Twist (music)

See also: Cord

In Music, and more precisely in Organology, a cord is a Fil (or a cable) under tension, which, put moving, enters in vibration and becomes the seat of a Standing wave producing a its.

In practice, the cords always have their two ends fixed at a solid support. The vibrations are transmitted by a rest in the case of the Violon or directly to a sound body, being able to be the support itself, which plays the part of resonator and amplifier, the Sounding board in the example of the Harpe.

In theory, the height of the sound that they will produce depends only their length, on their tension, and their weight per unit of length. The mathematical formula applies indeed to the cords without stiffness and infinitely thin. As the cords always have a certain stiffness and a certain diameter, the matter of which they are made up has an influence on the harmonic Specter of the sound which they produce, of a all the more dense stamp as the cord is stiff.

Thus a steel cord and a cord of bowel do not have the same stamp. The stamp also evolves/moves according to the tension of the cord, richest being obtained by a too weak tension neither (stamp which one can describe as slackness, tern, trembling, fatty), nor too strong (acid stamp, acre, bright, shining with excess, direct).

Types of cords

The musical cords are several matters:

out of metal: Bronze, Copper, Iron, Brass, Steel;
in bowel;
out of plastic: Nylon;
in Silk…

They are distributed between several types of construction:

simple cord, consisted of a simple wire, only one matter;
plaited catgut string, consisted of a heart around which other wire are rolled up: this process makes it possible to increase the mass linéraire cord without increasing its stiffness appreciably. Heavier, the cord emits a more serious sound.
cord catline, made up of several cords rolled up between them.

Setting in vibration

It can be obtained by:

friction with the assistance:

of a bow (Violin, viola, viols, hurdy-gurdies, Violoncello, Double bass…)
of a Wheel (in the Hurdy-gurdy, for example)

pinching:

by the finger of the Musician (Zither, Guitar, Mandoline, Lute, Théorbe… and the Pizzicato of the instruments with bow)
using a Plectre also called médiator (zither, Harpsichord, virginal, mandoline, guitar…)

striking using one:

hammer (Piano, Vibraphone, Cymbalum…)

Related subjects

Corde sympathetic nerve
String instrument
Archet (music)
the desk of the string instruments
Plectre
Colophane
Ankle
Cordier

Simple: String

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