Composers vs Engravers: slurs and ties
Posted: 05 Jan 2016, 17:23
This thread recaps and continues a subject that just arose on the MakeMusic Forum: See http://forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=5&m=467755)
Elaine Gould has, as usual, a flexible approach to slurs in combination with tied notes, and allows the slur to not encompass all the tied notes if there are many of them.
However, there was a time in music engraving when there was greater flexibility, and slurs could begin on the last tied note, or end on the first tied note. This flexibility allowed engravers to present exactly what composers were writing in their scores.
The following is an autograph that shows the great variety of slurring used by Beethoven. At times long slurs encompass tied groups; at other times they end and then depart from a pair of tied notes. At other times slurs are even warped, either because Beethoven changed his mind about the slurring in mid-flight or because his mind and hand were subconsciously preferring a kind of nested slurring, since the suspensions were demanding there own slurs, as at the bottom of the page.
We also see Beethoven's rather attractive and clear calligraphy and notation, contrary to the general impression. Here is the musical handwriting of someone incredibly fluent with musical notation so that it flows out of him as if he were actually playing the piece. Note also the rather spacious presentation very typical of Beethoven, probably to give himself plenty of room for corrections and to make things clear to his copyist, who often had his hands full.
Unfortunately, Beethoven's slurring has been destroyed by editors and engravers since his lifetime. Even some of the best current Urtext editions "modernize" the slurring, sometimes without comment. Here is a first edition (the autograph is lost) that is probably close to the composer's intention, since, at that time, engravers tended to follow autographs closely:
Note again the use of smaller slurred groups (particularly starting at the end of the third line), as if the slurs represented bowing, and giving variety to the articulation and lightness to the music. Here is the same page in an example page from a current Urtext edition, with Beethoven's ignored and replaced by long slurs to conform to "contemporary engraving practice".
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/pia ... ic/3762977
Elaine Gould has, as usual, a flexible approach to slurs in combination with tied notes, and allows the slur to not encompass all the tied notes if there are many of them.
However, there was a time in music engraving when there was greater flexibility, and slurs could begin on the last tied note, or end on the first tied note. This flexibility allowed engravers to present exactly what composers were writing in their scores.
The following is an autograph that shows the great variety of slurring used by Beethoven. At times long slurs encompass tied groups; at other times they end and then depart from a pair of tied notes. At other times slurs are even warped, either because Beethoven changed his mind about the slurring in mid-flight or because his mind and hand were subconsciously preferring a kind of nested slurring, since the suspensions were demanding there own slurs, as at the bottom of the page.
We also see Beethoven's rather attractive and clear calligraphy and notation, contrary to the general impression. Here is the musical handwriting of someone incredibly fluent with musical notation so that it flows out of him as if he were actually playing the piece. Note also the rather spacious presentation very typical of Beethoven, probably to give himself plenty of room for corrections and to make things clear to his copyist, who often had his hands full.
Unfortunately, Beethoven's slurring has been destroyed by editors and engravers since his lifetime. Even some of the best current Urtext editions "modernize" the slurring, sometimes without comment. Here is a first edition (the autograph is lost) that is probably close to the composer's intention, since, at that time, engravers tended to follow autographs closely:
Note again the use of smaller slurred groups (particularly starting at the end of the third line), as if the slurs represented bowing, and giving variety to the articulation and lightness to the music. Here is the same page in an example page from a current Urtext edition, with Beethoven's ignored and replaced by long slurs to conform to "contemporary engraving practice".
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/pia ... ic/3762977