Scribd
Upload
55 views

Pages From Frederic-Bernard-Coon-Lesson-I-How-To-Legato-v7-1 1

- The document provides guidance on writing legato lines, or slurs, for orchestral compositions. It aims to demystify a topic that confuses many composers. - Legato means the notes are smoothly connected, while staccato means short and detached notes. Portato lies between these, indicated by tenuto lines or staccato dots under a slur. - The author provides tips for writing effective slurs, such as thinking like the musician, using tenuto signs appropriately, and ensuring the notation is clear to avoid confusion. Slurs are used most often for melodic lines, runs, arpeggios and ostinatos.

Uploaded by

Panayiotis Katris
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
55 views

Pages From Frederic-Bernard-Coon-Lesson-I-How-To-Legato-v7-1 1

- The document provides guidance on writing legato lines, or slurs, for orchestral compositions. It aims to demystify a topic that confuses many composers. - Legato means the notes are smoothly connected, while staccato means short and detached notes. Portato lies between these, indicated by tenuto lines or staccato dots under a slur. - The author provides tips for writing effective slurs, such as thinking like the musician, using tenuto signs appropriately, and ensuring the notation is clear to avoid confusion. Slurs are used most often for melodic lines, runs, arpeggios and ostinatos.

Uploaded by

Panayiotis Katris
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

“HOW TO LEGATO?

”
- AN ONLINE ORCHESTRATION/COMPOSITION LESSON -
WRITTEN BY FREDERIC BERNARD
Legato lines, or simply put “slurs”, are probably one of the most "mystified" topics in the diverse and wild
jungle of orchestration and frankly something many composers are unsure about. In the following short
guide I'll try to "demystify" the topic a bit, in giving you some basic advice and tips on how to achieve
proper legato lines.

Before we start – what actually does the term”legato” mean? The term is Italian and means something like
“slurred“ or “bound“ and asks the musician to somewhat glue several individual notes together. For notes
which should be played legato the composer should put a legato-slur on top of the specific notes. Legato is
the opposite of staccato, which would mean short notes. There's also some in-between-thing between legato
and staccato called “portato“. Portato is notated by either tenuto lines, or staccato dots under a slur.

For a start, here are some general tips I can give:

1. When writing slurs, always try to think as the musician (e.g. flutist, hornist etc.) would think. For brass
and wind legato lines it's always a good idea if you try to sing the melody. For strings I always try to mime a
violinist, like I'd have a string bow in my hand, so I can get an idea of how the passage would feel to the
musician with the legato bows I've wrote for him or her.

2. Have in mind that melodic, respectively medium- to high-ranged instruments are usually most likely to
use way more legato lines than the deep bass instruments do. Especially the deepest instrument of an
orchestra; like the double bass, contrabassoon, or tuba don't use it a lot, as they play the typical bass line
figures for most of the time. These aren't as “bound” from nature, as for example opposed to the violins,
which play lots of melodies, and therefore use legato much more commonly.

3. Legato bows for strings are usually shorter then they are for woodwinds, brass or other instruments.

4. Brass makes in general the least use of legato bows than any other (melodic) instrument of the orchestra

5. Here's an really important one; make use of the tenuto sign as well as you do from the slurs. As an
example: if you want two exact same notes played twice in a row on an instrument, but legato, you shouldn't
just write the usual slur for legato, because one may confuse your slur with a tie, and this way one could
think the two (actually separated) notes have to be played as just a single long note, which isn't exactly what
you wanted. What you could do here is writing tenuto lines on top of both notes to really make sure they are
both played long (and not short) but nevertheless separated. Another example: you wrote a row of several
notes, which you as the composer don't see as a “whole” (or a real phrase), so you shouldn't write a slur on
top of these, but instead put tenuto signs on every single note. The tenuto sign is also great for individual
notes, where you want to make sure that they wouldn't come out too short.
...anyway, I will get back on the tenuto sign topic later in this guide.

6. Always make sure the notation is clear, so your legato slur won't be confused with a tie (or a phrasing
bow)

7. So, now let's take a look at where we'd need our legato bows:
• slurred melodic lines (very often)
• slurred runs (yup, most times they 're slurred)
• slurred arpeggios or ostinato motives
• slurred bass-lines (a bit more seldom)
• glissandi and grace notes
etc...

You might also like