Is there a musical difference between a work ending with a whole note and one ending with a whole note tied to an eighth?

Question

Occasionally I come across pieces of music written for wind ensembles (or similar groups) such that the final held note of a piece is notated like so:

In other words, the final note of the piece ends with a long note tied into an eighth in the last measure.

Yet in my experience this is taught to be no different than what I would consider a more standard notation:

I have always assumed there is no difference in performance between the two, and that the upper notation is simply a reminder to play the whole note full value.

Is this accurate, or are there other explanations that I'm not aware of? Perhaps the upper notation is a more modern version of the older tradition of leaving a fermata over the final barline?

A few additional remarks:

1. The upper notation tends to occur in faster pieces, and almost never in slow tempi.
2. The upper notation could make more sense if, say, some members of the ensemble actually articulate an eighth note on the downbeat of the last measure. But this is not always the case; in fact, it very rarely is, because often the entire ensemble will articulate that final pitch.

So is there a difference between the two notations, or is the upper notation just a friendly pedagogical reminder?

Answer 1

I'm used to seeing the top notation in marching bands - the winds sustain the whole notes (and often crescendo), while the percussion plays some rolls or fills, and then there is a big crash on the downbeat. The eighth note on the end is often called the "release" or "release note."

Answer 2

My experience with playing concert band pieces that end with the tied eighth note is that we did indeed play the tied eighth note, and the conductor conducted that last downstroke.

This is in contrast to my experience playing concert band pieces that end with the whole note, where the conductor did not conduct an additional downstroke at the end, and s/he just plain stopped conducting after the last upstroke.

So yes, there are musical differences between a work ending with a whole note and one ending with a whole note tied to an eighth.

Answer 3

Choral music uses such a tie to a short note to mark where a word's final consonant is pronounced. Some call this a written release.

Randall Thompson's scores are good examples of this. (Solo vocal music such as a Schubert song doesn't need this as much because it can't suffer from, say, thirty people raggedly pronouncing 't' like a misbehaving power tool.)

Answer 4

As a performer, I would probably play the first version by remaining in "perform position" for the duration of the measure, making the silence part of the ending of the piece.

In theory :-) for classical performances, the performer(s) indicate the end of the piece by moving their instruments to "rest position," or removing hands from the piano keyboard, etc. So in the second version, the piece ends at the end of the whole-note measure. In the first version, there is a suspended silence.

Answer 5

Assuming that all the parts are notated the same way and no parts are moving differently, these two versions will be played exactly the same way. The conductor will not normally conduct four (or five beats) on the last note; they will conduct the one and then give a cut-off (effectively a fermata). In a chamber ensemble without a conductor the players will look at each other and cut off together.

Answer 6

One jazz band conductor told us that when you see a note tied to an eighth (as in your example) that is explicitly saying to hold the note until the beat eighth note is on. For example, with a whole note tied to an eighth, hold the note four beats and come off on 1. With a half note tied to an eighth, hold the note 2 beats and off on 3, etc. Without the eighth, when to release the note would be more up to interpretation based on the style of music, articulations, and what the rest of the band is doing.

Answer 7

Yes there is a difference of course: (I am pretty sure the 1st picture isn't a music sheet of an unacompanied solo.

Imagine the piano accompaniment or the full orchestra has to play an 8th note in the last measure and the soloist is already walking out ...

The conductor will have to conduct the whole four beats of the secound last measure as other instuments probably have to play some tones e.g. as a triad with an 8th .

Or this is the part of windinstrument accompanying a violon solo or a small ensemble whre the soloist has to play a scale or something in the 2nd last bar ending with a 8th in the last bar.

And if this were a uncompanied piece for a flute the soloist would have to show by his gestures that he is counting the fisrt 8th of the final bar.

(In the second example the tone may be held as long as you like if no one else is playing, as it's the final tone you cant say what kind of ritertando you are counting.)