William L. Berz
Band
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
wberz@rci.rutgers.edu
Articulation: The Long And The Short Of It
should be made about exact interpretation fairly connected. If non-slurred notes are
T
here is considerable debate in
band director circles over goals
of written articulation. Conductors should detached, performance clarity and musical
of achieving technical mastery
feel free to alter patterns if the musical style is almost always improved.
versus musical inspiration. Many directors
intent of a given segment is improved. For Obviously, the march is not the only
spend enormous energy in rehearsals trying
example in rapid passagework, slurs and genre of music that can be improved with
to make the end product perfect – or at least
tonguing can be altered if the performance greater attention paid to note length.
as clean as possible. Others devote far less
can be improved without sacrificing the Almost any work that is in a quick tempo
time in this pursuit and endeavor to bring
musical spirit. Orchestras constantly do and marked in style would benefit from
feelingful insight to the performance but
this; bowings are continually adjusted. greater separation between notes.
ignore technical precision. Often these
There is no reason why bands should not do
goals, especially at the junior and high
this as well. If clarinet players cannot Note Weight
school levels, appear to be in conflict. One
tongue runs fast enough, a different pattern
area, articulation, is vital for both objectives.
can be used. Instead of tonguing all six- Accents are often considered an ele-
Articulation refers to many different
teenths as written, the pattern might be ment of articulation. Many conductors
but related concepts. The ever-authoritative
changed to slur 2/tongue 2, slur 3/tongue 1, consider accents to be simply stress without
Wikipedia defines articulation as:
or even slur all. Often times, both clarity and considering note length. This is not accu-
…the direction or performance tech-
musical grace can be significantly improved; rate as accents imply both added weight and
nique which affects the transition or conti-
most composers would encourage this. length—normally being more detached.
nuity on single note or between multiple
There are a great many different kinds
notes or sounds. There are many different
Note Length of accents, both as written in the score and
kinds of articulation, each having a differ-
as implied by the context of the music.
ent effect on how the note is played. Some
Wind instruments tend to be fairly res- There are many articles and books devoted
articulation marks include the slur, phrase
onant, which creates some special perform- to the proper interpretation of all kinds of
mark, staccato, staccatissimo, accent,
ance challenges for bands. Performances of accents. The subject is further complicated
sforzando, rinforzando, and legato. Each
music that is marked in style can lack clari- because jazz and classical players interpret
articulation is represented by a different
ty. This can be aggravated by inaccurate many of the basic accents differently. The
symbol placed above or below the note.
rhythm. It is particularly difficult for large complexity of the subject is beyond the
At the most basic level, musicians need
bands because the problem becomes magni- scope of this article.
to achieve success in grouping notes cor-
fied with the additional players and even Forgetting much of the subtlety on the
rectly with slurs and separations. For
greater resonance. One way to achieve greater subject, it is basic that different kinds of
strings, this is fundamental and obvious:
clarity is to play in a more detached style. This accents receive different kinds of stress.
bowing. For winds, the concept is some-
helps to solve the muddiness that is so com- Note length is of vital concern as well. Stress
what more technically complex and concep-
monly heard in band performances. and length go together when considering
tually subjective for it involves tonguing to
The players need to be encouraged to performance accuracy and insightful style.
make separations and keeping the wind
play in a detached style. Obviously, notes In the march excerpt on the next page,
moving forward to slur. The principle is
can still have some length, but still be a number of different challenges are pre-
easy to understand but more difficult to
detached from their neighbors. However, sented. First is the question of note length.
implement since so many players, even at
the added space between notes helps the The first and third measures are simple
advanced levels, do not have mastery of
sound to clear so that the beginning of each repeated notes with regular accents. As
keeping the wind moving. While these basic
note can be detected. It is the beginning stated above, many bands would play these
concepts of articulation are vital, they are
attack that helps to provide the clarity. in a fairly connected and casual manner.
not the point of this article. Just as in play-
This performance problem is most This would almost certainly result in a
ing correct notes, accurate performance of
often heard in marches. Except in the trio, muddy, and certainly bland, performance.
slurs and separations should be assumed.
marches are almost always in a marcato There should be a space between each note
However there is one qualification that
style. However, most school bands play so that each will be clearly heard. This is
TEMPO 22 MAY 2009
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