String Instruments

Abstract

It is hard to overestimate the importance of the stretched string in music—so many instruments, ancient and modern, use the stretched string as the initial source of sound. The string is used in two different ways, as a percussive string and as a bowed string. A percussive string may be plucked, as in a guitar or harpsichord, or it may be struck, as in a piano. A bowed string is continuously excited by the action of the bow and it produces a sustained sound. This chapter treats the percussive and bowed strings in turn.