The following is one excerpt from the Sitt book, 20 studies in Double
Stops.
Why in the first three measures the G, D and A are written as
g4~4~4~4 d4~4~4~4 a4~4~4~4 instead of g1 d1 a1? Any idea?
That’s clearly due to the pedagogical purpose; since the etudes are
about Double Stops, the author wanted to make more immediately obvious
what exact double stop is played at the moment. (Which I feel would
make more sense if neither note was on an open string, but I guess
that also appears later in the work.)
One might add that string players sometimes tend to not precisely adhere
to the written note length in polyphonic double stops: Think of the
instances where Bach writes a longer note combined in polyphony with
shorter notes which are _not_ legato.
Playing non-legato and repeating the long note over and over again would
be silly. But not always the alternative of playing the whole thing on a
single bow movement is reasonable; so, sometimes the longer note is
shortened.
Examples:
BWV 1008, Menuet I, Bars 11/13
BWV 1009, Sarabande, Bar 9/10
BWV 1011, Prélude, Bar 3 (the E flat is nearly impossible to sustain
over the lower C - one can do it by using fingerings of dubious
appropriateness in Baroque music)
So, in a pedadogical volume, I'd also recommend writing "homophonic"
double stops to make the meaning clear. (Especially in situations where
the player might be forced to switch fingers on the "constant" note; on
the Cello I could write down examples where this is necessary, and if I
were to write Etudes, I would make sure to put this technique in as a
very healthy exercise in intonation.)
Best
Lukas
_______________________________________________
lilypond-user mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
