Subharmonics: violin an octave lower!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I heard from a recent(ish) New Scientist that a New York violinist, Mari Kimura, can get notes one octave lower than normal out of a violin's G string using a special technique she discovered (it's easier or better with older, more used strings), in other words she can get cello-like sounds out of a violin. She's called this "subharmonics".

I found Mari Kimura's webpage (new page, old page for historical interest) and had a listen to some MP3 excerpts from pieces she's composed to demonstrate subharmonics, where you can hear those interesting octave-below sounds, e.g. Caprice for Subharmonic 3rd (there are a few more extracts on that webpage), and she's even produced a CD of her subharmonic works. (UPDATED for Mari's note about the URL change, thanks Mari!)

Fascinating.

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3 Comment(s):

I had the good fortune to stumble onto a performance by Vinny Golia in Los Angeles this spring at
http://www.machineproject.com/difficult/vinnygolia.php
"Machine Project" studio/gallery. He stretches octaves with wind instruments. It was incredible watching (and listening) to him play intruments both rare and common.

(By Mark, at 14 October, 2006 02:42) Edit Comment

Interesting, thanks Mark, would love to have heard that.

(By Improbulus, at 11 December, 2006 20:43) Edit Comment

Hi, it's Mari Kimura here:

I just found this blog by chance, about my technique. Thanks a lot!

One thing, I have moved my URL to:

www.marikimura.com

The old NYU one hasn't been updated for nearly a year now.

Thanks again for your interest!
Cheers
mari

(By Anonymous, at 04 August, 2007 07:49) Edit Comment