A professional will strive to play in tune at all times, and will strive to take care of his or her instrument so that it plays well at all times. For these reasons, the professional will usually seek other ways within the section to play the scordatura passages, if possible, or will use a cheaper instrument, already mis-tuned, for necessary scordatura passages....
Certainly in the Mahler, (where the effect the solo player will pick up a second instrument. The soloist in the Saint-Saens will either pick up a second instrument or walk off stage to retune (or, most likely, walk off-stage to get a second instrument and to come back for a solo bow!) In neither case will they have to tune/retune onstage while the music is going on.
And for Haydn's 60th, where the notation is traditionally interpreted as requiring the vns. to actually bring the string up to pitch while bowing?
I might mention that historically scordatura has indeed been almost entirely a solo effect--and in that regard it is not at all helpful to talk about substituting a viola when one is playing a violin sonata. Furthermore, much historical scordatura was not about reaching extra low notes, but allowing unorthodox chord voicings in multiple-stops, or to get the sound of open strings on other pitches than the conventional ones.
Finally, it should be noted that plain gut strings are far more tolerant of scordatura than nylon/wire/wrapped ones. I publish a 19th-c. work for solo violin in which the player is asked to tune the G string down a full octave for part of the piece! The composer was himself a highly accomplished violinist, so there's no question but that he knew what he was doing.
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Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
