Propagating properties for slurs

I suspect that all but the most fastidious of performers will end up playing it as tied anyway. Perhaps I’m mistaken (or just lazy, lol) but I’m doubtful that subtle detail will come through.

In some circles I think that might be considered shockingly unprofessional behavior, like forgetting a tie for a formal occasion—or worse, making an inappropriate slur! :smile:

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Once I was teaching a student from Thailand, who asked how to tell ties from slurs. In the course of the explanation I mentioned Paul Badura-Skoda’s article for Early Music, “A Tie Is a Tie Is a Tie,” before catching the puns: “My apologies. I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that all ties [Thais] are the same—that wasn’t meant as a slur!”

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I know plenty of performers for whom the score is more a ‘suggestion’ than an ‘edict’. This latter idea being more prevalent in only the last century or so. But I digress. It doesn’t much matter.

Surely there’s a golden mean to be found between careless disregard for a composer’s text and blind, unthinking obedience to the point of textual fetishism?

Oh I should think so, but todays modern music school mentality combined with the superabundance of high-quality recordings (that are often heavily edited) means that the trend heavily favors exacting obedience (and “perfection”— a word for which I shan’t supply any definition). Think of the reverence for Bach, for instance. People who go off script (even subtle breaches in organ registration) can be absolutely castigated by critics. This is all rather ironic when you consider the much more fluid dynamic that was common in regards to music making during Bach’s own day.

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