Strich für Strich

As Printed on a Score

Printed over string parts, typically at a loud passage of repeated or accented notes, telling players to ignore any slurring habit. It lasts until a slur or a new bowing word resumes.

How Composers Use It

Each note gets its own bow change: separate strokes, no slurring, no hooking two notes in one direction. That gives every note full weight and attack, which is why Mahler uses it at fortissimo climaxes. It is a more emphatic German equivalent of détaché. Write it rather than relying on the absence of slurs, since players slur by habit in fast passages.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, third movement (Scherzo), first violins, m. 686: “Strich für Strich” after a ff, with sf accents in the bars that follow.

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