Notating fingered articulations (cuts and strikes)

As we have discussed, fingered articulations are an approach to separating notes by sounding a higher or lower pitch for a brief duration.

These techniques originate in folk tradition. Fingered articulations and other aspects of style are applied by the player through intuition, developed by listening to performances or the guidance of a teacher. Where sheet music is used, it serves only as an outline.

Due to these factors there is no universal, unambiguous way of notating fingered articulations. Several approaches exist with their own pros and cons.

The origin of fingered articulations

The usage of fingered articulations today is thought to derive from bagpipe technique. In a bagpipe the player blows into a bag which acts as an air reservoir, and pressure is regulated by squeezing the bag. Air constantly flows from the bag through several reed pipes, including the 'chanter', the melody pipe.

On most bagpipes sound production is continuous, and the only way to articulate notes is to change pitch. Early players of these instruments noticed that this could be done using extremely short 'notes', so brief as to sound like a 'click'. They started using this approach to articulate notes, using special fingerings to make this easier.

It is believed that players of other instruments started to imitate the sound of the bagpipes by adopting a playing style making heavy use of slurring and fingered articulations. This can be done on any instrument capable of sustained tone, including flutes, bowed string instruments and of course ocarinas.

In practice these techniques may serve as articulations, ornaments, or both at the same time. On bagpipes they are not optional; any notes of the same pitch would be joined if they where omitted.

A case study of notation

Although fingered articulations are most common in folk music, we do have a case study of an instrument with a comprehensive notation for them: the Highland bagpipe. This instrument and its playing style descend from folk music. However, as they where used to march armies and for military performances with large groups of pipers playing in unison, a form of notation was essential.

The Highland bagpipe is an instrument of its own, deviating from classical theory in several ways. The instrument's scale runs from G4 to A5 with two sharps and is not chromatic. This may be considered an A Mixolydian scale or several modes of D. Its sounding pitch is also higher than written.

On the highland bagpipe, fingered articulations are notated using a type of grace note called an appoggiatura. These are small note symbols written before another note, and are interpreted differently depending on context.

A single grace note represents an articulation. They are meant to be played with a subliminal duration and are placed exactly on the beat or sub-beat of their parent note. In order to achieve that reliably, special fingerings are used, lifting or striking a single finger.

They are interpreted quite literally. A grace note on G means 'play a cut using the G finger'.

When a group of grace notes are written, they notate an embellishment. Depending on the visual pattern of the notes, these groups correspond to one of a set of standardised embellishments, including throws, grips, or doublings.

Importantly, the notation does not tell you how to perform the embellishment. Some of the grace notes are played as 'cuts' while others are played with 'proper' fingerings. Their exact placement within the rhythm also changes. In some cases, the first grace note is placed on the beat; in others, the last is, with the previous ones anticipating it.

Players read these patterns of grace notes as 'play a throw' or 'play a grip' and perform that from muscle memory. It is somewhat analogous to chord symbol like 'C', which can be voiced in many ways.

The notation below shows approximately how a 'grip' is performed. This embellishment is normally performed before the beat, with the two low G's are performed with 'proper' fingering and are normally perceived as notes. The C grace note is performed as a cut on the 'C' finger and the exact duration of it changes with tempo.

Many of these ornaments jump to low G as it is the loudest note on the Highland pipe, and players jump to it to create emphasis.

While the example above anticipates the beat, the next example demonstrates the irregularity of the notation. A doubling is a double articulation of a single note performed as two cuts, the first on the beat and the second marginally later.

Approaching this study, I had expected the notation to indicate exactly how something is to be performed and was surprised to find that it doesn't. I find it interesting that Highland pipe playing still remains dependent on oral tradition, and also that there seems to be variation in how different players perform the same embellishment.

Also, there are two kinds of grace note in classical theory:

• Appoggiatura, which typically notate optional melodic details.
• Acciaccatura, written with a slash and intended to be played 'as fast as possible' before the note they are ornamenting. Typically using 'correct' fingerings.

As far as I can see, Highland bagpipe notation does not differentiate and uses appoggiatura in all cases, even though the interpretation differs from what is often taught in classical theory. I think that if acciaccatura were used to represent cuts / strikes, the notation would be less ambiguous.

