Sibelius really mastered rhetoric art of the II7-I cadence. It’s such an unusual sound, coming from a double dominant directly to the tonic. It gives the music a wonderful Lydian taste
So grateful for having these gems on the tube to be admired! I have a question for violinists: why is there an audible tone in the drop between a and d in the second bar of the soloist of the first Serenade (at 0:19 and similarly elsewhere), when I would expect a "clean" jump (non legato)? I am familiar with having to do this when jumping over a string or in a big jump, but in this case it wouldn't be necessary, as I understand (from the e-string to the a-string)? Or is the very first rising figure played also on the a-string, thus making a jump down from a higher position? If so, why would you do that? I find the extra sound (and the legato feel) there between slurred and a bit annoying.
While you can have drops in sound production due to large string crossings, the sound you're pointing out is more of a shift-noise, where the violinist needs to reduce their sound production in order to hide a shift (so you don't have an unwanted glissando). You can hear that there's a bit of a downwards portamento from the top note, so the violinist is indeed starting in a high position for the first phrase and shifting down between the A and D in the second bar, which means they're playing the whole opening phrase on the A string. The string and position that one chooses to play in makes a large difference in sound - the E string has a very "bright" sound, while the same note on the A string will be a little more warmer and covered. So if I had to guess, they probably wanted to keep the timbre consistent across the entire first phrase (that is, they wanted to avoid the transition between a bright E string sound, and a less-bright A string).
![[Full Score] Sibelius - 6 Humoresques for violin and orchestra, Op. 87/89](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FEnLmpimQeQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Full Score] Sibelius - 6 Humoresques for violin and orchestra, Op. 87/89](/img/tr.png)
Sibelius really mastered rhetoric art of the II7-I cadence. It’s such an unusual sound, coming from a double dominant directly to the tonic. It gives the music a wonderful Lydian taste
Wow. I really should've started listening to Sibelius sooner.
So grateful for having these gems on the tube to be admired!
I have a question for violinists: why is there an audible tone in the drop between a and d in the second bar of the soloist of the first Serenade (at 0:19 and similarly elsewhere), when I would expect a "clean" jump (non legato)? I am familiar with having to do this when jumping over a string or in a big jump, but in this case it wouldn't be necessary, as I understand (from the e-string to the a-string)? Or is the very first rising figure played also on the a-string, thus making a jump down from a higher position? If so, why would you do that? I find the extra sound (and the legato feel) there between slurred and a bit annoying.
While you can have drops in sound production due to large string crossings, the sound you're pointing out is more of a shift-noise, where the violinist needs to reduce their sound production in order to hide a shift (so you don't have an unwanted glissando). You can hear that there's a bit of a downwards portamento from the top note, so the violinist is indeed starting in a high position for the first phrase and shifting down between the A and D in the second bar, which means they're playing the whole opening phrase on the A string. The string and position that one chooses to play in makes a large difference in sound - the E string has a very "bright" sound, while the same note on the A string will be a little more warmer and covered. So if I had to guess, they probably wanted to keep the timbre consistent across the entire first phrase (that is, they wanted to avoid the transition between a bright E string sound, and a less-bright A string).
Wonderful! Thanks for your kind answer!@@portmantonal