Dotted slurs and other common music notation standards
Whilst reading this thread: https://musescore.org/en/node/1377, I became intrigued by the uses of dotted slurs which I have never used. A google search took me to this site (http://www.music.indiana.edu/departments/academic/composition/style-gui…) which contained information on notation practises and score/part production which I find useful. Perhaps this will be of use to others.
Comments
I searched "dotted" on the site.
From that page: If you feel you must indicate phrasing, use dotted slurs.
Interesting. I have literally never seen that in clarinet or violin sheet music, though. How do you tell whether a slur is a slur or a phrase mark? If it's several measures long and covers multiple shorter slurs between notes under its long curved span, it's probably not meant as a slur. ;-)
In reply to From that page: If you feel by Isaac Weiss
In my experience a slur is basically a deliberate slide between 2 notes, similar to a portamento. Phrase lines are commonly called slurs, but I think this is a type of laziness. I invite education. :)
In reply to From that page: If you feel by Isaac Weiss
My experience is that for piano and winds, the distinction between "slur" and "phrase mark" is more or less non-existent. Piano can play phrases as long as they want. Winds can play phrases as long as they can sustain a breath, which is realistically as long as most phrases. But for *strings*, the story is quite different. A slur marks note to be played on a single bow, and this is usually only a very short sequence. So the need to indicate phrasing separately from bowing is not uncommon at all. Not that I usually see dotted slurs used for this; I don't. I think it's more often as Zack suggested - if the slur looks too long for a single bow, it must be a phrase marking. Whereas that might be a relatively uncommon thing to deal with in piano or wind music, it's part of day to day life for string players.
In reply to From that page: If you feel by Isaac Weiss
I interpret the IU style guide on this a "really, must you? Isn't there a better way?" suggestion. Never having sat in a woodwind chair, I don't know if dotted slurs are ever used that way. I can't recall ever seeing winds marked that way in a any score I have conducted.
As Mark indicated, the common practice is to assume that a long slur is really a phrase marking if it can't be articulated in a single breath or bowing.
In choral music, multiple tied or slurred notes longer than a single breath indicates that staggered breathing should be used. Same with strings — bowing should likewise be staggered.
Dotted slurs is one of my pet peeves. The problem with dotted slurs is that, if available, some users go nuts with incorrect use.
They shouldn't be used to indicate phrasing, for example. If you're doing that, stop. It makes the score harder to read. I was reminded of this when I was hired to sing with a choir over Christmas. There was a copied piece that didn't look good but was readable. One of the singers asked, "Do you want me to set this in Sibelius?" When half the choir, the director and organist all immediately said, "No — it's fine." I wondered. Then I turned the page and saw one of his transcriptions. Good grief, it was covered in dotted slurs used as phrase markings — it was quite distracting.
Top brackets (rare and should be used for other purposes) or solid slur lines for phrase markings are correct when necessary. If the phrasing is natural without them, do everyone a favor and don't put them in the score.
The correct use of a dotted slur is to indicate a phrase that is sometimes slurred and other times not. I know of no other use that makes sense. When do you encounter this? In vocal music where there are multiple lyric lines and slurring works on some verses but not on others due to the lyrics. Even then they're not really necessary. If there are two syllables in the second verse and there was a slur in the first for a single syllable (or vise versa), singers know that the second verse isn't slurred there. Some arrangers don't slur the notes and instead use a melisma after the syllable in the lyric line to indicate which verses should be slurred.
One of the notation programs I use can't do dotted slurs. I've never missed them. If I'm working in Finale and they are called for, I'll use them but I won't work in Sibelius or Finale just to use them. It's just not that important.
I have a large hymnal collection — been collecting since high school. Many years ago, I noticed that fewer used dotted slurs than didn't. if they were really necessary, all hymnals would use them.
A source of information I just thought to look at says:
It's from https://musescore.org/en/handbook/slurs#dotted.
In reply to A source of information I by Isaac Weiss
The first is a concise version of what I wrote. As far as I am concerned, that's the only acceptable use in a performance score.
Although I can see using the second technique in a classroom or in your Masters thesis, there are better ways of doing it in a performing score. Usually a small measure is placed above or an asterisk is placed at the measure and the original is printed as a footnote at the bottom of the page. Other times you use an appendix. If it's only a suggestion, then that should be footnoted. See the Schirmer or Watkins-Shaw vocal scores for Handel's Messiah for good ways to do this.
Editors should avoid making contradictory markings in a performing score. Commit and don't confuse the performers. If the composer didn't slur a phrase and you think it should be there, use a slur. By taking an editor's credit, it is assumed that your work will not match the urtext when it comes to slurs and dynamics — especially when the original predates the mid 19th C.
Just because someone writes it in a manual doesn't mean it's a good practice.
In reply to The first is a concise by MikeHalloran
This has become a very interesting thread, thanks.
In reply to This has become a very by xavierjazz
You're welcome from all of us. ;-)