Wendy Galovich writes:
> However in thumbing through O'Neill's, I see triplets that are
>comparable to CB cuts - three notes of the same pitch. As an example,
>(AAA turns up twice in the A part of Pigeon on the Gate. That sequence
>wouldn't make any sense with a slur mark.
>
Both Christophe DeClerque and Frank Nordberg point out that one
might well want to phrase a triplet (3a(bc), which is a pretty convincing
argument for not automatically adding slur marks. Christophe added some
ascii art:
>I have seen triplets written with slurs but also without and sometimes
with
>something, as you said, like:
> _3_
> | |
>
>over the notes
Aha! I see now. I'm used to uilleann piping conventions, where
half the time triplets have one or more staccatto notes (they're called
"tight triplets"), but they are always written with the little slur mark.
I'd always assumed the slur was a visual aid---to make sure one recognized
the change of timing--which had nothing to do with phrasing. (Presumably
one could add another slur mark over that for the phrasing.) But now I
understand why the one notation book I have inveighs so strongly against
using the slur marks for triplets:
"Borrowed metric groupings:
When a note-group from a foreign meter is superimposed over an
established meter, that note-grooup is referred to as a borrowed
grouping. Numbers and brackets are used when notating borrowed
groupings; a curved or "crescent" should never be used in place of a
straight bracket. Triplets are an example of a compound meter being
superimposed over a simple time."
>From Music Notation, by Mark McGrain, Berklee college of Music, 1986,
p. 91.
(The injunction against the usual slur marks doesn't seem to be
universally accepted, but I gather it's more than just the author's
personal prejudice.)
I'd be satisfied if (3abc would (perhaps optionally) put that
little bracket and 3 over the note---and leave ((3abc) and (3a(bc) to be
slurred as written.
Cheers,
John Walsh
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