Highest note in Locatelli?

February 17, 2015 at 10:31 AM · That is stratospherically high... The highest I've come across was a G two octaves and a bit above the E string (I think that's G7 in scientific notation?) but E three octaves above the E string is nigh on unthinkable!

February 17, 2015 at 05:40 PM · The highest stopped note (to my knowledge) is A7 (right at the end of the fingerboard on the E-string. The very last note of Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (although it's difficult to hear, as the orchestra is at full-blast there).

2cm from the bridge on an unstopped note is getting into donkey / hee-haw effects territory :)

February 17, 2015 at 06:15 PM · @Aditya: The 2 cm note would actually be 4 octaves above the open E string, not 3. :)

Same note as if you split the afterlength of the E string in half.

@Jim: You are right about the A7 in Rondo, but there are the B and Cs above that E.g. in Paganini,

or some C8s in Locatelli caprice 22 here on pg. 64:

http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usimg/2/2e/IMSLP108628-PMLP47728-Locatelli_-_L_arte_del_violino_Op3__Franzoni__25_capricci_tolti_dai_12_concerti_for_violin_solo.pdf

The 2cm from bridge would be an octave above the highest piano E, and that is the note I am looking for.

Thanks

February 17, 2015 at 07:52 PM · Thanks, A.O.

I visually scanned my printed copy of the Locatelli Caprices, but I missed it. The incredible 'Labyrinth'.

Some publishers use '8ve' and a series of dashes for the duration, others just use an '8', which is easy to miss.

February 17, 2015 at 11:42 PM · The highest stopped note I've seen in a violin concerto I believe is an A7 in the first movement of the Dvorak.

The highest we were asked to play in a symphony orchestra was the 3rd G on the E-string (would that be G6?). It's right at the very end of the fingerboard of my #1 violin and is not very comfortable to reach, but because of its precise location I can play it in tune (for what that's worth – it's not exactly loud or projecting). My Jay Haide is a shade smaller and that G is on the fingerboard, about 1/4" from the end, so it is easier to reach.

That high G we were asked to play (as in the score)was in a new work, a Tone Poem by a local composer which he'd asked us to play through for the first time ever, sitting beside the conductor making notes as we played. The high G was a sustained note towards the end, to be played ff, and doubling the fortissimo woodwind which included a piccolo. The first desk wasn't having that nonsense, so the word was passed back to play the G a comfortable, and audible, octave lower. The composer never noticed ;)

On several occasions, in the firsts in that particular orchestra's repertoire, I've had to play C6s, D6s and the occasional E6, but those have never been an issue, and anyway it is always possible to prepare such notes in advance or to work up to them scalewise.

Locatelli would have been using gut strings. My experience of a plain gut E is that it gives a clearer tone in the altissimus region than today's steel E does, but then that depends on the quality of the violin, its setup, strings, bow and, most importantly, the player. Unless Locatelli got his luthier to make a longer fingerboard (is there any evidence for this?) he would, with the short Baroque fingerboard of the period, have been playing a significant proportion of his high notes well beyond the end of his fingerboard.

If you want to see what a cellist can get up to in alt here is Janos Starker doing his stuff in the 3rd movement of Kodaly's Op 8 solo cello sonata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCB9X9a77uU.

For some obscure copyright reason YouTube allowed only the last 5 minutes to be shown. Somehow, I can't see that work easily making its way into the violist's repertoire ;)

February 18, 2015 at 12:39 AM · @jim: Labyrinth is caprice 23, not 22. :)

Check my link, page 64. It is written as C7 but has the dashed line with the 8 next to it.

Where is the elusive E9!!!!!!?

Maybe he played it but never wrote it in a composition? Seems likely, or he would have needed about 16 ledger lines!

February 20, 2015 at 12:17 PM · Careful with printed versions, they often re-interpret the shorthand arpeggios of the manuscripts, many of which are available on IMSLP.