Re: So, slashed beamed grace notes...

[Peter Bjuhr]

On 10/24/2013 09:34 AM, Simon Bailey wrote:

another question, in german these notes are often also called
"vorschlagnoten" [literally "before beat notes"] and are required to
be played before the beat they are associated with. are these notated
any differently? simply asking because i'm currently typesetting some
works by a young composer and he has performance notes stating these
grace notes should explicitly be performed before the beat.

so to summarize lilypond's 3 options:
\apoggiatura: take written value away from note
\acciaccatura: as fast as possible, _on the beat_
\grace: ??

I don't think you should take the german name to literally. The performance practise of grace notes has varied throughout music history. You have to study the practise of the period and perhaps also the practise of individual composers to know for sure how to interpret different scores. So to state things explicitly in a performance note can be clarifying.

Gould also mentions some other means to make the notation clearer (regarding before or on the beat), e.g. using accents (p. 128-129). She actually also gives an explanation of the slash in addition to Gilberto's excellent review: "It is common practice to place a diagonal line through a single beam." (p. 125) Maybe the idea here is, in analogy with the distinction between the appoggiatura and the acciaccatura, that a single beam (i.e. eighths/quavers ) is more in need of the slash!??

Personally I think using grace notes gives the performer a certain amount of freedom, so I don't see the need for really sharp definitions.

Peter