Dave,
> "Tre corda" (which I've never seen in sheet music) should be "tre
> cordi", since it's plural.
No no no no no !
"Tre corda" should be "Tre corde", since, as you stated, it is plural, but
plural of an italian word.
That being said, I never realized that indeed there is a discrepency there
("una corda" ok if only two strings per unisson, and "tre corde" ok if shift
causes only two (not one) strings to be struck). Thanks David for pointing
this one out.
In my opinion, this tends to demonstrate how little composers have been
accurate in writing down those indications, how little they usually know
about the technology of their instrument, and how tradition (even
misunderstood) keeps flowing through ages. Add to that the attitude of
publishers, mixed between on one hand the composer's manuscript(s), on the
other, the use of the time among readers. You get a melting pot of all but
intelligible stuff (I mean intelligible for someone who does not swim in the
same cultural aquarium as the composer).
I recall a thread some year ago of someone pointing out a pianist (was this
Andreas Schiff ?) who played the "Sonata quasi una Fantasia" Op. 27 N° 2 of
Beethoven with the right pedal down all through the piece, because it is
said in the text : "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e
senza sordino", proving that nobody possibly knows what Beethoven meant by
senza sordino, as the word sordino was used for different things : the
various devices (common in the time of Beethoven) who muffle the strings,
the device that we call soft pedal which is also known as una corda, even if
it shifts to due corde, and the so called forte pedal which rises the
dampers (litterally in italian : sordine) from the strings.
I have to admitt that the american habbit of standardizing everything could
sometimes be happily applied to the pluricultural ballpark of old continent,
certainly in musical matters. But then, where is the pleasure for the
experts who do know every way in the labyrinth of traditions ?
Regards,
Stéphane Collin.
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