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Oboe players / composers; phrasing & articulation notation in my new oboe piece?


Compopo

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I attach a part of my oboe piece in progress. I have questions about the notation.  

If it makes sense, then I'll continue to notate in the same manner.      

1. I use slur to indicate the phrasing (the bigger gesture / phrasing);

not sure if it's more appropriate to use ' (like a comma notation the top) at the end of the phrase for woodwind?

2. in the 2nd line,

I use 2 slurs to indicate legato and bigger phrasing . Does it make any sense?

3. I use staccato for articulation; but on top of that, I want to indicate (bigger) phrasing too, so put slur too.

Would that confuse the performers?

4. Do oboist use ""scoop" (the 1st note in the 1st bar) ? playable for oboe? 

Thank you tons !!

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  • Compopo changed the title to Oboe players / composers; phrasing & articulation notation in my new oboe piece?

I'm fairly easy going about how music is phrased. Your indications are fine. Slurring over staccato notes is fine if you want to make it perfectly clear how the phrasing goes. (With most professionals it isn't strictly necessary- they'll know what to do.)

You can have slurs within slurs to indicate a few notes legato compared with others that aren't all in the same phrase. A slur covering legato notes that end on a very short untongued note is fine. To me, it shows you want it played that way. If you wanted the staccato to be a tongued staccato you'd leave the slur off.

You don't need breathing marks. (As an aside, oboe breathing is awkward. Oboists can play very long phrases, the instrument needs very little wind. The problem is that they have to exhale fully when taking a new breath so it needs that tiny bit extra time than single reed instruments. If they don't exhale first they get dizzy!)

Another point is that the lowest notes (the B and Bflat) are impossible to play quietly. A good player can get mf. So your "dim" in bar 6 is unlikely to get much quieter than the mf in bar 5.  (In the same way, notes going above high C get weaker and can't be expected to sound more than about mf (even if you write ff.)

Hope that helps.

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8 hours ago, Quinn said:

I'm fairly easy going about how music is phrased. Your indications are fine. Slurring over staccato notes is fine if you want to make it perfectly clear how the phrasing goes. (With most professionals it isn't strictly necessary- they'll know what to do.)

You can have slurs within slurs to indicate a few notes legato compared with others that aren't all in the same phrase. A slur covering legato notes that end on a very short untongued note is fine. To me, it shows you want it played that way. If you wanted the staccato to be a tongued staccato you'd leave the slur off.

You don't need breathing marks. (As an aside, oboe breathing is awkward. Oboists can play very long phrases, the instrument needs very little wind. The problem is that they have to exhale fully when taking a new breath so it needs that tiny bit extra time than single reed instruments. If they don't exhale first they get dizzy!)

Another point is that the lowest notes (the B and Bflat) are impossible to play quietly. A good player can get mf. So your "dim" in bar 6 is unlikely to get much quieter than the mf in bar 5.  (In the same way, notes going above high C get weaker and can't be expected to sound more than about mf (even if you write ff.)

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you so much for this ! This helps a lot. I'll all these into consideration. Really appreciate it. ^^

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