Gestrichen

As Printed on a Score

Printed over a string part, alone (bowed, as opposed to plucked) or qualified (breit, kurz, lang, markiert gestrichen). The same participle appears in pitch names (eingestrichen, zweigestrichen, the octave registers) and can mean cut in performance materials; context makes these obvious.

How Composers Use It

Gestrichen describes how a passage is bowed, and its qualifiers do the real work: breit gestrichen for weight, kurz gestrichen for crisp separation, lang gestrichen for sustained strokes. Bruckner and Mahler write these into their string parts to fix tone colour. Used alone after pizzicato it means arco, but arco is the clearer word for that job.

Example

Bruckner, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, second movement (Adagio), first violins, m. 37: “gestrichen”, four bars after “breit gestrichen” (m. 33).

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