I’m curious whether others find the positioning of slurs and ties in similar contexts slightly distracting. As shown below, the tie in Vln. I and the slur in Vln. II are handled differently: the former runs from the dot to the left-hand side of the following note, while the latter spans the outer edges of each note. I assume I’m using the default settings, as I haven’t yet explored the available options.
I don’t find them distracting probably because the ties are going basically from note head to note head and slurs are overarching the note heads. That’s just my perspective and I certainly respect yours. I wonder what others think.
I’ve been working on a vocal score lately where ties and slurs were the same, and I thought it was quite a nightmare to have to check out on every note to see whether it had changed (slur) or not (tie) on chords every bar… I really think it helps when they are different.
Ted Ross describes ties and slurs as “being constructed in the same way” (largely because the same tool was used to create them); but serving different purposes. Because of the differences in function or significance, there are differences in how they are presented.
I agree with Marc that subtle distinctions in the placement of slurs and ties lets those who have to read from it to tell one from the other.
One option would be to make slurs have a dashed or dotted appearance while inputing notation and then, when finished, Filter for all slurs and change to solid line.
Is this only to distinguish them when they both look the same, while working on a piece?
If you position them differently, then anyone reading it can see the difference.
What I meant is that it helps the reader (the player), I wasn’t thinking about the engraver!
For my wife and me, both professional musicians, this makes no difference to how we interpret a passage; the meaning feels self-evident from the musical context, though I appreciate what you say from an engraver’s perspective. We tend to read by gesture, bar, or phrase rather than note by note, so it’s pitch continuity and the presence of a connecting line that matter, rather than its precise placement. That said, I recognise we’re a small sample, and others may well experience this differently.
Having spent much of my performing life as a continuo player, working through many thousands of pieces, often in facsimile, though mostly in modern editions, I’m now wondering how far my perception has been shaped by that experience. Looking through some Bärenreiter scores, I’m struck by how inconsistent the placement of ties and slurs can be, presumably reflecting a time when such details were set by eye rather than by computer engraving.
I prefer @FredGUnn’s settings, but even so I would expect a slur to reflect the change in pitch from one note to the next. I struggle to see why both lines should appear so similar in their horizontal placement. My wife feels that, provided the intention is clear, it makes little difference; I tend to think that if a choice is made, it ought to be informed by some underlying rationale.
It seems I am not using Dorico’s default settings. They must have been modified in the Scoring Express Theatre and Studio template which I am using.
Yes. it is only to distinguish them while notating thus my statement: “when finished, filter for all slurs and change to solid line.” A performing musician is not really worried about where the ends of those curves attach to notes.
By definition of a slur being a grouping of different pitches, logically those pitches should be under or over the slur. Similarly a tie should be between the two same pitches. Using the dashed or dotted line slur can help distinguish while notating music if they can easily be exchanged for a solid line slur. There are, of course, specific instances where a dashed slur is appropriate in the final copy.
Those of us who are players really don’t care that much because the differentiation between the two is almost always a very simple process to which most of us give no conscious thought unless the music is phrased throughout with long slurs.