# Musical notation confusion



## danchohen (Sep 17, 2013)

Hello
I'm little confused...Recently I looked in Berg's "Lulu" opera score, and I saw 3 special things:
1. A note with x on the stem.
2. A note with a little line on the stem (like a half x)
3. A note without the head (just the stem and the flag).
I know that the first case is Sprechgesang...What are the others?
Thanks.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ahem. All of these in the vocal parts?


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Sprechgesang is something between singing and speaking , and was invented by Scheonberg ,I believe.
The notes are not definite pitch , but indicate a rise and fall of vocal inflection and intonation . 
In Schoenberg's brilliantly weird cycle "Pierrot Lunaire ", the vocal soloist has a part which is entirely in sprechgesang .


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

It seems various different notations were used for Sprechgesang but it doesn't seem clear if the meant different things.









http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.06.12.1/mto.06.12.1.byron_frames.html



> On a page from a working autograph of Die glückliche Hand, Op. 18 from September 1910 Schoenberg explained that the notes with crossed stems "must be spoken at exactly the prescribed time and sustained as indicated; the pitch is to be realized approximately through speech."





> Yet, Schoenberg also crossed the stems of the notes and wrote as early as 1912 that the "recitation should hint at the pitch."





> Similarly, Stadlen writes about the fact that in Pierrot lunaire one can find Sprechstimme notes with and without note heads (see Example 5). He concludes from this that the notes with heads should be sung at the given pitch. I would like to suggest that it is also possible that Schoenberg intended to grant the performers different levels of freedom where the notes without heads should be sung in an even freer manner than the notes with note heads. In other words, the fact that there are different types of notation here does not mean that notes with note heads must be sung in exact pitch. It is possible, again, that Schoenberg intended here three levels of interpretation: 1) notation of the instruments which should be precise with relation to pitch; 2) notation of Sprechstimme with note heads which may be less precise; and 3) notation of Sprechstimme without heads which grants the speaker even more freedom in determining the pitch.


Another reference I read somewhere suggested Berg used a single line through the stem to mean semi-sprechgesang.


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## Fermat (Jul 26, 2013)

I am no expert, but looking at the score, the first thing I noticed going through the first few pages was that each time that the half x (I'll call it a slash) first appeared there appeared halb gesungen or halb gesprochen too. Parlando gesungen appears at a point when it goes back to normal stems as well.

I know nothing about this opera, but my wild guess is that we're dealing with different points on the line between speaking and singing.

The Xs are speaking with a nod toward singing. 

The half Xs are halb gesungen (half sung) or halb gesprochen (half spoken). This is a sort of halfway point with it tilting one way or the other depending on the directions. 

And the regular stems with the parlando gesungen obviously indicates singing but as if you were speaking.

As for the headless ones, I have no idea, but what quack posted about freedom of the performer makes sense.


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## danchohen (Sep 17, 2013)

Thank you people!


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