Strange string notation

[varnis]

Working on a typeset im doing I've run into notation where strings playing in unison have 3/4 note chords where the bottom or two notes are crotchets and the upper one/two are minims, Im assuming this means that you bow all four notes then sustain the top two?

Anyone clarify this for me?

[horndude77]

These are triple or quadruple stopped notes. I believe they're played just as you described.

[varnis]

Indeed i know theyre multiple stops, i was just curious how theyre played is all, and that did seem the most sensible explanation ^^

While im on the subject of strange notation, Trombones on Alto Clef?

[steltz]

My husband is a trombone player, and he says alto clef for trombone players comes in Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Mozart Requiem, etc. Russian publishers often put 1st trombone in alto clef, and the Classical repertoire used a small bore, high-range trombone --these would have had at least the 1st trombone in alto clef. He didn't think alto clef was strange at all. It would probably help to know which composer you are working on?

[Melodia]

Of course, in a lot of the older music, it was written for alto trombone....thus alto clef. Surprised it'd be in Prokofiev though.

[varnis]

Shostakovich for personal amusement, in my orange sikorski edition the trombones and tuba are written as 1+2 in alto and 3+tuba in bass clef - it just struck me as odd, since i'm fairly sure it's not intended for Alto trombone, I was expecting Tenor Clef

[steltz]

@Melodia: he says a lot of Prokofiev symphonies have the 1st trombone part in alto.

@Varnis: he says as long as you are doing a modern typeset, please change it to tenor!!!!! That's what trombonists expect, and they have an easier time reading it.

[varnis]

Ok, Tenor it is then Tenor's easier for me to read too, copying all those damn bassoon parts