How to notate this unknown violin marking in MuseScore?
MuseScore 2.0.3 on Windows 7
I have the manuscript full score and parts of a "Suite for Small Orchestra", written for a college orchestra in 1929.
Question 1
The Violin 1 uses "square-ended slurs" under pairs of dotted notes, but I cannot find out what this is supposed to indicate. Can anyone identify a convention for this marking, and explain what it means?
Question 2
How should I notate these instructions when typesetting the work in MuseScore? Initially I tried to emulate the appearance exactly as shown on the manuscript, but the lines seem to "wander" from their initial position. Perhaps caused by switching from Page View to Continuous View? Then I tried using two Down Bow marks instead of a single line - but does that carry the same meaning?
Attached images:
1 = as in full score (composer's autograph score)
2 = as notated by the copyist in the Violin 1 part
3 = first attempt in MuseScore
4 = second attempt in MuseScore
Very grateful for any advice.
Dan
Comments
1- https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tuplet ?
In reply to 1- by Shoichi
@Shoichi: many thanks, but these aren't tuplets - so I still don't know the purpose or intention of the original notation.
I don't know what the square brackets mean, but assuming from the feel of the score, I think the composer wants to place an emphasis on the connection of the notes?
I was able to mimic this notation:
![squarebracket0.png]()
I selected two notes by clicking on a note and holding down SHIFT (default, if you have not changed it) and then using arrow keys to highlight selected ones. Then I proceeded to the 'Lines' palette, and double-clicked on the placing bracket that has both sides pointed upwards. With the inspector, I modified the brackets (now spanning the selected notes) by marking the box 'Allow Diagonal'. Then by double-clicking the bracket, I re-adjusted the lines by moving the three points around.
For convenience, I added this line to a palette by holding down SHIFT+CTRL and dragging the bracket into a custom palette. The red lines that appear when re-adjusting the positions of the brackets may seem off when the custom made bracket is added; double-clicking then holding down SHIFT and using arrow keys can re-adjust this.
In reply to I don't know what the square by Ragokyo
@H.L.: thank you for the help. With Example 3, I had tried using the same element from the "Lines" palette, but I must have missed the step of selecting *both notes*. I guess that would affect the anchoring?
"I don't know what the square brackets mean, but assuming from the feel of the score, I think the composer wants to place an emphasis on the connection of the notes?"
I have looked at dozens of manuscript scores by this composer, and this is the very first time that I have come across this notation. In general, all his markings are conventional and easily understood even by an amateur like me.
Anyone else with any ideas?
In reply to @H.L.: thank you for the by DanielR
If this score was written for a specific student, based on this small extract the "square" line seems to be used only under pair of notes where the first one is dotted.
Sounds perhaps stupid, but could it be that this specific student had some difficulties to play the exact rhythm and it was just intended as a rhythm help?
In reply to If this score was written for by frfancha
Not sure if that is correct, but that's a great observation.
.
Blatter (Orchestration and Instrumentation) does not show this symbol in the special-effects section on orchestral strings, and that is one of the most comprehensive works on the subject available. There is a double bracket shown, to indicate 'scratch tone', but given the sonoro text indication in the original score, that seems unlikely to be what's wanted. Blatter also describes something called 'hooked bowing'--which inverses the short/long rendering of dotted pairs--but the marking for that is a slur leading to a staccato marking on the second note. There appears to be no help there.
In general, a contemporary composer should give text instructions--either in the score, or in 'performance notes' printed as a forward or appendix--when he calls for something unusual that is not covered by standard notation. You mention that the original was composed in 1929; given that, it is not unlikely this marking means something specific that could not be indicated with the usual signs. Is there any front- or back-matter in the original score which could explain this?
I am not a violinist; I depend upon specialist associate editors who are when questions of this sort can't be answered by referring to standard texts. OTOH, I believe that Isaac Weiss, a very active MuseScore-ian, is a violinist. Perhaps he will see this and be able to shed some light on the subject.
In reply to Blatter (Orchestration and by Recorder485
Ha! Actually, as still-young violin student, the last time I saw this neither I nor the people I was playing with could guess what it meant. That doesn't mean it has no standardized meaning, though; I also can't read #44846: old style multimeasure rests, and they've long been out of fashion, but I agree with you that they should be an option. I'll ask my violin professor tomorrow.
