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Contradictory articulation indications

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:42 am
by Kleintuba
This isn't a tuba/euphonium question, per se, but in a lot of music for wind instruments I have seen articulation marks that seem to contradict each other. For instance, a series of notes with both tenuto marks and dots. I have had a composer tell me that he meant that to be longer than staccato but still separated. I asked him why he couldn't just notate the length of the note he wanted, in this case a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth rest. He said when he did that people complained it was too busy looking. Some composers also use the tenuto dash to indicate a milder accent than an accent mark.

I was working on the Horovitz euphonium concerto with a student the other day. In it there is a scale passage in sixteenths with staccato marks. A few measures later the same scale occurs but this time with a slur above the staccato sixteenths. Usually when there is a long slur above a passage with other articulation marks I tell my students that it is an indication not to take a breath and to make the passage sound like a single phrase but I can't say that about this passage since no one would breath in this short phrase anyhow.

Any thoughts?

Re: Contradictory articulation indications

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:52 am
by Bill Troiano
In many instances, I think it is subjective. There can be more than one way to indicate how notes should be played. I remember, back in the 80's, I was reading an article in the Instrumentalist magazine. It was an interview with famous living composers and conductors, and it was about expressive notation in music. There would be a drawing of, as an example, notes with tenuto and staccato markings. Then, the composers and conductors were asked, what does this mean to you? And, they all had different interpretations of what the markings meant. As a soloist and musician, I would think it's up to you to decide. In an ensemble, it's up to members to universally agree on how it should be played. Or, it could be up to the conductor.

Re: Contradictory articulation indications

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 2:41 pm
by UDELBR
I always interpreted the "line with a dot over it" articulation marking as primarily a string instrument marking: known as a "lift" between notes. If you've heard a string player do this, it's easy enough to emulate on any wind instrument.

Re: Contradictory articulation indications

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 10:09 pm
by Mike C855B
A/k/a "portato". Not to be confused with "potato", which slimes the strings.

I ran across this notation recently on a non-string part... on something. Shoulder-shrug from the conductor, too, so we group-guessed it was some sort of "dah-dah-dah" separation. Of course I can't remember what piece it was. :roll: