Air on the G String Air on the G String "Air on the G String" is August Wilhelmj's arrangement of the second movement in Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068. The arrangement differs from the original in that the part of the first violins is transposed down so that it can be played entirely on a violin's lowest string, "i.e.", the G string. It is played by a single violin (instead of by the first violins as a group). Bach's third Orchestral Suite in D major, composed in the first half of the 18th century, has an "Air" as
Violin technique other strings are not so equipped. The A string is tuned first to a reference pitch source such as a tuning fork or, in most orchestras, the oboe, typically to 440 Hz, although some orchestras tune to another standard A such as 442, or even as high as 445 or 446 Hz to produce a brighter sound. Early music groups interested in authentic performance may use a lower standard A. When playing with a fixed-pitch instrument such as a piano or accordion, the violinist must tune to accommodate that instrument. The other strings are then tuned to the A in