In our MUTH 1101 Aural skills class the other day, we talked about how our notation system can be very specific at times and at others quite ambiguous. For example, we all know that two eighth notes make up a quarter note, two quarters make up a half, etc. In class, we talked about fermatas which suggest (according to our textbook) that we hold the note out for "about twice" its duration.
With this on my mind, I came across the following oddity in my bass part to the Rachmaninoff symphony. I don't have the part in front of me, but the passage occurs in the second ending of the first movement, right before the development section:
How on Earth am I supposed to crescendo through one plucked note and diminuendo through another plucked note? What was Rachmaninoff trying to tell me? Surely he could have notated this differently--as one student suggested, possibly by putting accents on the notes, or some such thing.
Beethoven's Grosse Fugue has quite a few passages notated entirely with tied eighth notes where a quarter note would probably have worked just fine (again, I don't have the score in front of me). But clearly he had a reason for making the choice that he did.
Can anyone suggest other passages that exploit the flexibility of our notation system?
With this on my mind, I came across the following oddity in my bass part to the Rachmaninoff symphony. I don't have the part in front of me, but the passage occurs in the second ending of the first movement, right before the development section:
How on Earth am I supposed to crescendo through one plucked note and diminuendo through another plucked note? What was Rachmaninoff trying to tell me? Surely he could have notated this differently--as one student suggested, possibly by putting accents on the notes, or some such thing.Beethoven's Grosse Fugue has quite a few passages notated entirely with tied eighth notes where a quarter note would probably have worked just fine (again, I don't have the score in front of me). But clearly he had a reason for making the choice that he did.
Can anyone suggest other passages that exploit the flexibility of our notation system?