> > On Jul 2, 2007, at 1:12 PM, Owain Sutton wrote: > > > > In fact, one of the contexts I was thinking of where > natural harmonics > > are best notated with diamond noteheads is in the Ravel > quartet, with > > slurs across all four strings of each instrument, with various > > harmonics on the different strings. > > > > To me, using diamond noteheads without indicating the resultant pitch > (and/or the fundamental) is just asking for trouble. > > Andrew Stiller > Kallisti Music Press > http://www.kallistimusic.com/ >
I don't have a score handy, but the passage I'm thinking of places the hand in a single position, and I think there's roman numeral indications to clarify that it's a rapid string crossing. There's only one possible combination of four resultant pitches, and to notate these instead would leave the player having to figure out what the hell was going on. In this context, using the diamond noteheads entirely as an instructional indication of what to do with the instrument is the best option. > At 02:24 PM 7/2/2007 -0400, John Howell wrote: > >The problem with that method > >is that it leaves it entirely up to the player to figure out how and > >where to finger the harmonic. > > Exactly. That's what I do. You put in bowings, they change > them. You put in phrasings, they change them. You put in > dynamics, they change them. You put in tempi, they change > them. Harmonics? Hah! Unless I absolutely want it done on a > certain string in a certain way, players get the > sounding-note version from me. If it's good enough for > Stravinsky's "Rite", it's way good enough for me! > > Dennis > Stravinsky doesn't always do this, though. Several passages in the violin concerto use diamond noteheads to indicated natural harmonics, especially when being used in a passage which combines them with artificial ones. He does, admittedly, also indicate the melodic line of the resultant pitch in brackets. To show my point, I've rewritten a passage of a different piece using just sounding pitches, whereas the original also uses a combination of solitary diamond noteheads for natural harmoinics and regular artificial harmonic notation. How long would it take a violinist to figure out how to play it? http://www.owainsutton.co.uk/harmonics.pdf (It's the end of the first movement of the Britten concerto.) _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
