I'm currently learning a shakuhachi and koto piece called "Ryuuka" by
Miyashita Shin. The shakuhachi part is in western staff notation,
which mostly isn't a problem for me, but there are some odd things
about it that I can't figure out.
In particular, there are two levels of ties. The first set of ties
look like phrasing marks, indicating where you breath more than
anything else. The second set of ties are inside the first set, and I
can't figure out what they're supposed to signify. Sometimes it looks
like they should simply be tieing together notes to make notes of
unusual duration, like a quarter note plus a sixteenth, say, or
holding a note across a measure line. Other times that would make no
sense, either because they tie notes of different pitches, or the
durations are two simple, like two quarter notes.
For example, there's a measure in 12/8 time, with four dotted quarter
notes (one beat each, the way I'm counting it), all the same pitch
(high Ro), and all tied together. Am I supposed to hold the note or
articulate it?
A more general question is, are there conventions for writing
shakuhachi music in western staff notation? Or do different composers
and/or publishers generally do different things?
Thanks.
James
____________________________________________________
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:53 PST