On Sat Jan 2, at SaturdayJan 2 4:30 PM, SN jef chippewa wrote:
anyone have the sequenza handy and can cross-ref?
--
ok, i thought that there was a salzedo-sanctioned notaton for this.
the composer has said to block the pedal at natural(^) or natural
(v), but if i understood chris right, these would produce two
different pitches, either b or nat but never sharp? this means that
there is a "breaking point" in the gliss where it shifts to the
upper or lower note, correct?
there are two things here, for me. the playing and resulting
sound. it might be justified to have a symbol (artic) to indicate
that the sound buzzes, e.g. the Z on the stem sometimes used to
indicate extremely fast tremolo. a friend mentioned that he thinks
the Z is in fact used...
i am thinking -- in fact proposing -- that using a 1/4 sharp or 1/4
flat (maybe plus the Z-buzz symbol) would make sense as the
standard notation that should be used for this. it would in this
particular case. with 1/4-tone notation there is at least a half
truth in the notation -- it specifically represent the "do", if but
not the "hear" notation, because the actual 1/4-tone pitches do not
really sound -- while a slashed accidental has no other standard
notational meaning and is therefore entirely ambiguous without
further explanation.
You have to look at a harp. The open string is a flat; to change it
to a natural there is a disc with two little posts sticking out of
it, like a two-tined fork, that twists when you put the pedal down
and effectively makes the string a semitone shorter. The first half-
pedal just gives you the open string with a buzz, not a quarter tone,
unless the posts are out of adjustment and the back one touches
before the front one, which would not really be very effective in
sound anyway, and nowhere close to a 1/4 tone.
The second half-pedal buzzes the natural note, by 1/2 pedalling
between the natural and sharp to engage the 2nd disc with two tines.
This will give you the natural pitch.
If you want, say, a G# pitch to buzz, you won't get it on the G
string. Write it as an Ab and 1/2 pedal it to Anat.
In all cases, the pitch is not really altered, just a buzz is added.
There is little, if any, actual gliss effect if you change slowly
between semitones.
BTW, there's a great example of this in one of the James Bond films,
I think it is the first one, Goldfinger. Bond is sneaking around and
there is this close-miked harp playing the characteristic theme (B,
D, A, Ab, B, F, F#), very slowly in the med-low register, grinding
every semitone until you think your teeth are coming loose. I was so
impressed by this cue that I asked a harpist how it was done, and got
the demonstration. I think they must have practically put the mic
right on the harp.
Christopher
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
Finale@shsu.edu
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
