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Indicating Martelé
As a composer, how would most string players (if that can be determined) prefer for the indication of martelé strokes?Would it be using that little solid black triangular wedge symbol or staccatissimo symbol, or simply with the word martelé and staccato dots?
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Replies (16)
Ultimately, I believe that the smallest unit for a set of notational conventions is the individual composer. Of course, there may be stylistic similarities within a particular period.
Your best bet is to use marcato, or just write what you want.
I suggest you Google these things. I would, but posting links on Android is new to me and so still a pain in the donkey.
Check out violinspiration.com.
Portato is the same as louré, btw.
You might want to get a book called:
Dictionary of Bowing and Pizzicato Terms
>>Don't ask me about collé!<<
And there are slight collés, medium collés, and strong collés. So no room to write words in the score. A personal shorthand is the answer for that.
(Gotta publish that book Mastering Collé: From Stickies to Crispies.
BUT
Besides playing violin and viola I also compose music and I like to give the musician room for interpretation for that simple reason that I do play my own music slightly differently at different times, so who am I to say which technique the musician should apply?
In case of martelé I prefer the word "marcato" because even that marcato often means that the musician plays with martelé strokes it can vary, like you can play very marked with a strong forte spiccato or even with a stroke that is kind of a mixture of martelé and spiccato. Main thing is that the notes are supposed to be marked.
Sometimes I prefer to write staccato dots and a term like "furioso" or whatever term would fit. Other times it can be sufficient with a dynamic indication like forte. Well it really depends on the kind of music one is composing.
