I've just been given some music I have to learn for a concert in a couple of weeks. Can someone please explain what these two symbols mean? I tried looking for them in MTIP but they weren't there.



The diagonal dashes to the left of each note.



The little cross

Thanks,

Sarah

EDIT: Wow, they came out slightly bigger than I expected!

I think the cross is some sort of ornament?

Don't know about the dashes though

Yes the cross is a trill.
I dont know aboot the dashes unless they are little slides up to the notes.

Thanks, trill makes sense for the cross.

Bagpuss assured me that a cross means 'some sort of twiddle', so if a trill doesn't suit you can shove in something else. Don't know about the diagonal line though...

Who's the composer, Sarah?
I've seen similar on a facsimile of some keyboard music by Purcell - the only thing is, it was an ABRSM edition, and I'm afraid their realisations of baroque ornaments haven't always been too hot...
the way the line is marked makes me think of an upgoing twiddle of some sorts - I have some French music marked with v over some notes, meaning an extra note before the main note, slurring upwards, plus a twiddle after it, but I'm not sure if this might be an alternative way of marking the same thing or something else entirely.

The cross is a trill. It is three notes played for the tone, depending on the tone played before and the century, the piece was written. Usually, if the tone before is higher you trill with the lower tone of the note itself. If the tone before is lower in the octave, you trill with the higher note of the note written.

It doesn't say who its by, but its a modern piece for 2 descants and a treble. It'salmost jazzy, with loads of syncopation and chromatic notes, if that's any help. The three notes are right at the end (theres one long note after them) and the three parts all have exactly the same markings on them (although have different notes, so it sounds dreadful discordant.)

I'm in the throes of reading the ABRSM's book "A Performer's Guide to the Music of the Baroque Period" and it gives some information about both the + and the / \ symbols. I'd better not quote from it in public, but PM me if you want some more info sarah


Edit: cross post - obviously not a Baroque piece then!

If it sounds jazzy I suspect the diagonal line means you have to start it slightly lower and 'bend" to the right pitch. Don't know how to do that on recorder though.

probably by controlling the air stream within the recorder/flute by slightly manipulating the tone hole on the recorder, firstly leaving a little air through and closing it more and more.

the diagonal line, means you slide up from a semitone lower i beleive.
Ie, if it were on a piano, and it was /E you would for example put for 3rd finger on the Eb and press it whilst sliding it down the key, onto the E.

Ah, so like a mini glissando then. This is going to be interesting.

Exactly, yes

Mini-glisses are okay to learn - for one note, play the lower, then slide fingers off slowly and the tone will bend upwards. More major glisses are a challenge, but I've been taught a reliable technique for these too - again done with fingers. You can get minimal differences using breath pressure, but to be honest, the results are less good because the tone is affected negatively. To slide more than one finger off for a larger gliss or if you've got a fork to take off - the technique I was taught first, one finger at a time, didn't work as well as the one I learned later - namely to roll off all the fingers you need to remove together - that way you don't get unwanted obvious intermediate notes. This one takes a little practice, but works so well once you've cracked it. I do find some glisses are better done by pushing fingers off, but pulling or rolling back works for most. Having spent some time learning to play a piece called "Fragmente" by Ishii Shinohara (not one I can say I enjoy.... ), I can now doodle around with glisses with relative ease .