Question on keyboard

Hi,

I have a question on keyboard. For instance, I am familiar with the piano, but not so much with other instruments. Let's say we use the cello or violin/viola setting on keyboard - if you press any key and not release it, the sound continues indefinitely (unlike a piano where the sound stops quickly even if you hold the key). Is this realistic, does it actually happen that way in the actual violins, celli etc? I am just trying to get a more realistic picture.

Thanks,

Elysian

No it is not although strings can sustain for a long periods with a changed bow. I would however suggest you not to write like that/

No it is not although strings can sustain for a long periods with a changed bow. I would however suggest you not to write like that/

Thanks, M. I mean a sustained sound like how the 1st mov. of Beethoven's 5th starts - the sounds of the violin extend for a certain duration. EDIT: Is this what you mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowing_%28music%29#Bowing

A solo violin will eventually have to change bow (turn the bow to the other direction). Some great violinists have been known to do that so well, so as the public could not tell when it actually happened. But it's there alright and there's nothing wrong in asking for that.

For a violin section, however, things can be a little different. If you have 10 violins, for example (or 18 for that matter), and each one change bow at a different time, it goes completely unnoticeable, and thus one could assume you get an indefinite... legato (or tenuto). Same goes for a choir. A human must breath, but a choir can breath unsyncronized, thus retaining the sense of continuity.

Moreover, for the strings there are other techniques which will allow the violin to play longer sustained notes, sort of... For example the tremolo (tremoli in plural). You don't get long bows, but very short ones, so you can sustain that for as long as you want (of course it becomes tiring if you over do it).

The 5th Symphony by Beethoven, has a long sustained note after the first three notes. If you're referring to that, I believe that it can be done with a single bow, assuming everything else is a different bow, or a detached bow.

Have a look at what is says on violin bowing in Cecil Forsyth's 'Orchestration' (2nd edition pages 335 to the top of 365.) It goes through a lot of detail describing lots of interesting things about bowing string instruments and the history of bowing them. A very good book, I recommend it to anyone studying composition.