Bernard Hill writes: | Jack Campin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes | > | >Some staff notation makes a distinction with different curve shapes | >for slur and tie, but you may need to read a lot of fine print to | >find it. | | The typographical difference is that ties always go head to head, slurs | going towards the stem end of the note (as in chords) go at the stem end | or near.
In actual practice, when I look through my collection of printed music, I find that there is so little consistency that such details are nearly worthless. Much of the music is so sloppy that you can't discern any real pattern in where tie and slur (or phrase) arcs end. Some of them make ties and slurs different thicknesses, but half make ties fatter and half make slurs fatter. There is little pattern in the above/below placement of slur and phrase arcs (though ties always seem to be on the non-stem side). Part of this is probably the mechanics of printing. These arcs thin to a fine point at both ends, so a small change in pressure can make a big change in where the last ink particles bind to the paper. Different runs from the same plates will show the arcs ending at different points. But in general, you can't rely on any such details when reading music. You would first have to study the music and try to learn what rules that printer was following. And the rules could well be different in the next piece of music, even if it comes from the same publisher a year later. A more useful rule is: If an arc connects two identical notes, you call it a "tie". If it connects a small group of notes not all the same, you call it a "slur". If it covers several measures, you call it a "phrase". But there's no useful information in arc thickness or exact positions of the endpoints, because printers don't (or can't) be very consistent in those details. It's better to think of a single "arc" marking that has three distinct uses. You tell them apart by context. I'd bet that if we compared printed output from abc tools that make printable music, we'd find the same sorts of inconsistencies. And the authors of all the programs would be able to point to published music standards that support what each program does. "Standard" music notation is a mess. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
