The old standby for string arrangers struggling to make their creations audible in a crowded musical environment is the high, soaring violins line, often written as a counterpoint to the vocal melody. In order to cut through the sonic fog of distorted guitars, dense keyboard pads, stentorian vocals and thrashing drums, we need something a little less ethereal. These delicate timbres can sound beautiful in a quiet musical setting, but when pitted against a rock band cranking out monster riffs, they fail to make any kind of impression. In Part 3, I spoke about subtle string sonorities such as harmonics, dreamy cluster chords and 'div trems', the latter being string-player-speak for 'divisi tremolo' (a technique where half the players in a section play tremolo and the rest use a straight bowing). But they may not be enough to save the day when disaster strikes… Soaring, anthemic descants and quicksilver runs are the meat and potatoes of old-school string arranging.
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