A term applied to playing positions on string instruments and on the trombone. (For its application to harmony, see Spacing.) On a string instrument it indicates the placement of the left hand on the fingerboard . On the trombone it refers to the degree of extension of the slide: first position is the ‘home’ position, and each successive position down to the seventh lowers the pitch by a semitone. (For a fuller discussion see Trombone.)
Position changes on instruments of the violin family are usually indicated by composers and theorists by fingerings, with the roman numerals I, II, III, IV designating the four strings (from highest to lowest). In the 17th- and 18th-century French virtuoso viol tradition, exemplified by J.-B. Forqueray and Marin Marais, the number of dots over a note or group of notes designated the desired string, one dot being the highest (see Viol, §5, Table 7). Unless some special effect is desired, however, composers usually leave the choice of positions to players.
On
the violin the 1st position covers a to d' on the g
string, e' to a' on the d' string, and so on. Thus the
violin can be played in a range from (open) g to b'' (on the e''
string) without leaving 1st position. The 2nd position is achieved by moving a
semitone or tone up, so that the first finger on the g string plays b
or b and the fourth
finger on the e'' string plays c''' or c
''' and so on (see Shift). ‘Half’ position lies
between the nut and first position. Leopold Mozart called the 2nd, 4th and 6th
positions collectively ‘halb Applicatur’, the 3rd, 5th and 7th ‘ganz
Applicatur’; the French 18th-century word was ‘ordre’; the English called 2nd
position the ‘half’ shift, 3rd position the ‘whole’ or ‘full’ shift, 6th
position the ‘double’ shift and 7th position the ‘last’ shift.
On the cello only the 1st position permits a diatonic scale of two octaves without shifts, by using the open strings; two complete octaves of C major, D major, D melodic minor and C melodic minor (ascending) can be played, the last three using the ‘extended’ position (a whole tone between first and second fingers). All others in two octaves require shifts or the use of the thumb. Corrette's cello Méthode (1741) described the 4th position as ‘thumb position’, although the Méthode (1772) of Jean-Baptiste Cupis le jeune made no mention of this. Tillière's Méthode (1764) followed Corrette's in calling the 4th a ‘thumb’ position and also indicated the use of the fourth finger in thumb-position arpeggios. In modern terminology all positions on the cello above 4th are called thumb position.
Because of its size the double bass has been the subject of many different fingering systems. Nearly all advocate the use of only the first, second and fourth fingers in the low positions; the third finger serves as a support to the fourth, a tone lying comfortably between 1 and 4. Some players prefer the use of all fingers in all positions, although the stretch of a semitone – the double bass's ‘extended’ fingering – between each finger is frequently impossible. French schools of playing use the term ‘first degree’ to signify the position of the left hand when the first finger is placed a semitone above the nut; the next position, a semitone higher, is called ‘second degree’ and so on (according to the methods of Nanny and Cruft). The Austrian and German schools call first degree the ‘half position’, second degree is called ‘first position’, the positions being denoted by Roman numerals. Confusion arises higher up the instrument when sixth degree is equivalent to III/IV (Simandl, Montag) and to II MP, second ‘medium position’ (Lotter). On the double bass thumb positions are generally used from exactly halfway up the string, when the third finger, being longer, replaces the fourth. In passages of great rapidity or technical difficulty, the thumb may be used to advantage in any part of the instrument.
Before 1600 evidence of playing above 1st position is slight. Some viol treatises (particularly Ganassi's Regola rubertina, 1542–3) mention the possibility, and higher positions are shown in some paintings. In the early 17th century, Monteverdi's music implies shifts to 3rd and 4th positions, and in 1636 Mersenne wrote that the best violin players could reach an octave above the open strings, that is, 4th position. Music by the virtuoso violinist-composers of the late 17th century, such as Uccellini, Biber and J.J. Walther, requires the player to reach as high as the 7th position.
Gradually the use of high positions, even on the lower strings, became normal. Both Leopold Mozart and Geminiani expected good violinists to be able to play up to the 7th position on all strings. Cello sonatas by Dall'Abaco, Lanzetti and Porpora and Haydn's concertos explore the upper positions of the instrument; the sonatas and concertos of Boccherini exploit fully this extended compass.
BoydenH
S. Babitz: Principles of Extensions in Violin Fingering (Los Angeles, 1947)
For further bibliography see Fingering, §II and articles on individual instruments.
SONYA MONOSOFF