Pizzicato on repeat

• Mar 10, 2023 - 19:14

In a score of Schubert's Sonata D821 for Piano and Arpeggione (most likely played on another solo string), there is a repeat at about measure 70 and there are two endings. There is a switch to pizzicato just before the first ending and when played in Musecore, as there is no switch to Arco within the first ending, the pizzicato is retained on the repeat playback. I would assume by convention, even though there is no Arco explicitly noted in the opening measure, this is assumed to be the case and the repeat should play in arco. Not sure if this should be noted as a bug but I placed a hidden Arco text in measure 1 to correct the playback.


Comments

I can't say that I know what should happen. But I can say that my little bit older copy of Sibelius acts just the same way. I was able to put an arco at the end of the first ending to do the same thing you did. Plus you'll need something to deal with the second ending.

In reply to by bobjp

In my situation, the beginning of the repeat is implicit as the beginning of a section so there is no beginning repeat marking or any non-standard notation. The repeat begins like the initial measure and is assumed to be Arco without needing to be explicit. Even if the repeat where explicit, the repeat would use whatever was indicated in that measure for the normal pass and if intended to be arco, it would not necessarily be indicated if the last measure before the repeat was arco. So this could be an issue in how the score is actually marked to account for the repeat. The second ending is okay because pizz is marked before the first ending and applied to both and for good measure there is a pizz indicated after the second volta as well before switching back. As an aside, the pizzicato notation may be somewhat special for the Arpeggione instrument which is a bowed guitar (six strings.) The chord for the pizz is five notes so may be more of an intended strumming or arpeggiated chord as are all the chords in the two voltas. Not single note picks. But when set for another stringed instrument, perhaps the chords need some redefinition as they might not be playable as scored. I certainly have no knowledge about this stuff.

In reply to by msokol

I notice that in the Schubert piece for that instrument, your situation comes up. You might take a close listen to the repeat area to see if the player plucks those chords or strums them. I might be able to believe a pluck, except that one of the chords is six notes.
In that piece the second measure of the repeat is a rest. It would be easy to put an invisible arco there, as I don't think the repeat the beginning is supposed to be pizz. In your case, An invisible arco at the end of the first repeat is better than anywhere else. But that is only my opinion.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.