To Hold or Not to Hold

[Szykneij]

How would you handle the fermatas (fermati?) before letter "C" and the last chord? Not much is known about Johannes Schultz (Grove's only gives him 5 lines), but I'm pretty sure this must have been originally written for voices and transcribed for strings. I think the holds make more sense vocally than they do instrumentally, so I've elected to ignore them except for the ultimate measure. I've seen other arrangements of this piece without any fermatas, so perhaps the editor for Carl Fischer took some liberties. Not an earth-shaking concern, but what would they have done in the early 1600's?

[Szykneij]

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[jochanaan]

When playing music originally written for voice on instruments, I like to emulate vocal styling as far as possible.  For example, if I know the text of the song, I try to phrase as if I were singing the words, putting breaths where commas are, emphasizing notes that correspond to strong words, and so on.  So if I were playing this, I'd probably do the fermatas.

[Cato]

Yes, I agree with Jochanaan: I see no reason to ignore them, whether for voices originally or not.

In fact, if it were for voices, you might then have a case for ignoring them, depending on the abilities of the performers.

[Szykneij]

Thanks jochanaan and Cato for your input. What you say makes sense, but ...
In a piece that's relatively short, to observe four fermatas (since they each appear before a repeat) seems a bit too much. A hold can be a nice embellishment, but if overused, seems to me to lose its effect by becoming predictable. If the piece was performed vocally, and the lyrics were different each time, I might feel differently. I do need to admit, though, that I'm not a big fermata fan, so maybe it's just my personal bias that's getting in the way.

[Cato]

Thanks jochanaan and Cato for your input. What you say makes sense, but ...
In a piece that's relatively short, to observe four fermatas (since they each appear before a repeat) seems a bit too much. A hold can be a nice embellishment, but if overused, seems to me to lose its effect by becoming predictable. If the piece was performed vocally, and the lyrics were different each time, I might feel differently. I do need to admit, though, that I'm not a big fermata fan, so maybe it's just my personal bias that's getting in the way.

Only one way to find out: play it with and without the fermatas!  Possibly the composer wanted a longer note of irregular length at those spots for a structural reason.

[Szykneij]

Only one way to find out: play it with and without the fermatas!  Possibly the composer wanted a longer note of irregular length at those spots for a structural reason.

Yes -- I've tried it with fermatas every time and fermatas only on the repeats, and ended up being most satisfied with a fermata just at the end. At any rate, it's a nice little piece regardless of how the holds are addressed.