Pizzicato

Pizzicato is a fun word to say—(pits-zi-ka-toe). It has to do with stringed instruments and nothing to do with round crusts topped with tomato sauce and sprinkled with cheese, which does get stringy when baked. Most of them—instruments, not pizzas—are played with a bow. Sometimes, however, they get plucky (brave and bold) and decide to be played by having the musician pluck (see what I did there?) the strings instead of bow them. The result is much different as you will see below. This is a clip from In the Hall of the Mountain King from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg. It begins with the strings playing pizzicato and then later converting to bow. It is interesting and impressive that they hold their bows while performing pizzicato. Also interesting, there is a method of pizzicato that uses the bow, but it is generally done by plucking with fingers.