On 29 May 2003 at 16:58, John Howell wrote: > Just replayed the Barber Adagio in a concert, and it's interesting > that he used two levels of slurs, a macro level which obviously > indicates overall phrasing, and a micro level which are actually > bowings. And they work. The question is, what is the function of > the macro slurs?
I'd say they must obviously indicate larger-scale phrasing. Bowings cannot possibly be used for all possible phrases. I also think there's a prejudice among modern string players against play only a few notes under a bow, and an idea has somehow gotten in the air that bowing is the only level of phrasing that exists. I'm accustomed to playing in a style with short bows (literally short -- the playable length of the bow for a viola da gamba is between 1/2 and 2/3s of that of a cello bow), and a style in which the presumption was that each note would be played on an individual bow. In that case, a slur is unusual, and clearly intended as a bowing. There is *no* indication of phrasing overall. But in more "modern" music (19th century on), the idea of playing one note to a bow is heresy, that you have to cram as many notes as possible into one bow so as to not disturb the legato line, or some such crap. So, from my perspective, there's a problem. String players will play all slurs as bowings, which means you need to be explicit if you care about how it will come out, and that leaves you nothing for indicating phrasing. You have the same problem in viol music, of course, where you might want notes to be played legato but not under the same bow (e.g., when crossing strings, which is tough under a single bow, though not by any means unheard of). I resort in Finale to using dotted slurs for phrase marks that are not bowings. Do modern string players recognize phrasing at any level but bowings? -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
