At 04:37 PM 7/2/2007 -0400, John Howell wrote: >Touchy, touchy!!! ;-) You know that was almost all for you. :)
>I've commented before (on >this list, I think), so I'll simply repeat what >I've said. You put in bowings THAT WORK and they >will not change them. It takes an experienced >player about 30 seconds, tops, to make that >decision. When I studied violin lo those many years ago, Joseph Kovacs was forever changing bowings to his taste. It had nothing to do with what "works". That was my first clue that this "working" business is often a smokescreen. Back in the early 1990s, I had an orchestral piece performed where the concertmaster changed a whole group of critical bowings without consulting me. Why? It "sounded better" and was "easier on the players' muscles". Hoo-boy. Almost as bad as the pianist who said she'd injure her wrists trying to play one of my compositions. >I won't change anyone's mind, I know, but >"phrasings" do not belong in string music. >Keyboardists can't seem to understand this. I don't play keyboard and never did, so I don't know what you mean by that. Violin was my instrumental major, in fact, and phrasing -- that very word -- was a big, big issue. The phrasings were for singing, I was informed, and the string players of the time (mid-1960s) were all about singing with their instruments, singing past the reversal of the bow, etc., etc. Some even breathed aloud, sometimes very loudly, louder than Gould ever hummed. :) >Of course dynamics >are tied heart and soul to bowings, and sometimes >bad bowings (or phrasings masquerading as >bowings) make specific dynamics impossible Performers discover how to balance the dynamics after they 'get it' -- which can sometimes take years, decades, or longer. I don't think composers always expect to write a concept for the performers, unless those are very good and very flexible performers willing to accept that the composer's idea is probably a pretty good one ... and can take the score to heart. That doesn't mean the composer shouldn't make changes to encourage an effective performance under adverse circumstances, but if the dynamic is actually important, then that's the deal. End of story. And with electronic competition, performance has improved in the new music area, don't you think? Lots more players 'get it' now? Because they're young -- or because they have to. >That's a matter to discuss with conductors, not players. Tempi in string quartets, for example? (I had a quartet performed two years ago in Belgium by a pro quartet where the players could hardly count, much less play the tempo as written. Oy, way slow. But they did get every one of the harmonics. Go figure.) >Some harmonics can ONLY be produced on a certain >string in a certain way, while others can be >produced in more than one way, and since the tone >quality changes it's really up to you to specify >what you want (or think you want), just as it's >up to you to KNOW that what you write is playable. Every string instrument is different in sound, too. Why so precious? Each instrumentalist has problems to solve. Alternate fingerings on woodwinds produce different sounds, harmonics on winds, too, not to mention multiphonics. Trombones? Wee-hah. So I notate the sound I want, and if that sound is only able to be played a certain way, then I don't need to notate anything more, do I? And if there are multiple ways, the player can solve that without coddling. If the technique is somehow new (and how many of those are left?) then explanations or suggested solutions are provided. Sure, it may be harder to read, but that's the economics of it all, isn't it? I certainly don't believe that a composer should spend more time so players can avoid keeping up to snuff on their techniques. >Ah, an appeal to authority. I feel so much better now!! :-D Yup. The Rite is my ultimate authority on such questions (where a technique is used, at least, and a heck of a lot of them are). And I did double-check the score before I mentioned it, without finding a single example of Stravinsky doing the performers' work for them -- even in that beautiful largo that opens Part II or later in the Mysterious Circle. Amazing what can be done with such flawed notation by an incompetent composer. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
