Pros and Cons of the Homogenous Sound of the String Section

The orchestral string section has a few sonic properties that set it apart from the rest of the orchestral sections.

One of them is the incredible homogeneity of their sound. The sound quality of strings practically doesn't change over the entire range of the section, but also the individual range or even the dynamic range of the instruments. This is more or less the complete opposite of the heterogenous sound colours found in the Woodwind section or the dramatic change in harmonic structure found in the dynamic range of brass instruments.

This specific property comes with advantages and disadvantages.

On the pro side, it is practically impossible to imbalance a string chord "by accident". As long as you stay within reasonable confinements, you will end up with a homogenous sounding end result. At its best, you can create an incredibly sonorous layer of strings where all the voices seemingly melt together as one unified whole.

On the down side, this means that you need to actually put quite some effort into keeping the sound of the string section fresh if you rely heavily on it. This is particularly true when it is not possible or not desirable to use all the many different playing techniques this section has to offer.

The most common source for such problems would be emotional/romantic/melancholic strings only pieces or passages where you rely on a similar texture for quite some time and still want to keep the sound interesting. In such cases the homogeneity of the strings can be problematic as you need to source the "freshness" of sound from other things than the sound.

A great way to learn how to stay interesting in such cases is to study similar pieces. One of my favourite examples is Anakin's Theme by John Williams which after the Woodwind Intro relies heavily on the strings and still manages to stay interesting texturally. Also, Williams uses more or less every "arrangement trick" to get the last bit of textural variety out of the strings, namely:

• Move around in the absolute range. Of course the higher you go, the more brillance you will get from the strings, using this to shape the dramaturgy of the piece as he does here with the climax of the piece falling together with the highest notes in the piece
• Use the few registral areas where individual sections develop characteristic sounds. Namely those are the mid to high registers in the Celli which create a strong very expressive sound as well as the dark low registers of the Violins. If you listen carefully you will notice side lines in the high Celli cutting through the general string texture. It also occurs here that Williams doubles the Violins an octave lower with the Celli in the second iteration of the theme which changes the sound characteristic of the melody. In these cases the Violas end up below the Celli which however is no big problem in this case as this decision clearly follows a purpose.
• Drop the Basses once in a while for dramatic effect. I mentioned this a while ago in another post how effective it can be to clear out the lowest register for a while in order to create a dramatic effect once this register comes back in. If you listen carefully to Anakin's Theme you will notice how often this happens here. In general, the low "boomy" end of the Double Basses offers great potential of shaping the impression of the sound when leaving them out. Having the Celli carry the bass function works great in softer passages where the presence of the Basses would overwhelm the sound.

I recommend listening to the piece in several passes paying attention to the points mentioned above individually. For personal practice I can strongly recommend trying to write a piece for strings only without relying on constant playing technique changes but rather trying to shape the sound with the points mentioned above.