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col legno

[ koh leyn-yoh; Italian kawl le-nyaw ]

adverb

, Music.
  1. (a direction to play a stringed instrument with the back of the bow rather than the hairs) with the wood.


col legno

/ ˈkɒl ˈleɡnəʊ; ˈleɪnjəʊ /

adverb

  1. music to be played (on a stringed instrument) by striking the strings with the back of the bow
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of col legno1

From Italian
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Word History and Origins

Origin of col legno1

Italian: with the wood
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Example Sentences

Those textures — others come along, including percussive col legno and open fifths that flip steady ground into weightless suspension — glide among the instruments, a vocabulary ordered then reordered, always expressing a fresh thought.

In the finale, he engaged in a musical Simon Says, knocking on the back of his instrument and cuing the second violins to do the same, then setting up col legno tapping in the violas and high-pitched bird calls in the first violins.

It’s not something you want to describe using musical vocabulary; talking about col legno, the use of the wooden part of the bow to create a quiet, sexless sound, is less pertinent than comparing the experience of the piece to walking along a windswept seashore, looking at what the tide has exposed.

The stage was drenched in red light as the band opened up with Burn the Witch, Jonny Greenwood using a bow on his electric guitar to approximate the nervy col legno strings that open the track.

Col legno and other “extended techniques” are a familiar part of contemporary classical music.

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