lOl -- what does this mean?

[JBacal]

What does it mean when a string note is flanked left and right by vertical lines?

Thanks,
Jay

[DG]

Can you email me a jpeg so that I can see what it looks like? ATM I have no idea [:D]

DG

[DaveTubaKing]

@JBacal said:

What does it mean when a string note is flanked left and right by vertical lines?

Thanks,
Jay

It might mean a double whole note (a breve) which is eight crotchets long - I think - although I thought that had two verticle lines either side as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_whole_note

[JBacal]

Dave, I think you are correct. This notation is used repeatedly throughout Barber's Adagio for strings and only has a single vertical line on each side (my printing is slightly blurry so maybe it's a double line and I just can't tell). The time signature is 4/2 and this symbol is used on whole notes that take up the entire measure (i.e. 4 half notes).

Thanks for solving this mini- mystery [:)]

Best,
Jay

[DG]

@JBacal said:

Dave, I think you are correct. This notation is used repeatedly throughout Barber's Adagio for strings and only has a single vertical line on each side (my printing is slightly blurry so maybe it's a double line and I just can't tell). The time signature is 4/2 and this symbol is used on whole notes that take up the entire measure (i.e. 4 half notes).

Thanks for solving this mini- mystery [:)]

Best,
Jay

Well, if you'd said that I would have agreed [8-)] I thought that it was some special string technique that I'd never heard of.

They are called breves, as the conventional (old fashioned) word for a whole note is semibreve (half a breve).

DG

[JBacal]

Sorry, DG. I thought it was a string specific notation at first. [:O]ops: Never saw the breve before.

--Jay

[PolarBear]

Well I know it from church music where it means to hold the note on pitch while e.g. singing each syllable. So I'd also interprete it as a note to be hold as long as no other sign does interrupt it, be it a break or another note.

Oh and if you're doing a Barber's String mockup - be sure to check out Damon's approaches - he almost went nuts mocking it up in different variations [;)]