In Chopin Marche funèbre, measure 19, on right hand, is the A flat played once or three times?

Question

In Chopin Marche funèbre, measure 19, on right hand, is the "A bemol" played once or three times ? Is the "C" played three times ?

Adding also Gymnopédie 1 from Satie :

It seems that here, the F# is not played 4 times but only once. But they use exactly the same notation as the case of Chopin Marche Funèbre.

@Aaron I see that now, I initially read the question as if it was a confusion on Ab once and A two times or not. I retracted my vote. — Tom, Sep 4, 2022 at 7:10
That's not the exact same notation between the Gymnopedie and the Funeral March. The Gymnopedie doesn't have one arc spanning multiples of the same note - it has separate arcs, and that makes all the difference. — Dekkadeci, Sep 4, 2022 at 18:14
...and honestly, given the colliding voices of the Gymnopedie, I'd actually play that tied F# four times anyway because the chords in the lower voice still want to sound out in full. — Dekkadeci, Sep 4, 2022 at 18:18

Lazy · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-03 16:59:05Z

7

The Ab is played three times, as it is notated. The C is played twice (also as it is notated). Are you perhaps confusing the Slur with a Tie?

answered Sep 3, 2022 at 16:56

Lazy

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@MathieuKrisztian No, that is a Slur. A Tie is usually not allowed to span multiple notes and is set for each note of a chord separately.
– Lazy
Sep 3, 2022 at 17:04
4

A mistake, but one that is easy to correct. No disaster!
– Laurence
Sep 3, 2022 at 17:45
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@MathieuKrisztian It is a small, not particularly significant part of the whole piece, so this can hardly be considered a disaster. And now you asked and thus know it better. After all life is about learning new things. And hopefully you’ve learned something about Slurs and Ties from this, which will pay off in many more cases than this small bit.
– Lazy
Sep 3, 2022 at 18:20
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From the image in the question, there are two ways you can tell that the line is not a tie. 1. It spans three chords. If all 3 A flats had to be tied, two ties would be needed: from the first to the second and from the second to the third. 2. It is reasonably close to the notes' stems but nowhere near the note-heads. The ends of a tie should be quite near the heads of the tied notes.
– Rosie F
Sep 4, 2022 at 17:31
2

@MathieuKrisztian No the gymnopédie 1 does not use the exact same notation. This one does not have one bow over all F#s, but individual bows between each two F#s. This is necessary as one tie usually only ties two notes, not multiple notes.
– Lazy
Sep 4, 2022 at 20:08

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Laurence · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-03 17:44:05Z

8

Three times.

Ties connect just two notes. Ties could be notated like A below. Or, more likely, B - which might have been confusing.

But it wasn't written that way. The A♭ is played three times.

Not an enormous error in your playing to put right though!

answered Sep 3, 2022 at 17:44

Laurence

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1

This is of course not related to the issue, but that should be an Eb and a Db. Key signature is Bb minor.
– Lazy
Sep 3, 2022 at 17:55
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Thank you. I was not aware that there were two sorts of this curved line.
– Mathieu Krisztian
Sep 3, 2022 at 18:39
I added gymnopédie 1 example in question. It seems that here, the F# is not played 4 times but only once. But they use exactly the same notation as the case of Chopin Marche Funèbre. So is the notation evolving with the score ?
– Mathieu Krisztian
Sep 4, 2022 at 16:49
1

@MathieuKrisztian as already mentioned elsewhere, the Satie is different from the Chopin because there is s a separate curved line connecting each pair of Fs in the Satie while the Chopin has a single curved line applied to three chords. Furthermore, the Satie can only be notated with ties because each of the notes being tied takes up a whole measure. Had Chopin wanted the A flat to be struck once and held for three beats, he would have written a dotted half note.
– phoog
Sep 5, 2022 at 14:39

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