Violin intonation on the harmonics), losing the desired tone, brilliance and intonation. String longevity depends on string quality and playing intensity. A violin is tuned in fifths, in the notes G, D, A, E. The lowest note of a violin, tuned normally, is G, or G below middle C. (On rare occasions, the lowest string may be tuned down by as much as a fourth, to D.) The highest note is less well defined: E, the E two octaves above the open string (which is tuned to E) may be considered a practical limit for orchestral violin parts, but it is
Violin Concerto No. 1 (Paganini) orchestra compared to the solo violin, because the orchestral string section plays less frequently on open strings, with the result that the solo violin part emerges more clearly and brightly from the orchestral accompaniment. Contemporary audiences did not realise that Paganini had retuned his instrument, and were thus all the more amazed at what he appeared able to play. (The more musically adept members of the audience would have recognised the distinctive sound of a violin's open string, and would have observed that this fell on the keynote of work (E-flat), and would have therefore realised that Paganini had re-tuned