Don't play any string instrument myself, but i'm using a violin in an arrangement of a piece, and i'm wondering two things.

Can the violin change the dynamics, like crescendo/diminuendo in the middle of the note without starting a new one? (I know the piano can't, but wind instruments can..)

And can the violin slur a note from arco to pizzicato? Or does there need to be a short rest, like crotchet between any arco/pizzicato crosses?

:]

Yes, you can change dynamics in the middle of a note, but it might be hard (to do and to discern) unless it were a fairly long one.

Slur from arco to pizz I can't see being possible. I can't do it very well with my bow hand yet as you have to change position a little. Maybe someone more advanced might be able to, but the whole note is produced by a different mechanism, so I really can't see this working. Maybe someone else can comment more??

i have trouble imagining how pizzicato notes could be slurred at all. surely the nature of the technique precludes any slurring (at least in the way it's normally interpreted on the violin)--it's staccato almost by definition. on the guitar, maybe it's possible...

Ah, but you can slur a normal note onto stacatto.

Thanks everyone, you've answered my questions. :]

With strings, this would be hooked bowing, which is two or more staccato notes played on the same bow stroke, but they naturally wouldn't slur into each other - there would be a slight bow lift involved and thus distinct notes.

huh, i was wondering if there was a name for that. i just call it 'jig bowing' ;-)

That's what it says in 'Essential Elements for Strings', but it is an American series and they often use different words from us in musical theory etc, so I don't know if it's right here. I'll ask my teacher next week, if I remember!!

With hooked bowing i don't really lift the bow, its more a slight pressure with your bowing index finger.

Also fabnt, you can go from arco to pizz, but not slurred and you don't have to leave a crotchet rest, just make sure that the note before the pizz is an upbow so you're at the heel and then move your right hand fast ti do the pizz.

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Or do left hand pizzicato - but it's still not possible to slur it.

I can think of two ways to slur onto pizzicato:

1) Play the slurred passage on an up bow and finish with a pizzicato using the nut, specifically the metal surrounding the hair where the latter disappears into its fastening;

2) Do the pizzicato with the left hand, with any finger not on the string.

The first always worries me, because I think of damage being done to the string, but there is probably much less in reality than in my imagination. The second may need a bit of practice, especially if the pizz. note needs to be fingered, but I have used l.h. pizz. on an open string because the note came too soon after a phrase needing a down bow.