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There's a kind of music that characteristically features short, fast notes on pizzicato strings, marked bass rhythm, and accompanied by orchestra, mostly long notes by the strings, such as, for example,

Does this style of music have a name? What genre does it belong to?

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  • I do not believe there is any special term for this. Pizzicato playing in string ensembles has been used by composers in all style periods throughout history. It is merely a playing technique used within a composition; it doesn't represent its own style or genre.
    – user546
    Nov 26, 2015 at 18:36
  • @WheatWilliams Yes, I know that – but for example, Sibelius' 2nd Symphony, or Strauss' Pizzicato-Polka are quite different from the compositions mentioned in my question, which share many other features besides the pizzicato.
    – JMVanPelt
    Nov 26, 2015 at 18:56

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At the risk of giving an underwhelming answers -- and bear in mind that music styles are subjective and overlapping -- after reading your question, listening to the tracks, and reviewing various articles, I think the style would simply be described as the intersection of the following:

You could add orchestra or instrumental to the list, but that's embedded in Neoclassical. I don't believe there's a special name for the intersection of those 3 categorizations.

You could call it Neoclassical-Pizzicato Soundtrack music. Still, this fails to capture the specification of it being particularly upbeat and having a quick tempo, but I don't see any applicable label with that level of specificity.

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  • Yes, I agree that perhaps there's no term for this kind of music. Nevertheless, the fact that the three pieces I mentioned as an example are very similar to each other makes me think that, if not a "genre", maybe there was an archetipical piece from where these (and many others) got their inspiration.
    – JMVanPelt
    Nov 26, 2015 at 18:51
  • @JMVanPelt That may be true. It's a little bit of a different (and more difficult) question to answer, unless we either (a) reach out to one of the composers and ask them or (b) try our luck with some song recognition software. My faith in (b) is not very strong. I'm sure if you e-mailed Alf Clausen he'd probably e-mail you back. Why not give it a shot?
    – Hack-R
    Nov 26, 2015 at 21:11
  • @JMVanPelt [email protected] I'll shoot him an email now
    – Hack-R
    Nov 26, 2015 at 22:13
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    That would be the best source I think, but I would have never thought of it – thank you for the initiative, whether he answers or not!
    – JMVanPelt
    Nov 27, 2015 at 16:06

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