what does this marking mean?

[jaydg]

Help please, with a marking in an orchestral part.

Is this (pic attached), at the end of the bar, a tremolo between these two chords, or is it a gliss , three-at-a-time?

(it’s in Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome, no. 3 towards the end, before the birds and the harmonics).

The celeste is marked similarly, which makes me suspect the tremolo, but I just wanted to check. TIA.

• This topic was modified 2 years ago by jaydg. Reason: Spelling!
• This topic was modified 2 years ago by jaydg.

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[brian-noel]

Yes, it’s a tremolo, but you’ll have to decide how you want to execute it. There should be a treble clef in the left hand so you have enharmonic versions of the same three notes in an A-flat or G-sharp minor chord. I play this by playing GAB LH / CDE RH, quickly rolling the six note chord from top to bottom using two hands and repeating this rolled chord until the end of the fermata. Others may have a different solution.

[jaydg]

Thank you for spotting the missing treble clef – that makes a bit of a difference! And I like your idea of rolling the chords much better than two solid alternating chords – the celeste can do that, I’ll be more harpy.

Thank you, much appreciated 🙂

ETA: having played around a bit, I think I like them rolled, but as written, so LH and RH fingers interleaved.

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by jaydg.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

If you have Bea Rose’s book on Orchestra parts, I’m sure it’s clearly marked there.

[jaydg]

I do now, I didn’t when I asked the question.

But in fact, I can’t see it in her book. I suppose it’s not orchestra-specific.

I did do as she advised for the harmonic bit, and put the harp in Cb.

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