Legato
The musical performance instruction legato ( Italian: "bound") specifies that successive notes of a voice should sound without interruption. It is required by a slur above the notes or - in the case of longer passages - by the written instruction legato .
The tie (also: ligature ) has a similar function . It connects consecutive notes of the same pitch - e.g. B. across a barline - to a single note.
The sliding pitch change - the glissando - must be distinguished from the legato game, in which individual notes continue to sound .
The opposite of legato is staccato .
Playing technique
Keyboard instruments
Legato is realized on keyboard instruments by only releasing a key when the next is struck. This includes the playing techniques are partly over- and under setting and the silent change of fingers needed.
piano
The piano also has what is known as “pedal binding” . Legato can thus also be achieved if the hand has to change position or "finger binding" is no longer possible due to too many voices . With pedal binding, the right pedal is stepped at the same time as the key is pressed or immediately afterwards and held until the next stop. Instead of the right pedal - if available - the (middle) tone hold pedal can also be depressed . In contrast to the right pedal, there is no resonance excitation of other strings. This technique is therefore recommended when a particularly clear, "dry" sound is desired.
Legato developed (mainly through the influence of Beethoven) into a common articulation in piano playing around 1800.
organ
In the course of the 19th century the strict , i. H. constant legato play as the rule. Here, the described techniques for playing legato on keyboard instruments had to be adhered to particularly precisely, since the tone does not fade slowly and therefore a separation between two tones can be heard more clearly than on the piano, for example. Depending on the type of action , the finger strength required to hold a note can be significantly higher on the organ than on other keyboard instruments. Finally, the note commune (“common note”) was added as a special rule : a note that changes from one voice to another was played as if tied with a tie in order to avoid being struck again.
When playing the pedal , the heel of the foot, silent foot changes and sliding of the foot from one key to the next are to be used more intensely.
The playing technique described here is no longer widespread today, even if it is still taught that way. Knowledge of this playing technique is a prerequisite, especially for organ music of the Romantic era.
Since some tones only sound stable after a long transient process , when playing the legato organ, the following note sometimes has to be struck before the previous key is released.
String instruments
Legato is realized on string instruments by playing the notes in question without stopping, releasing or changing the direction of the bow, ie "on one line".
Wind instruments
Legato on wind instruments is achieved by not making a tongue thrust between the notes to be tied , i.e. not interrupting the air flow.
Plucked instruments
With plucked instruments , legato technology can be used to play a sequence of notes fluently without striking every note. There are two techniques for the guitar:
- Serve binding or hammer-on : In this case, a higher tone than the one that is already sounding is generated by a strong, quick touch ("hammering") of a finger on the gripping hand.
- Trigger binding or pull-off : The new tone is created by quickly pulling a gripper finger away from the string. So the string is plucked with the gripping hand. ( There is also a right finger pull-off when tapping ).
These two techniques work most easily when there is only a single note attached to the previous one. It is also possible to combine hammer-on and pull-off in longer tone sequences in which few or no notes are struck. The prerequisite for this legato playing style is the lowest possible string position.
If two notes are tied at the same time, one speaks of double serve or double deduction .
Web links
Frederic Bernard - Composition Lesson I: “How To Legato?” (free PDF tutorial in English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. Gerig Music, ISBN 3-87252-249-3 , p. 112 ( notation symbols ).
- ^ Konrad Ragossnig : Handbook of the guitar and lute. Schott, Mainz 1978, ISBN 3-7957-2329-9 , p. 26 f.