Strich

As Printed on a Score

Printed over string parts and nearly always qualified: breiter Strich, kurzer Strich, Strich für Strich, or inflected (“breiten Strich!”). It lasts for the passage it qualifies. Aufstrich and Abstrich are up-bow and down-bow; in German performance materials Strich can also mean a cut.

How Composers Use It

Strich describes the stroke — how the bow meets the string — and qualifying it is a precise way to ask for a tone colour: broad strokes give weight and length, short strokes clarity. In German orchestral parts these directions refine or replace Italian and French terms such as détaché. Be specific; Strich alone tells the player nothing.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, first movement, first violins, m. 206: “breiten Strich!” amid “molto cresc.”, reaching ff a bar later.

Related Terms