String indicator for strings
Posted: 10 Oct 2023, 13:42
We are now used to strings being shown with Roman numerals, even though placing them above the stave is a recent habit favoured by the biblical devotion to Gould's manual.
Before that, it was very common to find "sul ..." followed by the name of the string in either Anglo-Saxon letters (A-D-G...) or in plain words (Re-Sol...).
While preparing a talk on cello schools—which I held on Saturday—I found how around 1830-40, in Germany, the convention was to write the string in Arabic numerals (1,2,3...) below the stave, in a bigger typeface from the fingerings, which were placed above.
Here is an example (showing a harmonic scale of C major on the cello): Could we try to pinpoint the moment when the modern convention started to be applied and by what publisher/publication?
French editions still use "sul..." today, but it would already be great if we could find when German notation stopped using that notation in favour of Roman numerals.
Thanks!
Before that, it was very common to find "sul ..." followed by the name of the string in either Anglo-Saxon letters (A-D-G...) or in plain words (Re-Sol...).
While preparing a talk on cello schools—which I held on Saturday—I found how around 1830-40, in Germany, the convention was to write the string in Arabic numerals (1,2,3...) below the stave, in a bigger typeface from the fingerings, which were placed above.
Here is an example (showing a harmonic scale of C major on the cello): Could we try to pinpoint the moment when the modern convention started to be applied and by what publisher/publication?
French editions still use "sul..." today, but it would already be great if we could find when German notation stopped using that notation in favour of Roman numerals.
Thanks!