Extended techniques
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Extended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres.[1]
Composers’ use of extended techniques is not specific to contemporary music (for instance, Hector Berlioz’s use of col legno in his Symphonie Fantastique is an extended technique) and it transcends compositional schools and styles. However, use of these techniques appeared less frequently in the common practice period (c. 1600–1900) than in modern classical music since about 1900. Extended techniques have also flourished in popular music, which is typically less constrained by notions of "proper" technique than is traditional orchestral music. Nearly all jazz performers make significant use of extended techniques of one sort or another, particularly in more recent styles like free jazz or avant-garde jazz. Musicians in free improvisation have also made heavy use of extended techniques.
Most contemporary composers strive to explore the possibility of different instruments, cooperating with musicians in order to expand the "vocabulary" of given instruments. This undoubtedly increases the diversity of instrumental colors for contemporary pieces. However, some extended techniques are exceedingly difficult to master, or require instruments in uncommonly good condition; instruments are sometimes custom made to explore extended techniques.
Examples of extended techniques include bowing under the bridge of a string instrument or with two different bows, using key clicks on a wind instrument, blowing and overblowing into a wind instrument without a mouthpiece, or inserting object on top of the strings of a piano.
Twentieth-century exponents of extended techniques include Henry Cowell (use of fists and arms on the keyboard, playing inside the piano), John Cage (prepared piano), and George Crumb. The Kronos Quartet, which has been among the most active ensembles in promoting contemporary American works for string quartet, frequently plays music which stretches the manner in which sound can be drawn out of instruments.
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[edit] Examples
[edit] Vocal
- Sprechstimme (speech-singing)
- overtone singing (harmonic singing, or vocal multiphonics)
- ululation
- beatboxing (vocal percussionists)
- growling
- screaming and shouting
- whispering
- panting
- whistling
- hissing
- clucking
- barking
- sucking
[edit] String instruments
- sul ponticello and sul tasto bow placement
- col legno
- microtones
- exaggerated tremolo or vibrato
- snap pizzicato, also called Bartók pizzicato
- tapping or rubbing the soundboard of stringed instruments
- scordatura
- slide guitar
- prepared guitar
- tapping on the fingerboard
- "3rd Bridge", a guitar technique using the part of the string between the nut and the stopping finger; see Xenakis' cello piece Alpha nomos for a similar effect.
- bowed guitar
[edit] Piano
- prepared piano, i.e., introducing foreign objects into the workings of the piano to change the sound quality
- string piano, i.e., striking, plucking, or bowing the strings directly, or any other direct manipulation of the strings
- whistling, singing or talking into the piano
- silently depressing one or more keys, allowing the corresponding strings to vibrate freely, allowing sympathetic harmonics to sound
- touching the strings at node points to create flageolet tones
- percussive use of different parts of the piano, such as the outer rim
- microtones
- use of the palms, fists, or external devices to create tone clusters
- use of other materials to strike the keys
[edit] Woodwind or brass instruments
- overblowing
- exaggerated brass head-shakes
- activating keys or valves without blowing
- combination of a mouthpiece of one instrument with the main body of another, for example, using an alto saxophone mouthpiece on a standard trombone.
- turning the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument upside-down and playing as normal.[citation needed]
- microtones
- breath technique or articulation: multiphonics, flutter-tonguing, continuous breathing or circular breathing, brass half-valve playing, humming while blowing, double buzz, blowing a disengaged mouthpiece or reed, unusual mutes, slap tonguing. Also, breath attack where the instrumentalist doesn't produce a note, but makes an airy, wind-like sound through the instrument.
- singing through the instrument while playing
[edit] Percussion
- rudimental or "dynamic" double bass on the drum set, using hand rudiments such as double stroke rolls and flam taps and playing them with the feet
- stacking 2 or more cymbals one on top of the other to change the sound properties of the instrument
- custom-built percussion mallets, occasionally made for vibraphone or tubular bells (and other pitched-percussion in increasingly rare circumstances) which feature more than one mallet-head, and so are capable of producing multiple pitches and difficult chords (though usually only the chords they were designed to play). These mallets are seldom used, and percussionists sometimes make them themselves when they are needed. When implemented, they are usually only used once or twice in an entire work, and are alternated with conventional mallets; usually they are used only when playing a different instrument in each hand.
- bowed vibraphone, cymbals, and gongs
[edit] Electronic
- added electronics or MIDI control
- Turntablism
- Circuit bending
[edit] Other instruments
[edit] Notable composers
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[edit] Notable performers
[edit] Guitar
[edit] Harp
[edit] Voice
[edit] Piano
[edit] Saxophone
- Peter Brötzmann
- Ornette Coleman
- Mats Gustafsson
- Rahsaan Roland Kirk
- Evan Parker
- Ned Rothenberg
- Skerik
- John Zorn
[edit] Trombone
[edit] Cello
[edit] Violin
[edit] Flute
[edit] Bass
[edit] Drums and percussion
[edit] Other
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Stuart Dempster's The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms, ISBN 0-520-03252-7.
- Patricia and Allen Strange's The Contemporary Violin, ISBN 0-520-22409-4, and other books in The New Instrumentation series.
- Bertram Turetzky's The Contemporary Contrabass ISBN 0-520-06381-3.
- Michael Edward Edgerton's The 21st Century Voice, ISBN 0-8108-5354-X, and other books in The New Instrumentation series. Scarecrow Press, 2005.
[edit] External links
- Making Noise: Extended Techniques after Experimentalism
- Woodwind Fingering charts
- New Sounds for Flute by Mats Möller
- Guide How to Prepare a Guitar on hypercustom.com
- The Orchestra: A User's Manual by Andrew Hugill with The Philharmonia Orchestra. Includes definitions, descriptions and video interviews of extended techniques for most all common orchestral instruments.
- oddmusic A website dedicated to unique, odd, ethnic, experimental and unusual musical instruments and resources.
- Audio Interview to Margaret Leng Tan: Through the silence. John Cage in Memoriam 1912-1992, La Biennale, Venice, 2007. Toy and Prepared Piano
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