Mark D. Lew wrote:
[snip]
> In such a case, what do you recommend I do?
>
> 1. Take my best guess at the bowings.
>
> 2. Indicate general phrasing I have in mind, perhaps with a note that they
> are phrasing marks not bowing.
>
> 3. Don't mark any slurs at all, and figure the strings will work it out
> themselves.
>
I'm not John (and I haven't played him on TV either) but I will add my
2-cents'-worth:
If you aren't a string player and don't have access to a very competent
string player, then you should NOT take any guess at the bowings. This
won't help anybody at all and will result in extra work.
You SHOULD place any and all slurs which you want to be real slurs, not
merely phrase markings, and let the concertmaster figure out the bowings
to achieve the best musical result.
If there are situations where you want strong, accented notes, then it
would be okay to place scattered down-bow markings on those notes, to
show what you want, and don't place any other bowings around them. Let
the concertmaster work out how best to arrive at your few indicated
downbows which you have placed for emphasis.
And as an aside, even if you DO know a competent string player (or ARE
one), you shouldn't put a lot of bowings in the music because no two
competent string players will agree 100% of the time anyway. Place what
is necessary to guarantee the result you want in certain places and
leave all the other bowings off the page, since they will be changed
anyway. Having to cross out the printed ones to put the new ones in
makes the music that much harder to read and wastes time.
--
David H. Bailey
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