Dennis Bathory-Kitsz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 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!
Very good advice! Even as an amateur bass player I reckon to be able to improve on the harmonics that Ravel specifies. In "Tombeau de Couperin" he asks for a high B to be produced by damping B on the first (G) string, making it vibrate in 5 parts. The trouble with this is that the B is the tonic of the chord, and if your G string is normally tuned the harmonic (a just major third above G) will be flat to the other notes of the chord. Better is to play the note on the third (A) string, double damping with your thumb on E and your little finger on G.* The B produced thus is very slightly sharp to the rest of the chord, but much less obnoxious. Of course, you have to convince the rest of the section that this is desirable and possible(:-( Other ways of getting this note in tune are with made harmonics on the D string. * damping at the low B is theoretically possible but is very unreliable. -- Ken Moore _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
