LilyPond Music Glossary: 1.259 scordatura

## 1.259 scordatura

ES: encordado, I: scordatura, F: à cordes ravallées, D: Skordatur, NL: ?, DK: ?, S: ?, FI: epätavallinen viritys.

[Italian: scordare, ‘to mistune’] Unconventional tuning of stringed instruments, particularly lutes or violins. Used to:

- facilitate pitch combinations that would otherwise be difficult or impossible
- alter the characteristic timbre of the instrument, for example, to increase brilliance
- reinforce certain sonorities or tonalities by making them available on open strings
- imitate other instruments
- etc.

Tunings that could be called scordatura first appeared early in the 16th Century and became commonplace in the 17th.

#### See also

No cross-references.

#### LilyPond — Music Glossary