In reply to Ha! Actually, as still-young by Isaac Weiss
Okay, fair enough. If your violin teacher has never seen this, I'll send it off to a couple of my experts and see what they have to say.
My best guess is that it's some sort of bowing phrase mark, but that's strictly a guess. I don't usually deal with anything north of about 1775. ;o)
In reply to Okay, fair enough. If your by Recorder485
Hello. I reached out to a friend who is a violinist in the Toronto Symphony Orch.
This is the reply:
"char says she supposes it means two notes to a bow stroke.....if there's no footnote...
in between legato and detaché"
In reply to Hello. I reached out to a by xavierjazz
I unfortunately forgot to ask the professor at my lesson today. That makes perfect sense, though. Perhaps better notated as a slur with an accent on the second note.
In reply to I unfortunately forgot to ask by Isaac Weiss
Well, one might think so, but according to Blatter, that particular notation
indicates 'hooked bowing', which he describes as follows:
Usually applied to all figures such as [quarter/eighth, dotted quarter/eighth, dotted eighth/sixteenth, or double-dotted eighth/thirty-second], the notation for hooked bowing [see above] is actually the reverse of the performance technique, which is to shorten the first, not the second, note. Both notes are played with the same bow stroke.
From the text it is not clear if this 'hooked bowing' technique is unique to contemporary music, and I have to say that I have never encountered that in performance myself. If I did--without having been warned in advance it meant something else--I would slur to the second note and then truncate it sharply. It is for this sort of thing that Blatter warns composers wanting unusual effects to provide specific instructions in text notes.
In reply to Well, one might think so, but by Recorder485
The notation of a slur with a staccato dot on the second note for dotted 8th plus 16th is common, indeed very common. You stop (arrest by pressure) the bow a little short of the end of the longer note, then move it in the same direction a little to play the staccato note (essentially like regular staccato for this second note). The term "hooked bowing" though is new to me (doesn't mean too much as I had my violin lessons in German) and the description above is totally cryptic: Which note is now shortened exactly? What is the opposite of what? Anyway the second note would not be heard as staccato unless the first is shortened at least a little bit; a staccato has to have room ahead of it as well as after.
The question is though why the composer would use a totally uncommon way to notate something that is very commonly notated differently? So maybe there is something else intended. If you don't find this anywhere else in the composer's output you'd have to have the conductor make the decision how he wants it to sound (this is what he is there for--among other things) . Any time you can't go ask the composer you'll have this problem with smaller or larger details.
In reply to The notation of a slur with a by azumbrunn
I intuitively understand "between legato and detaché" to mean something similar to but not the same as hooking—no separation, no shortening of either note, but articulating the beginning of the second note without slowing the bow down. Hence my suggestion of a sforzato accent, >, on the second note.
In reply to I intuitively understand by Isaac Weiss
"Hence my suggestion of a sforzato accent, >, on the second note."
This accent would be read as an accent against the beat, a syncopation effect of sorts. Most people playing this would make sure the accent is strong to heighten the effect. Somehow a square slur does not suggest this to me.
I wonder who this piece was composed for. If it was for an amateur group of some kind the square slur may have just been a pedagogic device (meant to be played simply as a slur), maybe to point out extra clearly the dotted rhythm to help reading the music (or to remind people to avoid the eternal mistake of playing these rhythms softened up to triplets--2 : 1 rather than 3 : 1).
In reply to "Hence my suggestion of a by azumbrunn
"I wonder who this piece was composed for"
@azumbrunn
The suite was composed for the orchestra of St John's College, Cambridge, where the composer was director of music. So it's likely that the membership of the orchestra would have changed from year to year as members graduated. And indeed, alternative instrument parts are written in red ink in some places.
HTH
Dan
Likewise, I don't know what the brackets mean but you can recreate them by first placing a series of doublets (fake tuplets, basically) by 5 [Ctrl]-2 to give 2 notes in the space of -er - 2. Then use Inspector to hode the numbers and - important - set to "Bracket" rather than "Automatic" brackets. Now use the arrow keys to go back and place the notes as "usual". You might need to click on the brackets and press x to flip direction etc. but they stay connected to the notes.
When adding lines from the palette, it is important to tell MuseScore which notes they are attached to, by following one of the processes described in the Handbook under "Lines" (eg, select the range & double click the symbol, or add the line then use Shift+left/right to change the anchor). That way the position of the line automatically adjusts if the position of the notes themselves change for any reason.