Home Terms phrase marks

phrase marks

  • $RES->author avatar
  • Randal Skiles
  • 3 minutes on read
  • comments

Meaning of Phrase Marks in Music

Phrase marks, also known as slurs, are notations used in music to indicate that a passage of music should be played smoothly and connected, without breaks between the notes. They are used to express a complete musical thought or phrase. The purpose of phrase marks is to guide musicians in shaping the sequence of notes and allowing for expression in the music. Just like in spoken language, where a phrase may be written identically but spoken differently, musical phrasing adds depth and meaning to the music. It involves altering tone, tempo, dynamics, articulation, and inflection to convey the intended musical expression .

Difference between Phrase Marks, Ties, and Slurs

While phrase marks, ties, and slurs may look similar (a curved line in the notation), they each have separate meanings and functions in music. Here's a brief explanation of each:

- **Phrase Marks**: Phrase marks indicate a complete musical thought or phrase. They guide musicians to play the passage smoothly and connected, without breaks between the notes.- **Ties**: Ties are used to connect adjacent pitches together to produce a longer note. They extend the duration of a note across multiple beats or measures.- **Slurs**: Slurs are used to connect a group of different pitches together to produce a smoother musical line. They indicate that the notes within the slur should be played smoothly and without breaks.

It's important to interpret these markings correctly based on their specific context in the music.

Placement of Phrase Marks

The placement of phrase marks in relation to note heads can vary depending on the musical notation and engraving aesthetics. In some cases, phrase marks should almost touch the note heads at their end-points, leaving little room for other markings like portato marks. However, the exact placement may also depend on the specific musical notation software or engraving conventions being used.

Importance of Musical Phrasing

Musical phrasing, indicated by phrase marks, is crucial for musicians to convey the intended expression and meaning in a piece of music. It involves shaping the sequence of notes, altering dynamics, tempo, and articulation to create a coherent and expressive musical narrative. Phrasing adds depth, emotion, and interpretation to the music, allowing musicians to communicate their musical ideas effectively.

Conclusion

Phrase marks, also known as slurs, are notations used in music to indicate that a passage of music should be played smoothly and connected. They guide musicians in shaping the sequence of notes and allowing for expression in the music. While phrase marks, ties, and slurs may look similar, they each have separate meanings and functions. Musical phrasing is essential for conveying the intended expression and meaning in a piece of music, adding depth and interpretation to the performance .

Phrase marks look the same as ties and slurs (a curved line in the notation). However, they must be interpreted differently depending on the context. A phrase mark is used to express a complete musical thought; a tie is used to connect adjacent pitches together to produce a longer note; while a slur is used to connect a group of different pitches together to produce a smoother musical line, While all three phrase marks (phrase, slur, and tie) look the same, they each have separate meanings.

In the example below, measures 166 through 169 use a phrase mark to indicate that these four notes should be performed as a unified musical thought. The last two beats of measure 169 (half note E) is tied to the half note in measure 170 to extend the note to four beats. Measures 170 and 171 indicate slurs to make these short passages smooth groupings of notes without hard attacks for each note.

Phrase Marks Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 41 in C major, K.551 Movement IV – Molto Allegro (mm. 166 – mm. 17

In addition, you can familiarize yourself with the terms:

Popular questions related to phrase marks

A phrase marking is an elongated, curved line above or below a set of notes. If you see a phrase marking, that means you should not take a breath when singing the notes within that phrase; you can, however, breathe before or after the phrase.

In classical music, phrases always end with cadences; if you have encountered a cadence, you have just witnessed the completion of a phrase. In popular music, a phrase might be completed by a melody reaching four measures in length or by completing a line of lyric instead of by a cadence.

Musical phrasing (expressive playing) is the intentional combination of the four elements. For example, in a moment of music, we could slow down, get louder, and play with a warmer tone quality. This will create a particular effect. We could likewise do the opposite and the effect would be far different.

Phrase markings are curved lines over segments of music showing complete ideas or statements. A tie is a short slur used to connect notes across a bar line.

A phrase marker for the sentence Dogs bark. The phrase marker for a sentence can be illustrated as an upside-down tree whose structure is grown from the root node S (for sentence).

A "tie" is a similar curved line that joins two notes of the same pitch. The second note is a continuation of the first: A slur may be hard to distinguish from a "phrase mark," which looks like a slur but may cover a longer passage and really just indicates that this is one phrase, like a phrase in spoken language.

Phrase marks look the same as ties and slurs (a curved line in the notation).

Phrases are a combination of two or more words that can take the role of a noun, a verb, or a modifier in a sentence. Phrases are different from clauses because while dependent and independent clauses both contain a subject and a verb, phrases do not.

A phrase is a group of words that works together in a sentence but does not contain a subject or a verb. Often phrases are used for descriptions of people, things, or events. Examples: Filled with joy, the girl jumped up and down. The man with the red jacket is my father.

The phrasing of something that is said or written is the exact words that are chosen to express the ideas in it. ...a letter to the Pope, which necessitates careful phrasing.

A tie is the identical result that occurs when each team has scored the same total number of runs after their allotted innings, all innings being completed. This is very rare in Test cricket and has happened only twice in its long history, but they are slightly more commonplace in first-class and limited-overs matches.

TIE, or TYE, v.t. [Sax. tian, for tigan, to bind; tig, tige, a tie, a purse. The primary sense is to strain, and hence its alliance to tug, to draw, Sw.

Video on the subject: phrase marks
image phrase
Previous term

phrase

image Phrasierungsbogen
next term

Phrasierungsbogen

Leave a Reply

Your email adress will not be published ,Requied fileds are marked*.

Popular composers
Send to mobile phone
qr code with link to the page about termin: phrase marks