On 29 May 2003 at 17:50, Christopher BJ Smith wrote:
We wind/piano players are looking for a way to show string players that a long line should NOT have an audible break between bows. Macro slurs are the most intuitive way, I suppose. Or what about breaking the phrase, but keeping the bow moving in the same direction? A macro slur showing this can help.
Well, I'm a piano player and a viol player, and I *like* audible breaks between bows. They are the natural way for stringed instruments to sound.
The idea that everything should be as legato as possible as the default is a spurious one, in my opinion, and applies to virtually no actually historical musical style that I can think of.
Let me amend my quoted statement:
We are looking for a way to show string players that a long line should not have an audible break between bows WHERE WE DEEM IT NECESSARY. Obviously I wasn't suggesting that everything should be as legato as possible, all the time.
I like breaks between bows, too, the same as I like tongued passages on wind instruments, but I would like to able to note where I want 'em and where I don't. I can do that easily with slurs on wind music. I can't so easily on string music. That's all.
In any event, I think there's too much of an idea among the string players I know that they need to disguise the nature of the way in which they make the notes happen, that they are supposed to *hide* bow changes. Well, if a bow change breaks a musical idea, yes, you should try to hide it. But it if actually *reinforces* the musical idea, it's bloody foolish to try to suppress it.
Right-o.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
