My experience is more limited than others, but I've read a lot of
string music. Three slashes will ALWAYS get you an unmeasured
tremolo at any speed on any note value. One slash will always get
you double the notes notated (i.e. single-slashed quarter means 2
8ths, etc.).
I have never seen 4 slashes, and would treat it as a mistake that was
meant to be three.
But 2 slashes is ambiguous, and not all copysists seem to agree on
what 2 slashes mean, or on whether the beam counts as a slash. THOSE
will get you into trouble, and I would strongly recommend writing out
a few exemplars before going to the slash notation.
I know that theorists like to deal in complete, logical systems, but
much in music is neither complete nor logical, and this shorthand
notation is one of those things. Example: we played the Schubert
unfinished symphony last spring. In the viola part, in exactly
parallel passages, sometimes there were notes with 3 slashes and
sometimes with only 2. And sometimes it was inconsistent within the
same passage! Which means that either Schubert, his original
publisher, or the engraver of the edition we played from either
didn't understand the theoretical "rules" or was sloppy in his
notation!
I've also never seen the words "tremolo" or "trem" in music. When it
is notated clearly there is never any ambiguity, but it's precisely
when you leave the player wondering whether the beams count as a
slash (which is quite illogical when you stop to think about it--if
the notes were written with individual flags rather than beams the
question wouldn't even come up, would it?) that you create ambiguity
that needs to be clarified by writing out at least the first pattern.
This is a situation in which I'd suggest that appealing to authority
will simply show that different composers have done things
differently.
John
At 5:40 PM -0400 8/20/10, Christopher Smith wrote:
With total respect for you and your string-playing colleagues, but I
think you are mistaken according to traditional practice.
Kurt Stone says that from 2 (in fast tempos) to 4 (in slow tempos)
slashes can be used to convey an unmeasured tremolo, and while he
doesn't say it in text, he has some very specific examples on beamed
notes where the beam takes the place of one of the slashes (for
8ths) or for TWO of the slashes (sixteenths). pp 148-149 in my
edition.
In the Heusenstamm, p 56 he absolutely gives several examples where
the beams or flags take the place of the slashes. He also says to
use the word "trem" or "tremolo" to avoid confusion with a measured
tremolo.
Clinton Roemer agrees with Kurt Stone about the variable numbers of
slashes ("strophes" he calls them) and gives examples where it is
clear that the beams are counted.
Ross does not mention it at all.
Christopher
On Fri Aug 20, at FridayAug 20 4:23 PM, Don Hart wrote:
Hi Christopher,
String players have told me two slashes on an 8th (one on a 16th,
etc.) indicate a measured tremelo, and three slashes indicate
unmeasured. In slower tempos, with more beams, I suppose the part
would start looking pretty busy so I guess you could write
"unmeasured" on the part.
DH
On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 11:50 AM, Christopher Smith
<christopher.sm...@videotron.ca> wrote:
Strictly speaking, the tremolo on eighth notes is supposed to be TWO slashes
(the beam is the first slash), so I haven't run into this problem. I also
use the Bill Duncan single, double and triple slashes, which position very
well for me (except on stems that have been shortened because of multiple
layers, but that is par for the course.)
Christopher
On Fri Aug 20, at FridayAug 20 12:28 PM, Don Hart wrote:
Hi all,
Does anyone have a positioning setting for a 3-slash tremelo, (in
evpus if convenient) that works for both stemmed and non-stemmed
notes? I've always used two separate articulations and meta
assignments and was just wondering if it's possible to eliminate a few
keystrokes.
Thanks in advance.
Don Hart
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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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