At 10:30 PM -0500 9/10/06, Randolph Peters wrote:
I was puzzling over a notational problem I had regarding artificial and natural harmonics notation on a stringed instrument.
Don't feel bad. I'm a string player and every time I come across harmonics I have to stop and figure out what's intended! It's especially confusing in the books for Broadway musicals, since the copyists didn't always know or follow the rules!!
I have a section in a piece I'm writing where the violin soloist plays a series of artificial harmonics (P4 above). When the passage comes to an open string, I've usually thought of those notes as being natural harmonics. The thing is that the traditional notation for natural harmonics looks odd and jumps out at you.
Yes, they are natural harmonics, but PLEASE treat them the same as the others, as artificial, for consistency. No problem sightreading them that way; BIG problem reading if they bounce between systems. And the player, not you, will decide whether to use the open string based on the geometry of the passage.
John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