Why using grace notes for notating fingered articulations could be ambiguous in ocarina music

In contrast with the highland bagpipe, the ocarina is vastly less standardised and has players from many backgrounds, including self taught players and those with classical training. It would not surprise me at all if some of these already use grace notes under the assumption of their standard interpretation in classical theory, and could be ambiguous.

The alternative way of using and interpreting grace notes works on the Highland pipes as it is deeply ingrained in the instrument's tradition. Players learn what they are and how to perform them while learning the instrument.

Of the two kinds of grace note, acciaccatura are closest in concept to fingered articulations, since they are intended to be played 'as fast as possible', but there remains an ambiguity between weather one should be using correct or false fingerings, as well as the exact rhythmic timing (before the beat or on the beat).

It is also worth considering how naming can impact understandability. Calling cuts and strikes 'grace notes' can be confusing as people have a preconceived idea about what a 'note' is, and 'fingered articulation' is a much less ambiguous.

It is quite apparent if you study any guides on playing the instrument, that Highland pipe players do make a distinction between ornamental grace notes and fingered articulations, even though they don't have a word for it.

A potentially better option: Grey Larsen's notation

In his book 'The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle', Grey recognises that conceptual problem and proposes a different means of notating fingered articulations.

In his notation, cuts and strikes are notated like this:

• Cuts are notated by placing a blocky comma ',' directly above the note.
• Strikes are notated by placing an arrow above a note.

I prefer this notation because it lets grace notes retain their standard meaning. It also has conceptual similarity with other articulation notations like staccato dots, and for me is easier to read and looks less cluttered.

Known limitations

The biggest issue I find with using this is software support. If this is a problem the same intent can be communicated with text annotations: 'CT' means 'cut', and 'ST' means 'strike'.

Secondly, these symbols could be ambiguous in some situations:

• The down arrow is visually similar to an up bow mark.
• The comma is similar to a breath mark.

The second can be resolved by using a visually different breath mark, and in practice I don't find that it matters.

The final issue is that it doesn't indicate fingering. I don't think this matters as the finger one uses to cut or strike doesn't matter, players generally use whatever they find easiest.

For teaching, one could add numbers to indicate the cutting or striking finger, in a similar way to fingering notation for piano.

Notations of fingered articulations using grace notes in folk music

While I wouldn't advise using grace notes for notating fingered articulations in general publications of ocarina music, it is worth being aware of how this notation is used in folk music so that you can interpret it.

There are actually two different systems used to represent cuts and strikes using grace notes in folk music, absolute and vague. These terms reflect usage I've observed and are not widely accepted.

• Absolute notation uses grace notes to represent the finger a cut and strike should be performed on. The example of absolute notation below is for a D tin whistle and means "play a cut using the 'C' finger" (the left index finger).
• Vague notation places a grace note on the line above or below, and just means 'play a cut' or 'play a strike' like Grey Larsen's notation. It does not mean 'play a cut on the next scale degree'.

On the ocarina I'd just treat both kinds of notation as vague and use whatever fingering is easiest. Because of acoustic differences between tubular and globular instruments the fingerings don't translate well.

Strikes in both absolute and vague notation are represented by placing a grace note on the scale degree below the current note. This is due to a limitation of the tin whistle and similar instruments, as it is only possible to strike the hole below the lowest open hole.

You may also run across instances where multiple grace notes occur before a note. These typically are notations for rolls and cranns, and their literal notation often doesn't bare much resemblance to how they are played.

For instance the example below shows a group of grace notes interpreted as an Irish long roll, but there are other ways one could interpret it.

Listening to performances is a good idea, and I'd recommend the book 'The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle' if you want to learn more about the ornamentation used in Irish music. It is a comprehensive study and is easily adapted to the ocarina.

Closing

For notation that you are using yourself, you can do whatever you want. But when sharing or publishing music, more care is needed. I'd suggest using Grey Larsen's notation or an equivalent. If you do use grace notes to notate fingered articulations, I strongly recommend including a description of how to interpret and play them since this may be ambiguous out of context.

References

• The Piper's Corner: Understanding Bagpipe Music (web page).
• Learning the Great Highland Bagpipes (Ian B Ferguson)
• Learn to play the Highland Bagpipe (Andreas Hambsch)
• Numerous demonstrations of highland pipe embellishments on YouTube.
• The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle (Grey Larsen)
• Mel Bay's Complete Irish Fiddle Player (Peter Cooper)