Neither confirming nor denying. It depends on the period and the composer.
Leopold Mozart's 1755 treatise on violin playing associates 'Striche' (daggers,
wedges, strokes) with heavily accented, off-the string articulation. I'm not a
Baroque specialist, but I don't think that performance practice had changed all
that much by that date.
In Clive Brown's "Classical and Romantic Performance Practice, 1750–1900"
(Oxford, 1999), Gottfried Walther is quoted from his "Musikalisches Lexicon" of
1732). Walther wrote:
Staccato or Stoccato is almost synonymous with spiccato, indicating
that the bowstrokes must be short without dragging and well separated from each
other. The first derives from staccare, separate [entkleben], detach [ablösen],
and this word from taccare, stick [kleben] and dis[taccare]; or better
from attaccare, attach [anhängen], stick to [ankleben], and instead of the
syllable at-, dis-, or s- signify ent-[kleben]. The second of these terms,
however, derives from stucco, a stick [Stock], and means pushed [gestossen],
not pulled [nicht gezogen].
Brown goes on to cite other sources that link the signs to accents, while
cautioning that others use the sign to indicate a separation from the next
musical phrase, thus implying the opposite(!).
In his 1872 book, "Beethoveniana", Gustav Nottebohm includes a chapter titled
"Punkte und Striche" in which he examines evidence pertaining to Beethoven's
handling of these articulations. Beethoven was quite emphatic that 'Striche'
and 'Punkte' were not interchangeable, but he wasn't very clear on what the
difference was ("Wo über der Note ein Punkt darf kein Strich statt dessen
stehen und so umgekehrt, es ist nicht gleichgültig."). He corrected a copyist's
version of the main theme of the second movement of the Symphony No. 7, taking
pains to insist that the separate 8th notes were marked with Striche and the
portato quarters with Punkte under slurs. Apropos piano performance, Nottebohm
cites Friedrich Starke's 1820 book, "Wiener Piano-Schule" to which Beethoven
was a contributor. Starke differentiates between three types of 'Stossens oder
Staccatos': notes marked with 'Strichen' should get 1/4 of their normal value;
'Punkte' meant 1/2 value, and Punkte under a slur meant 3/4 value.
Bottom line, I think, is that context is everything, and before making a
judgment call about how to perform a passage, we need to be certain that the
articulation marks before us are indeed what the composer wrote (and not the
addition of a helpful editor).
Steve Larsen
-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Yates [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 11:09 AM
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Finale] OT: Baroque Articulation
There was a recent conversation in one of the mailing lists of which I am a
member (possibly this one) where it was stated that these "daggers" have
nothing to do with the length of the note but that they indicate that the notes
should be given equal weight (as opposed to a strong first beat) and that this
indication continued beyond the baroque into the early romantic period.
Can anyone offer anything to support or refute this?
Cheers,
Lawrence
On 20 May 2014 18:20, Lawrence Yates <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thanks to all who have responded.
>
> What I have done so far is what Kim has suggested. I thought, having
> never had any formal training in transcription, that maybe I was
> missing something.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Lawrence
>
>
> On 20 May 2014 18:13, Kim Patrick Clow <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> It's such a thorny issue because in many baroque parts, the markings
>> are so inconsistent (sometimes they are clearly staccato markings,
>> but in a set of doublet-parts, where there are two copies of violin
>> 1, the same bar will have wedges / daggers. My editor has suggested
>> to duplicate the markings as found in the sources and note the
>> inconsistently and let the performers make their own decisions. Most
>> musicians who are trained in early music or perform on historical
>> instruments will make their own choices anyway.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Kim
>>
>>
>> Am 20.05.2014 um 18:02 schrieb Lawrence Yates <[email protected]>:
>> >
>> > > For those who transcribe baroque manuscripts.
>> > >
>> > > Am I correct in assuming that the articulation mark that looks
>> > > like a modern staccatissimo "dagger" should be transcribed as a
>> > > modern
>> staccato
>> > > dot?
>> > >
>> > > It has been suggested to me that it should be interpreted as an
>> > articulated
>> > > note and not necessarily as a staccato in the modern sense (or is
>> > > this
>> > > rubbish?)
>> > >
>> > > Cheers,
>> > >
>> > > Lawrence
>> > > --
>> > > Lawrenceyates.co.uk
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>> > >
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>> >
>> >
>> >
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>
> --
> Lawrenceyates.co.uk
>
--
Lawrenceyates.co.uk
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