Double Bass Tenuto

[Andy Mopley]

To quote "Tenuto" - Play sustained or broadly, and hold the note for its whole value.
Are there times when a standard note (eg not staccato) is not played tenuto?
Or is the statement incorrect??
Regards to all

 

[David Potts]

To me Tenuto is at the other end of the length spectrum from Staccato in all its forms. The dash over notes is used to signify that you make the extra effort to lengthen but shape and join the sounds musically without accents. Often seen under ties over repeated notes (eg Bach slow movements ) or broken slurs that group and articulate and phrase sounds more evenly without accents. You will also see dots-over-tenuto and just dots over notes used under ties and broken slurs as degrees of separation, and terms like Sostenuto and Portato. Interpreting the signs and words within each new context is a test of your musicianship and experience. Sometimes you need to bring out notes in an important slurred passage by separating the notes with Tenuto IME.

"Ordinary" bow-per-note sounds are spread somewhere in the middle of the length spectrum with perhaps more energy at the start and more release at the end in order to articulate clearly and separate them (as in in the orchestra). On-the -string bowing (no lifting off note ends, but using degrees of release) can produce clear musical sounds of any length, degree of loudness and degree of accent however Tenuto is asking for special attention and musicianship IMO.

 

[David Potts]

Upon reflection about what I said above I think there are two parts to discuss. The first is the sound (s) that you want and the second is some techniques to achieve them. In particular when grouping tenuto notes under ties and slurs. At their longest I think of the notes sounding like pulses in an almost continuous ribbon of even sound. Using French bow I practice breaking the almost continuous right arm flow with small relaxed stops/starts with the wrist and fingers (wrist- and finger-strokes?) where the bow catches up each time with the arm. Or I try drawing the bow at a steady speed and causing the pulse by dipping the first finger into the stick. Would you "Frenchies" and "Germans" approach this the same way?

The very best example I ever saw/heard of using right elbow twitches to create pulses in fast slurs was when, in a lesson, I asked Tom Martin how he approached the big cross-string slurs in Richard Strauss' Heldenleben. I was astounded by the ease and clarity he achieved. He asked me to hold his elbow as he repeated them. He had refined the movements to the point that you could not see the breaks in the slurs. I scraped my jaw up off the floor !