Violin
Col legno

A marking of col legno (Italian for "with the wood") in the written music calls for striking the string(s) with the stick of the bow, rather than by drawing the hair of the bow across the strings. This bowing technique is somewhat rarely used, and results in a muted percussive sound. The eerie quality of a violin section playing col legno is exploited in some symphonic pieces, notably the "Witches' Dance" of the last movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Saint-Saëns 's symphonic poem Danse Macabre includes the string section using the col legno technique to imitate the sound of dancing skeletons. "Mars" from Gustav Holst's " The Planets " uses col legno to play a repeated rhythm in time signature. Benjamin Britten 's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra demands its use in the " Percussion " Variation. Dmitri Shostakovich uses it in his Fourteenth Symphony in the movement 'At the Sante Jail'. Some violinists, however, object to this style of playing as it can damage the finish and impair the value of a fine bow, but most of such will compromise by using a cheap bow for at least the duration of the passage in question.
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