Driving home just now I was listening to a viola recital on Radio 3 in which a transcription of the Suite no.5 for solo Cello was played. At the end the commentator/compere/continuity-announcer said that this was the only example by JS Bach of . . . then he said a word I can't remember. Could anyone tell me what the missing word was and what it means? (perhaps playing 2 strings at once??)

n.b. for the likes of carol*piano, I can play neither the cello nor the viola (nor the violin) - I only ask for interest!

Playing two strings at once is called double stopping, was that the presenter's missing word???

denmark

But plenty of J S Bach's compositions feature double stopping, not just his cello suites so that can't be right!

I think it might have been scordatura - tuning the string(s) to pitches other than the usual ones (which for cello and viola is C G D A).

Quite possibly double stopping is the answer, except that it was (or at least sounded like) an Italian term. Of course playing 2 strings at once might not be the answer. Whatever it is it might have begun with an S??


AAAAAHHHH!!! That's it - that would explain the next comment he made - something about the player retuning backstage before the next piece!! Thank you!

Almost certainly scordatura then in that case...

Happy to be of help

Only now its occuring to me that, in order to reply to your query, I had to not only explain what ithe word meant, I had to first guess the missing word, too ... blimey, I'm on on form today...

I am really not that scary am I?

Yes!

Thanks! I wanted to update my sig. - was getting bored with the old one.

Oi!
That may be the last time

Sorry

No. You turned over pages for me without audibly groaning even once.
And you were still smiling at the end....

Grovelling is always good

Professional till the end...