Drama

Musical

Example

Drama Secret

Score

Drama Music/

Score

Color

Strings

Another way of sustaining tension and anticipation is with orchestral color. Nothing quite sustains tension as well as the bowed tremolo - performed by the strings. Let's listen to what that sounds like:

Here, the violins and violas are simply performing a tremolo on the root note of our C diminished scale - the note C. This effect can be used to support virtually any melody and orchestration.