Strings are the most versatile instruments in the orchestra. Understanding their ranges, techniques, and characteristic sounds is the first step in orchestration.
THE STRING SECTION
The string section is the backbone of the orchestra — the largest section by player count and the most flexible by technique. A standard symphony orchestra has approximately 16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, and 8 double basses. This preponderance reflects an acoustic reality: strings have a smaller dynamic range than brass or percussion, and numbers are needed to balance the orchestra.
The four bowed string instruments share the same fundamental construction (resonating wooden box, gut or synthetic strings, played with a horsehair bow) but differ dramatically in size, range, and character.
THE VIOLIN
The violin is the highest-pitched and most agile string instrument. Its range extends from G3 (the lowest open string) to approximately E7 in professional hands — over three octaves with full command of every semitone. The violin's four strings are G, D, A, and E (from lowest to highest).
Each string has a distinct character that orchestrators exploit. The G string has a warm, almost dark quality; Beethoven's famous violin melody in the Kreutzer Sonata exploits this. The D string is round and singing. The A string is brilliant. The E string, the highest, can be ravishingly sweet at piano or piercing at forte.
The violin's upper register, above approximately A6, becomes increasingly difficult to control and has an increasingly tense, "screaming" quality that Bartók and Shostakovich used to specific dramatic effect.
THE VIOLA
The viola is larger than the violin but not proportionally larger — which gives it its characteristic slightly nasal, slightly dark quality. The viola's four strings are C, G, D, and A (a fifth below the violin). Its range extends from C3 to approximately D6.
The viola is often used to fill inner harmonies — a function that has given it an undeserved reputation as unimportant. In the hands of Brahms, Dvorak, or Britten, the viola is a primary voice with a distinctive, searching quality unlike any other instrument. The bottom register (C and G strings) is particularly characteristic — rich and slightly husky.
THE CELLO
The cello (violoncello) is the tenor and baritone of the string family. Its four strings are C, G, D, and A (an octave below the viola), giving it a range from C2 to approximately G5. The cello's full, warm lower register and singing upper register make it the most vocally expressive of the string instruments — the instrument most comparable to the human voice.
Composers frequently give the cello the melody while violins and violas provide harmonic support. The famous cello theme in Dvorak's "New World" Symphony (second movement) or the cello solo in Elgar's Cello Concerto demonstrate the instrument's extraordinary singing capacity.
THE DOUBLE BASS
The double bass is the foundation of the string section and, indeed, of the entire orchestra. Its four strings are E, A, D, and G (an octave below the cello), with some instruments having a fifth low C string. Its range extends from E1 (or C1 with the fifth string) to approximately C4.
The double bass speaks slowly and less precisely than other strings — its thick strings require time to respond. High passages are difficult and rarely used except for special effect. The bass typically doubles the cello an octave lower, providing harmonic grounding. When bassists are given independent material, the effect is always conspicuous.
BOWING TECHNIQUES
The character of string sound is fundamentally determined by bowing technique:
Arco: bowed normally — the default.
Pizzicato: plucked with the finger. Creates a dry, percussive sound. At piano, intimate; at forte, surprisingly powerful. Tchaikovsky's Pizzicato Ostinato (Third Suite) builds an entire movement from this technique.
Sul ponticello: bowed near the bridge, producing a glassy, harmonics-rich tone.
Sul tasto: bowed near or over the fingerboard, producing a soft, hollow, flute-like tone.
Col legno: struck with the wood of the bow. Produces a dry, ghostly click.
Tremolo: very rapid repeated bowing on a single pitch. Creates a shimmering, agitated texture — the orchestra's most common expression of tension.
Harmonics: lightly touching the string at a nodal point produces a high, glassy, ethereal pitch. Natural harmonics (on open strings) are more reliable; artificial harmonics (on stopped strings) are more flexible.
Spiccato, sautillé, jeté: bouncing bow techniques that produce light, dancing articulations — essential for Baroque and Classical style.
