When I was in a choir, a composer of a piece we'd commissioned explained
legato, poco staccato and staccato respectively as pah, pom, and pop.
For NSP, pah is a no-no, as notes need definite ends.
So the spectrum we work between is somewhere between pom and pop.
Occasional ventures into staccatissimo, as in Meggy's Foot, need a pip instead.
But generally the notes should come out like peas, not lentils.
John
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
[email protected]
Sent: 21 June 2011 09:45
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: [NSP] Re: Deaf/dead
Oops, outlook tells me I've already sent a reply. I wonder what it said...
Barry, et al.
May I point you to the Dolmetsch dictionary
http://www.dolmetsch.com/defss4.htm
Thanks, this is very interesting but unfortunately reminds me that dictionaries
are not infallible. (I have been working as a professional translator since
1974).
And indeed that musicians and lexicographers cannot always agree on the precise
meaning of the terminology they use.
For example, here: http://www.winterkonzerte.de/fachbegriffe.html
I found: "spiccato: Deutlich, abgesetzt, mit gestoßenen Noten (Bogentechnik bei
Streichinstrumenten).
staccato: Gestoßen, kurz, abgehackt. Gegensatz:-> legato"
The terminology here is very vague, and doesn't explain the fundamental difference between staccato
and spiccato, i.e. that staccato stays on the string and spiccato bounces. This is further confused
by the fact that French-speakers tend to call any bouncing stroke "sautillé" even though
this term more strictly applies to the rapid bouncing of the wood of the bow unassisted, as it
were, and is related to tremolo. "sautillé" works well on fast semiquavers, spiccato can
be used on relatively slow notes. It is performed with the upper arm and the bow reaches and leaves
the string like an aircraft landing and immediatly taking off again or like a stone skimmed across
water.
Back to Dolmetsch: it does give "staccare (Italian) to detach, to separate each note" as
the basic meaning. Then things get complicated. For example, I can assure you that détaché means
what I described in my previous posting, as also found here:
http://www.violinonline.com/bowstrokes.htm "Détaché indicates smooth, separate bow strokes
should be used for each note (it does not mean detached or disconnected). Notes are of equal value,
and are produced with an even, seamless stroke with no variation in pressure."
Not because I necessarily trust this source (for example, it makes martelé and
staccato sound like the same thing) but having been trained in Luxembourg
(where the system and terminology are very much based on the French model) and
Liège - and sometimes by French-speaking teachers - this is what I have learnt
that the expressions mean.
Back to Dolmetsch again: it implies that staccato is the same thing as gestoßen
(German), détaché (French), piqué (French).
Gestoßen certainly means détaché but piqué doesn't; it means something more
like staccatissimo.
So I wouldn't rely too much on dictionaries (for example, what is the relevance
of the reference to Monteverdi's use of pizzicato in this context?)
Personally, staccato is a word I use for musical effects and
never for
a piping style. I think it merely confuses matters.
Quite rightly. But it does have a technical meaning for string players.
Sorry if I sound like a know-all, but the above is merely a distillation of
what I have gathered over several decades to be the consensus among practising
string players as opposed to lexicographers and musicologists and is offered
FWIW.
Best,
Chris (wer übt, hat's nötig) Birch
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