At 11:43 PM -0700 6/30/10, Mark D Lew wrote:
On Jun 30, 2010, at 6:24 PM, Ryan wrote:
I'm waffling back and forth over the need for slurs over fingered tremolos
in strings. Example: Whole note C, whole note A, three tremolo beams in
between.
My familiarity with the music tells me that a slur is somewhat implied, but
I wonder if a slur would help the sight reader. There are a lot of tremolos
like this in this piece, ranging from the whole note level down to the
eighth note level.
A pair of whole notes linked by tremolo does not require a slur.
This is per Ted Ross, whom I agree with on this point.
Ross also notes there is a trend toward notating a whole note worth
of tremolo not as two whole notes connected by three beams, but
rather two pairs of half notes each connected by three beams (ie,
looks like pairs of beamed 32nd notes, but with open note heads).
If your purpose is to enhance readability for a sight reader, I
recommend this practice.
In this case you do need a slur, because you have two pairs which
you are linking as a single tremolo. Basic rule is if it's a single
pair you don't need a slur, but if it's more than a pair you do.
Caveat: My experience is with piano music, including piano
reductions of orchestra, but not with string parts.
Interestingly enough, Roemer disagrees. He shows them with slurs
regardless of the note values. But he does give this note: "Also,
traditionally, the slur is not always used [in engraved music],
whereas in manuscript writing it is."
He also uses the term "tremolando" for the fingered tremolo, which is
one I had not run into, and it's handy to have a term for it.
But my previous comment is still valid. Slurs (and ties) are BOWING
instructions for string players (and breath instructions for wind
players), and should be used on tremolandos for those specific
purposes, and not just because they're tremolandos. (And pianists
don't have to worry about either bowing or breathing!)
Roemer does show one strange example of a 2-bar whole-note tremolando
with dual ties--the first notes of each measure tied and the second
notes of each measure tied, and I would not write it that way. I
would stretch a single tie (or actually a slur) from the first note
of the figure to the last (4th) note as being more clear.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:john.how...@vt.edu)
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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