The Musical Slur - YT Challenge

While I work on the slur in Music Jotter, it got myself asking the question, what even is a slur? Is it to create legato notes? If so, why not just use legato markings? Is it to help organize music or melody lines? So this got me thinking, let's have a YouTube challenge going over the various "use cases" for slurs. If you want to enter this challenge, just reply here with the piece you wish to be entered. The score is critical. If you don't have a score, you can't enter.

Either submit an existing work (or compose a short example) to help demonstrate an aspect of the musical slur. Keep in mind, the slur has different meanings depending on instrumentation. For example, in strings vs piano, there are slightly different meanings due to how the instruments are played. But as you know with music, music is an art, and I'm sure there are other use cases for the slur. What are they?

Upon your submission, point out which phrase you want me to demonstrate by giving me a bar number. Then give me a sentence or two as to "why" you used the musical slur in that section of your music. I will compile these results, and put them into a YouTube video.

I use slurs in basically all of my music, but I think I'll enter this one:

Basically all the phrases in the piece use slurs in conjunction with spiccato except the pizzicato section (although even there, there's a solo Violin playing the melody which uses slurs as well).  Feel free to peruse the score for whatever you might need!

Hey Mike, I am just featured in your last video and I am very appreciated and honored for that! I am afraid I will monopolize your videos, but if you need some spare entries, here is the one:

This one is short enough and there are a lot of slurs and accents for different rhythmic patterns. Hope this helps demonstrate your point!

Henry

Keep monopolizing Henry, this is the way 😎. 
I will try to find a nice example in my works, though I would say you have plenty here at YC at hand!

Kind regards!

A share for bowed strings here. First, some comments regarding slurs and bowings:
1. slur indicators for strings should be equivalent of bowing directions
2. string players will most likely adapt their own bowings regardless of what you composed

I've just re-realised part of my old work that is quite clear to have Beethoven/Schubert influence, the cello solo sonata in C major. Maybe if I have time and effort I'll eventually re-realise the whole thing on a workable score. I will highlight parts where slur/bowing is of interest.

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Bar 5: this means a bow per beat, with a break in between the slurred notes. the effect is similar even if I don't add the staccato mark
(below is a kind of realisation)

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Bar 24: slur crossing strings ("bariolage"), in this case the A and D strings. note that in this instance there are hidden voicings
(realisation of a possible intended voicing below)

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Bar 34: notice the low D "slur" with tenuto marks. similar to the first scenario, both Ds are meant to be heard separately
(see realisation below)

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Bar 36: notice the apparent absurdity of holding a full note on the A string and separate bowing on the D string. In reality:

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Bars 43-46: similarly,
(realisation)

alternatively

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Bar 69: upbow staccato. imo this really is just a performance visual effect that is more difficult that the separate bows counterpart but can just sound very similar

P.S. you guys are lucky I have not quoted a single instance of tenor clef music here...

EDIT: added recording. I haven't touched my instrument lately so it's really rusty, but here we go. I also have the musescore-mp3 (labelled MS) version if my playing is too "rustic" for you...
can you believe I wrote this nearly 10 years ago lol

EDIT2: bonus points (not really) if you can find where I "cheated" with bowings and why I did that

EDIT3: feel free to disagree with me, I'm no expert by a long shot

EDIT4: use the new improved recording please I guess

In Guitar playing, there are two ways to play slurs; Hammer-ons and pull-offs. You can also play slurred notes using slides, but that would be using glissando which would probably not come

Hammer-ons are, as the name suggests, when you sharply bring a fretting-hand finger down on to the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound, you "hammer on" to the fret. 

Pull-offs are when you pluck or "pull" the finger that is grasping the sounding part of a string off the fretboard. They are the opposite of the hammer-on.

Examples:

Pull-offs; The opening bars of Francisco Tárrega's mazurka "Adelita":

Hammer-ons: (contains both techniques but hammer-ons are more prominent): The opening of the theme in my own "Variations on an Old Kiwi Christmas Song":

Both Techniques; The opening of Fernando Sor's Minuet No.1 from 2 Themes and 12 Minuets Op.22:

Though most slurs in guitar music imply whether they are to played as a hammer-on or pull-off, in more modern guitar notation ( the way the slur is to be played is usually directly stated:

My two cents here:

In my first nocturne, published here BTW, there are two very similar passages that are played distinctly because of the articulation, expressed by words, slurs and stacatto markings.

In one hand, we have the main theme consisting in simple one octave & broken arpeggios. Everything is marked legato (which tends to be more comfortable than very long slurs). The end of the legato section is sometimes marked by another word or when a change of character appears in the piece.



On the other hand we reach a similar section consisting on arpeggios at M53, but this time the passage must be played ben marcato e agitato and as slurs appear as a consequence of the general character this passage has being more or less contradictory with a legato playing. The contrast between these two sections is evident and can be heard at my post. 


Not much, I know, but hope it's been worth the read :B.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.
 

Thank you everyone. I am working on the script for the video. I most likely will close submissions, however if you are eager to get in and have a great example for me, let me know! I'm also adding @Thatguy v2.0 to the competition. I contacted him privately about his use of slurs in his vocals (whether he realized it or not), that make their debut in The Crusty Candy Cane, lol.

mine is for early keyboard instruments and it’s very rare to see slurs in this context but they do happen every now and then.  because the style is generally a lot more articulated than later keyboard styles, i think the slurs are there more to group the notes rather than to demand legato.  i only included slurs in the first couple measures to indicate that the notes of the jig rhythm should be grouped together thereafter 

Thank you @gaspard. Yeah, I am definitely halting my recording process to script this into my video. This is also great for educational content. Is this meterless?

@chopin i don’t think it’s meterless, i guess i forgot to indicate a time signature which doesn’t help either….every dotted half would be a strong beat.  if i gave it a time signature id probably write 12/4 but the middle section has one measure that’s longer (as well as its variation).  I’m not exactly sure what the likes of william byrd may have written in that respect ….probably just a big C with a slash through it to indicate a brisk pace, but the note values are typically larger like i did here.

so the form is A-A’-B-B’-C-C’ for anyone that was wondering