I have a playback question: In the above example I have a single, unstemmed voice becoming two voices in the same measure, as shown, in order to prolong the B to the end of the measure. In the playback, I want the B to be struck only once, but no matter which tieing combination I employ - voice 1 B to voice 1 B, voice 1 B to voice 2 B, voice 1 B to both Bs - I always hear a second B struck on beat 3. I know it’s possible to avoid this by rewriting the lower voice on beat 3 with a quarter rest, but I prefer the original notation. What can I do?
Ah, there it is! Perfect. Thanks so much, Jesper.
I’m not a piano player (mostly play winds) so I’m curious: Is that normal notation? If I saw that written, I’d have assumed that the B should be hit again.
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You may be right, Rikard. I’ll have to check into that. There are a lot of notational subtleties when you have multiple voices on the same stave. Anyway, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
How about replacing the first green ‘b’ with a rest. would that solve it?
Yes, L3B, it would, and it’s an option I’ve used often in other contexts. But here, I want to show that a single voice becomes two voices beginning on beat 3. I am a pianist - mainly jazz - and the fluidity of polyphony, from one voice to two, two to three, three back to two, etc, is something that I find both musical and practical. Your solution would suggest that the G is the first note of a phrase rather than the second of one beginning on that B. Another solution is for the and-of-2 B be double-stemmed, which I believe would allow for two ties, but that makes for a crowded visual, which I try to avoid as much as possible. What I need to confirm is if the tie can be “legally” assumed to connect to both note heads.
I think not. My ‘solution’ is this (others may have better ideas)…
The rest reinforces the 2 voices, the bracket indicates the note is not sounded
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The problem is that if the second voice begins on the third beat, then the 2nd-voice note on that third beat must sound. Because that’s where it begins. You can’t tie from ‘nothing.’ If you don’t like the rest on beat three, then my suggested solution is to begin the second voice at the beginning of the measure, with a rest on beat one, then have both voices hit the ‘b’ on beat two, voice one tie to the half note, and voice two tie to the quarter note. Etc. Think about two voices being two instruments, say a couple of clarinets. If you were to notate both clarinets on the same staff, the way I just suggested would be the only way to show what was really happening. Yes, it gets a tad bit cluttered, but sometimes clutter is the only way to show what you actually mean, and meaning trumps cleanliness, I think.
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Thanks, Charles. Both of your solutions work well, and, I’ll admit, more precise than my original given the double tie. (Solves the playback issue also.) I’m going with the first suggestion, albeit with the eighth-note down-stemmed.
I should have said, “begins on the and-of-two”.