On 13 Dec 2010 at 12:34, John Howell wrote: > But one thing you did not mention should also be left to the player, > unless it is for a very specific special effect, and that is string > fingerings. Not only is that very technical, but it is very > individual to the player. My stand partner and I hardly ever use the > same fingerings, but we are careful to use the bowings our conductor > has marked.
I'm not much of a string player, just a viola da gambist, but when I'm writing for viols I know exactly what the best fingerings are for every note I put down on the page. And, indeed, because I'm writing music that will almost never be played by professionals and that will never have adequate rehearsal time, I would tend to avoid writing anything that requires extended use of high positions (on a viol, that's 2nd position or higher on any string but the top one), or lots of shifts. When writing, I'm thinking about this all the time, because as a long-time player of the instrument (indeed, of all three sizes of instrument), I can't help it! I would expect most string players who compose/arrange would have the same type of instincts, though since modern string players don't double the other instruments (as viol players do), it wouldn't apply across the whole string ensemble. All that said, I don't put any fingerings in the score/parts, ever. I do sometimes put in bowings, particularly when the best bowing contradicts standard patterns (e.g., an upbeat that works better with a push bow rather than the standard pull -- for those familiar with modern string bowing, remember that viol bowing is reversed because of the underhand grip), or when a judicious hook will set things up for a long passage to follow. Of course, experienced players will adjust to get their bowing back on track if they start a passage on a bow that turns out wrong, but I think both experienced and inexperienced players appreciate the help in those cases. But, of course, viols in general hardly ever take two notes under a single bow (except in the later music, and the virtuoso repertory, like Marais or Abel or Bach), so putting in bowings is really just a matter of putting in an indication of whether a passage starts with a push or pull bow, rather than a matter of putting in a lot of slurs -- it's the unusual viol consort piece that has even a single slur in it, in fact. Anyway, now I'm just rambling... -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
