Lines Above Notes???

Hello everyone, I've been playing piano again and I came across some notation I don't understand.

What does it mean when there is a horizontal line (it isn't a leger line) above or below a note?

Also, does anyone play Clair de Lune by Debussy? There is one of these notes in that piece quite early on, and as far as I can see it is notated incorrectly. This is in quite a reliable book. I was wondering if maybe that horizontal line is an indicator of pitch or something, or course I don't see this as likely.

Thanks,

Chris.

If it's what I'm thinking it is, then it's an articulation that indicates to the performer that they're to hold the note very precisely for its full duration. No shortening it for anything, in other words.

I've always found it to be a bit redundant, but it has its uses I suppose. I'm sure there's an official term for it which someone who likes theory far more than I will provide you with. :)

You probably mean the "tenuto" marking ( Tenuto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). It means that the note is to be held for its full duration (or just slightly longer). Yes, you do see this kind of things in Debussy scores, also in his Deux Arabesques and many other pieces. I think I've seen this in Bach scores as well, but I am not sure if that's the publisher's innovation or if Bach actually wrote tenuto markings (I have to find out, though.. :P ).

Take care! :D

That's the one! See? I knew it had a fancy name.

It's an ornamentation you'll come across frequently. It's good to know what it is. ;)

I knew there was a good explanation. Thank you, Professor Canzano :happy:

Actually, the tenuto marking is generally meant to give slightly more weight to the notes. While what Nico said might be true (for Classical and earlier piece), today that doesn't really hold true. I mean, if you're supposed to hold a tenuto marked note for its full duration, what are you supposed to do for other notes :blink:?

Instrumentalists I know have always said that this is meant to accent it slightly, give it more weight. This could lead to it having a "fuller" duration (or a longer one, though again that doesn't make much sense), I suppose, but that alone is a pretty empty meaning of the word (and a more common one, it seems :ermm:). I always write tenuto markings with the intention of giving a note more weight, anyway....

Thank you Dave... you said what I was going to say before I went off in smiley pursuit.

Nico:

or

:smart: might be a better idea. Mike?

I mean, if you're supposed to hold a tenuto marked note for its full duration, what are you supposed to do for other notes :blink:?

It depends a lot on the instrument. If you hold every note to its full duration on a piano, you get a legato, so if you don't want that you'll shorten it. Even with a tenuto you'll make a short cut between the notes. For winds and strings it depends very much on the style and "character" of music they want to portray, whether they'll shorten notes or not, along with technical reasoning. (For example, if you have a large leap for winds and no articulation is given, the lower note is usually shortened.) Holding notes to their full length is definitely not the only standard.

Funnily, often tenuto markings even mean to actually shorten notes a slight bit and make a short pause before the next one, to give it more emphasis (a form of marcato). Often, tenuto means not to "lighten up" a note while it sounds, but keep it at a rather steady dynamic level until its over (which again, can either be at the full note's length, or slightly shorter). This will give the note a somewhat heavy sound, but it's certainly not the only kind of tenuto that exists.

I agree with Dave- the sense of the tenuto marking is to show the performer that the note has more of a stress than the others, or as he said, weight. When I see a tenuto marking at the Piano, I think of using more wrist and leaning a little more into the keys (but not necessarily as a dynamic).

Now is where I can bring up something new- when I see a tenuto marking on the clarinet, I then start thinking "full value", therefore I make all tonguing VERY legato.

:toothygrin:

I know when wind players like myself see a tenuto on repeated notes, it usually means to re-articulate without stopping the airflow. I guess that could be considered length though.

It's quite a blurry line to a portato too, in such a case.

Thanks, I kiiind of get it now ;)

In some styles like Baroque and Classical, notes are worth half or less their value, and so the tenuto marking was invented to correct that in some spots.

Actually, AFAIK tenuto marks were used rarely if at all in Baroque and much Classical music. (If jujimufu has seen them in Bach, I'm quite certain they were the editor's.) And tenuto or ten. written out in full usually applied to a single climactic note, and probably had more to do with tempo and delivery than with articulation in the sense of the modern tenuto. If you can point me to examples in the literature that prove me wrong, I would be interested.

Well, sometimes when playing pieces, performers have tendency to become a bit "too" expressive, so whenever I see the notion, I make sure I keep it's length and then go back to being a slacker.

The original poster asked specifically about a piece by Debussy, Clair de Lune, yes?

In Debussy, I would take a tenuto line as meaning a mild emphasis on the notes.