Re: Notational conventions

[Hans Åberg]

> On 9 Nov 2016, at 13:37, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> Hans Åberg <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>>> On 9 Nov 2016, at 10:45, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> 
>>> The problem with appoggiature is that their timing is loose as the
>>> transition to the main note is not supposed to be a rhythmical accent.
>>> If you listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQseNJP_bzk in
>>> comparison to most renditions, you'll find that I execute the
>>> appoggiature on the long side, passing the "proper" moment (and yes,
>>> I know that I have only executed the explicitly written ones in the
>>> manuscript with "violine concertante" as I was too lazy to figure out a
>>> strategy myself when the top voice is almost but not quite a solo voice
>>> in a string quartet).
>> 
>> You need an expert: one of my teachers could do Baroque improvisations.
>> 
>> The long grace notes, I usually prefer toward the half written value,
>> though some perform the full value.
> 
> An appoggiatura does not feel like a "grace note" to me.  Vaccai states
> in his singing exercises that the appoggiatura should be _at least_ the
> written value.  The point being that the _main_ note pitch is
> uninteresting and is what the note relaxes rather than resolves to.

The execution varied considerably, according to Harvard Concise, giving an 
example of a 1/8 in small print connected to a 1/2-note: The French might 
execute it before the main note, otherwise as half the written value, the 
value, or longer, plus some. 

> Of course masking this change by executing it simultaneously with
> _significant_ changes in other voices is a perfectly valid kind of
> execution.  But it becomes almost impossible to do this with an
> articulation that differentiates the appoggiatura from a regular note:
> when transcribing music played in that manner, no appoggiatura would
> ever appear.
> 
> Which is vaguely disturbing to me.  So I might be overdoing my "musical
> pronunciation" as a sign of me being unable to convey very subtle
> differences in a sovereign manner.

I prefer no overlap in the ornaments, that is, legato style. Even in Balkan 
music, overlap does not seem necessary.