you, as always, for the lovely comment!
Steve: Thanks for stepping in and responding to Albrecht where my knowledge left off!
Teresa: I wish for that as well!
Have a look, and a listen...
A wonderful symphony, the first Mahler symphony I ever heard when my mum bought a record many years ago.
I played that solo when we did the symphony a few years back - but my second violin sadly was not an Italian instrument. The scordatura was tricky at first attempt, I have perfect pitch, but you very quickly adapt. The solo is far from devilishly difficult to play.
Good fun, I'd love to do it again.
Ann, I loved your comment and the warm memory about your first hearing of the symphony! Will told me the solo basically doesn't go out of third position and that it's not particularly difficult on its own. Sounds like the challenges are more in the switching from one violin to another and just the whole "scordatura" thing with the notation. (Will says he doesn't have perfect pitch, but does have absolute/relative pitch, so it does pose some issues.) I hope you have the opportunity to play it again!!!
I think Mahler had a precedent in Mozart's Snfonia Coocertante, and might have been intending for the violin to be affected in a similar way to which Mozart's viola is affected by the semitone rise in tuning. My teacher thought tuning the viola up a semitone did improve things, even though the instrument she played was a Richardson (I couldn't cope with it myself - Unlike JSB and WAM, I don't have the mental discipline to compensate for my now even worse because unreliable absolute pitch (i.e., I had perfect pitch, that made things near enough impossible, but it's now just pseudoperfect) - She had a good relative pitch).
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January 23, 2024 at 03:37 AM · Two questions:
1. If the scordatura is too stressful: Could the player rewrite the solo as it sounds and play it that way. Reading it would be similar to the change from violin to viola, no?
2. In Mahler's time the strings would have been gut strings. Am I right that this would make the stress on the instrument less severe?