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Double Bass Slurred Staccato and Slurred Portato

Steve Freides

Steve Freides

Former Mannes College Theory Faculty
Supporting Member
Dec 11, 2007
2,576
1,508
Ridgewood, NJ
#1
I'm not clear about two thing I see in a beginning bass book I teach from ...

... a slur across two notes with a staccato dot on each note is called "slurred staccato."

... a slur across two notes with a tenuto mark on each note is called "slurred portato."

First of all, there seems to be some confusion about the word portato, which apparently has meaning as a terms of general articulation but also specific meaning as a bowing technique.

I have been explaining these for the double bass as follows: both (staccato dots and tenuto marks under the same slur) are taken with a single bow. For the staccato dots, you play a short note, probably a little longer than an unslurred staccato but still, especially in a slow tempo, more space than sounding note as a rule. For slurred portato, you stop the bow, but the effect is detached legato, more note than space in between the notes.

Please enlighten me both about general usage and meaning of these terms and how they are performed on double bass. I also play and teach piano so I'm curious to know what's expected when seeing these notations on a page of piano music. To my mind, both are "detached" without being staccato. When I see "slurred portato" on piano, I imagine hairpins (cres, dim) on each note, even though one obviously can't actually do that.

Many thanks in advance.

Dazed and Confused in Ridgewood, NJ
 
#5
In both strokes, the bow will remain in constant contact with the string. The slurred staccato is relatively simple: the bow completely stops between notes.

Ideally, bowed legato sees absolutely no change in bow speed or pressure across notes. Portato, on the other hand, has a pulse leaned in to each note. This can be accomplished with either speed, or pressure, or both.

Classic example in the cello part:



(note: I don't believe there's any indication in the score to play these lines with pulses, but that's what cellists like to do)
 
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#7
Very interesting and thank you for these responses.

So if the bow is moving in and out of contact with the string, the effect might well be described as hairpins because the volume will increase as the bow returns to contact with the string and decrease as the weight on the bow decreases - is that an reasonable description of the end result of playing what we're calling portato or slurred portato?
 
#8
Steve Freides said:
So if the bow is moving in and out of contact with the string, the effect might well be described as hairpins because the volume will increase as the bow returns to contact with the string and decrease as the weight on the bow decreases - is that an reasonable description of the end result of playing what we're calling portato or slurred portato?
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A few things:

- The bow is not moving in and out of contact with the string. The hair is in constant contact, but the weight and speed of that contact will vary.

- "Slurred portato" is redundant. Portato only exists under a slur, otherwise it's another stroke with another mechanism.

- The hairpin idea is not entirely wrong, but I'm hesitant to embrace it. Ideally, the emphasis in portato comes at the very beginning of each note with just a slight release before the next. "Hairpin" implies a brief swell after the pitch has sounded, which would be a bit sickening in most contexts.

- I have to agree with my previous teachers that portato is generally a bad musical choice in most contexts. A completely sustained slur is usually much more compelling, and often what the composer intended. There are certain composers, such as Rachmaninov, who explicitly request it, but I'd otherwise avoid it in most cases. Think of it like a special seasoning you can add to one phrase for a nice kick.
 
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#9
Paul, "slurred portato" is what the book I'm teaching from calls it so that's what I'm stuck looking at. Portato seems to have more than one meaning, depending on who you ask and what they play. The Wiki on the term touches on this. I agree, at least for bass playing, just saying "portato" is sufficient, at least based on what I now know.

When you say, "The hair is in constant contact but the weight and speed of that contact will vary," does that mean there is no separation between the notes, and does everyone else agree with you on this point?

I get where you're coming from with not liking the hairpin idea - it will probably sound a little like that but it should be a pretty subtle effect compared to what one would play with actual hairpins printed under each note.

I appreciate the education - I've gotten to the point where I'm working on orchestral excerpts for the first time but, never having played in an orchestra, a lot of this is completely new to me. I have played bass in a concert band (and played French Horn in one, too), but it's a whole other thing compared to playing in an orchestra since you are the only stringed instrument in the room and at least half the time, your part really wasn't written with your instrument firmly in mind.

Thanks again.

-S-
 
#10
Steve Freides said:
Paul, "slurred portato" is what the book I'm teaching from calls it so that's what I'm stuck looking at. Portato seems to have more than one meaning, depending on who you ask and what they play. The Wiki on the term touches on this. I agree, at least for bass playing, just saying "portato" is sufficient, at least based on what I now know.
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That's the problem when we're trying to use ambiguous foreign words to describe a specific thing. Marcato, for instance, means four or five different things depending on whom you ask. It basically renders the word useless. If we're talking about the pulsated bowing that I know as portato, then that's what we're talking about.

Wikipedia tends to offer particularly strange and confusing articles on musical terminology, and "portato" was no exception. I feel like I'm pretty well-versed in musical terms, but I swear I've never heard the words "mezzo staccato" before. This is also the first time I'm hearing about portato being notated with dots instead of dashes or dotted dashes.

Steve Freides said:
When you say, "The hair is in constant contact but the weight and speed of that contact will vary," does that mean there is no separation between the notes, and does everyone else agree with you on this point?
Click to expand...
Depends on what you mean by the word separation. There is no moment of complete silence, and the bow never completely stops moving. I can't say if this is universally accepted as true, or if I'm just picky.

Steve Freides said:
I get where you're coming from with not liking the hairpin idea - it will probably sound a little like that but it should be a pretty subtle effect compared to what one would play with actual hairpins printed under each note.
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I'm not sure. Hairpins can be subtle, but they're still a different shape than what portato should be.

Steve Freides said:
I appreciate the education - I've gotten to the point where I'm working on orchestral excerpts for the first time but, never having played in an orchestra, a lot of this is completely new to me. I have played bass in a concert band (and played French Horn in one, too), but it's a whole other thing compared to playing in an orchestra since you are the only stringed instrument in the room and at least half the time, your part really wasn't written with your instrument firmly in mind.
Click to expand...
That's how it works, though. You ask questions, and hope you're getting answers from the right people. You can learn a lot of things playing in an orchestra section, but explanations of the nuances in different bow strokes usually isn't part of that. Outside the occasional rant from the podium, which are often dubious themselves, these things usually don't come up in rehearsals. You can ask your colleagues, but that's a dangerous game. In a community orchestra, odds are good they don't have much more information than you already have. At a professional level, you're expected to already know the difference between a cesura and a castrato.
 
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#12
Hi, to my mind notes with either signs above them would indicate sounds separated to some degree.

The general term I would call "Linked Bowings" and may be seen as devices to both help expression and avoid running out of bow hair or ending up moving in the wrong direction

The dots under a slur sign I treat as staccato and teach my students to first produce the sounds with single detached bow strokes then copy them
with linked bow strokes ( a tough example is in Mahler's 4th Symphony)

Dashes above notes are called Tenuto and, when used under a slur sign (Portarto), would indicate very long sounds, broken either by a slight pulse in the bow pressure or by very subtle breaks in the movement. The sounds can still copy very well connected separate bow strokes. These are harder to produce technically because the call on more sophisticated use of the bow. Much will always boil down to context and musicianship. Sometimes, such as in Handel's Messiah, the signs are not written but are observed anyway as part of the style of the music.

Cheers, DP
 
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