Hello. I have a question about piano playing. What does the line in the picture mean? Thank you.
Iād interpret that to mean the left hand jumps up for the lower chord in the upper staff and back down again. Not particularly necessary imo.
Lines like that are sometimes by editors of older music to make clear the course of the melody from one hand to another, as in your Liszt example. However, Liszt didnāt put them in because he felt that this was obvious from the notation itself. Nor did Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert etc. ever use such lines.
Some later composers have used lines to show the same thing or more rarely to make clear the motion of one hand from staff to staff, as in the first example. However, I think it better that lines be a last resort and other means be used to show voice leading and hand distribution, since lines clutter up the music. This would be the case in the first example, in which the hand distribution would be obvious to a proficient pianist, and maybe even create doubt for no good reason.
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As a dorico user, I asked a question because I thought I should know it theoretically. Thank you.
You are very welcome @Nohoodo. Having deja vu about the first example. Could you tell me what it is?
Sorry, my English is bad. So I used Google Translate. I didnāt understand what you said. I wanted to know what that line is in the piano performance. Thank you.
@John_Ruggero wanted to know what piece of music it is.
Jesper
Ah. I donāt know what song it is. I took a picture of the choir song, but there was a part I didnāt know, so I asked.
Sorry @Nohoodo ādeja vuā is used casually to mean that you feel as if you are repeating something that you did before. In this case I felt that that exact example and question has come up before and I had answered it similarly. Deja vu can be an illusion, however.
This is my first time asking this question. But I havenāt found a clear explanation for it.
The notation is still used in modern editions. Best example is the definitive Alfred Masterwork WTC by Palmer, which exhaustively combed all previous āUrtextā editions (which are anything but) to create a ātrueā version. It uses them to indicate the dominant melodic voice in a fugue as it moves through the counterpoint - if itās not clear.
The usage above isnāt clear to me as a pianist. Not sure what theyāre trying to indicate other than a chordal connection. I wouldnāt pay too much attention to it, thatās a long chord with big stretches to play, Iād just find a fingering that works for me.
@Nohoodo I was sure that it wasnāt you, but I have noticed that coincidences of this kind happen on these various music notation sites and find it fascinating. Recently, two different people asked similar questions about the same obscure piece on two different sites about a day or so apart and I was amazed.
@DanMcL Thatās the problem with the lines in cases like this: they can create more questions than answers. But Iām pretty sure that @sjanssens is correct. The composer is trying to show that the dotted half note chord with the downward stems is played by the left hand. And also that the composer thinks of the tied middle see as part of that rolled chord but coming in on the previous beat and held for a whole beat before the roll begins.
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Iām not a piano major, so can you explain it to me briefly? Is this line a fingering technique?
Well itās just how do you play the darn thing? Donāt know the tempo but the only way is with a little pedal I think (not indicated but pianists do it all the time for effect or practicalities like this.) Iād use a little pedaling, mindful of the 16thās, with the left hand doing the Fās, then go up the keyboard hitting middle C then the bottom treble chord. If this was a slow piece Iād be tempted to Una Chorda the bottom notes (and not worry about what 16ths get caught in it), but thatās a tricky pedal. So yeah, just a little pedal and left hand all that stuff on the bottom.
In this case I wouldnāt interpret the line as voicing, but more āplay all this stuff on the left handā which is usage Iāve seen before. Or at least Iāve interpreted it this way - those chords are voiced as chords, donāt need the line to encourage that.
Iām not an expert, so I donāt think I understood what you explained. It was very helpful. Thank you all.
Just so you donāt go away disappointed @Nohoodo
@sjanssens gave you the answer for the first example. It is showing that the left hand plays the lower four notes of the rolled chord on the upper staff.
In the second example the lines are showing the melody moving back and forth between the hands.
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