PIZZICATO (Ital. for ‘pinched
’). On the violin, and other instruments of the violin-tribe, a note or a passage is said to be played pizzicato if the string is set in vibration not by the bow, but by being pinched or plucked with the finger. The pizzicato is used as much in orchestral and chamber music as in solo pieces. A well-known instance of effective orchestral pizzicato occurs in the scherzo of Beethoven's C minor Symphony, just before the entry...
