============Dirk Latterman
Dear drarn, I know you wouldn't call this 'slur' because it's
a phrase mark, but I don't know how I should call it.
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I strongly suspect that what is meant is not a slur but a tie.
I found the example in 20th cen Schott, but they were copying
Coste (Composer) from the 1830's I believe. They would not
only let one slur stand for two, but they would also let one
slur indicate that every note of the indicated arpeggio was
to be tied to a rest, a note, multiple notes, or nothing in
the next measure. In guitar music, the meaning would be fairly
clear because playing slurs would be impossible or
insane, and each note would be on a different string.
I never suspected that anyone would use
this in piano music, but from the description of the
situation as well as I can understand it that would appear
to be the case. It's like the tenuto mark. Dictionaries to
the contrary, it's nothing more than a way to underline
(overline?:-)) a note. Why not recycle the slur, give
it more meanings, since it doesn't mean anything anyway?
I know why not, and you know why not, but did Bartok know why not?
BTW, I found another curved line. It is used by
publishers of Tarrega's "Memories of the Alhambra"
with the "bis" to indicate what is to be played twice.
It absolutely has nothing to do with slurs or phrasing.
==============
Literally translating from German, an English 'tie' would be a
'hold', and this phrase mark (legato bow) would be a 'tie' or
rather 'bind'.
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And that increases my comfort level with the arpeggio
interpretation a lot.
===============
I didn't even know that something else called
'slur' (like you use it) existed. Being a piano player, and
else having only expirience with written music for strings
(and not plucked strings like guitar, but does the English
word strings mean plucked instruments, too? [this is becoming
complicated *sigh*])
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In orchestration or arranging, one is usually talking
about a section, which is bowed strings. Otherwise,
if it has strings on it... I think the only reason
a piano is not "strings" is that the fact that it
has a keyboard is more relevant to how you use it
than the fact that it is string percussion.
==============
I always used 'slur' as the symbol name
for legato bows, i.e., phrase marks.
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There is absolutely nothing wrong about that.
But one can have legato notes without having
legato bows, and a violinist certainly can be
faced with a marked phrase which is too long
to be done on one bow. Wouldn't you need both
slurs and phrase marks if you wished to convey
very specific instructions in that regard?
=============
Perhaps this should be
straightened out in the glossary or Somewhere Else (nice song
by China Drum btw ;-) ).
-------------------
Not guilty. :-) I'm very impressed with the
willingness of this whole gang to deal with
the problems that the Sacred Ancestors failed
to deal with. Implementing standard practice
is doubly difficult when standard practice is
in such disarray. The situation was inevitable.
The Engravers prided themselves on solving
notation problems, so they loved having them.
We want to prevent them.