DIVISI AND MULTIPLE STOPS
When a section is divided into two or more independent parts (divisi), each part can play different material. This allows a 16-violin section to produce 2, 4, or more independent voices — creating rich chordal textures. Brahms and Mahler exploit divisi to build harmonically dense string writing.
Multiple stops — two, three, or four strings played simultaneously — produce chords on a single instrument. Double stops require both notes to be playable simultaneously on adjacent strings. Chords of three or four notes are partially arpeggiated (all four strings cannot be bowed simultaneously) except in special techniques.
VIBRATO AND PORTAMENTO
String tone is shaped fundamentally by the left hand as well as the right. Vibrato — the small oscillation of pitch around a sustained note — was historically a coloristic device added selectively, but in the early twentieth century it became near-continuous in orchestral playing. Composers can request "non vibrato" or "senza vibrato" to call back the earlier, plainer sound, a request frequent in the music of Penderecki, Ligeti, and Saariaho. Portamento — sliding audibly between two pitches — was once routine in orchestral playing (audible in many early-twentieth-century recordings of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler) and was largely banished by the mid-twentieth century as conductors pursued cleaner ensemble. Mahler explicitly asks for portamenti in many passages, and historically informed performance now reintroduces them.
TRANSPOSITION AND CLEF CONVENTIONS
Strings, unlike many wind instruments, are not transposing instruments — they sound at written pitch. They do, however, use multiple clefs. Violin uses treble clef exclusively. Viola uses the alto clef as its home clef, switching to treble clef in high passages. Cello uses bass clef as its home, moving to tenor clef in mid-high passages and treble clef in the highest passages. Double bass uses bass clef but sounds one octave lower than written — making it a transposing instrument by octave. Score reading at the orchestral level requires fluency in all four clefs simultaneously.
THE STRING SECTION SEATING AND ITS ACOUSTICS
Modern orchestral seating divides into two main traditions. American seating places first violins, second violins, violas, and cellos in a fan from left to right (or first violins, seconds, cellos, violas in some configurations), with basses behind. European antiphonal seating splits first and second violins on opposite sides of the conductor — a tradition restored by conductors such as Klemperer and now Roger Norrington for music written before about 1925, when antiphonal divisions in the score were composed with that spatial split in mind. Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler all heard their music with antiphonal violins; many passages (Beethoven Symphony No. 5, finale; Brahms Symphony No. 4, first movement) are obscured when both violin sections sit together.
COMMON STRING ORCHESTRATION MISTAKES
Beginning orchestrators frequently overload the violins, leaving violas and cellos to play uninteresting filler — a habit Brahms specifically opposed in his own scores. Another common error is writing rapid passagework in the cello's high register, where the instrument speaks more slowly than its tone might suggest; the same passage moved down an octave plays cleanly. Writing chords with awkward double-stops — intervals that violinists must "force" with the bow — produces ugly results; orchestrators must learn which double-stops sit comfortably on each instrument. Finally, asking the entire section to play extremely soft pizzicato while the brass plays forte simply does not work: the pizzicato disappears entirely.
WHAT THE GREAT ORCHESTRATORS DID WITH STRINGS
Rimsky-Korsakov in "Principles of Orchestration" describes strings as "the fundamental basis of the orchestra," noting their unique ability to sustain any dynamic across any register without strain. Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloé" uses divisi strings of up to eight independent parts to create shimmering atmospheric textures. Strauss in "Metamorphosen" writes for 23 solo strings, treating each player as an independent voice. Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht" begins as a string sextet and was later expanded for string orchestra. Each of these works rewards extended score study with recording in hand.
EXERCISE: RANGE AND REGISTER
Sketch the range of each string instrument on a single staff (use any notation you have access to, even informal pitch names). For each instrument, identify: the "sweet spot" of the range where the instrument sings most naturally; the top and bottom registers where the sound becomes extreme; and one famous orchestral or solo passage that demonstrates the instrument's characteristic voice. Use IMSLP to find scores. As a second exercise, take the opening of the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (strings and harp only) and identify exactly how the four string sections distribute the harmony — which section has the melody, which has the bass, which the inner voices, and where do the doublings reinforce the line?