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davewerden

When Is a Breath Mark Not a Breath Mark?

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Sheet music is a symbolic language. If you're reading this I assume you are a musician, so therefore you know that when you see a solid black oval notehead with a straight line sticking up or down, that is a quarter note. You also know it is equivalent to two eight notes. That's a mathematical relationship that is fairly basic to music. Other notations are also clear. We see the # sign and know that it can change the pitch of a note (unless it is a courtesy reminder of what the note should be in the key you're currently playing). Pretty straightforward, right?

We also know that other notations indicate less straightforward actions, such as playing with more freedom, or more emotion, etc. And our dynamic markings are more-or-less a relative marking, not a fixed volume. Is a marked f always played louder than mf? Maybe not, if the mf has "solo" written over it.

Based on conversations with various musicians, a breath mark is confusing in many cases. There are different interpretations intended for breath marks. A single apostrophe in its simplest usage indicates "breathe here." But for much of music history, composers themselves seldom included such a mark. When you see it in music, it could be a helpful hint offered by the editor of the piece, meaning, "This is a good spot to breathe."

Sometimes, though, a breath mark provides useful guidance about things that may not be visible in a single part. Our brass group recently played a piece where my part was marked similarly to the example shown here:

The marked tempo was about quarter=100. It would be really difficult to actually take breaths between two eighth notes, and quite awkward to breathe so many times in short succession. In this piece there were many motifs going on at any one time. The part I was playing was often a supplement to higher and lower parts. As I played through similar sections in the piece I observed that each breath mark indicated that the next note was an eighth-note pickup of a new theme statement in the other instruments. My part was simply supporting those new entrances. So all I was being "advised" by the breath mark was to make the next note sound like a new idea, but I did not need to create any extra separation. In reality, what I did was roughly akin to placing an accent on the note after the breath. But marking it that way might have made it sound a little different (because I would have interpreted it differently).

The next example is similar to the above in that it gives information to one player to help her fit in with the other player. Imagine you are playing a part that only showed you the bottom voice shown here. Without the breath marks you might easily choose to grab a breath elsewhere, but then you would not be phrasing the same as the upper voice.


In the next example, the message is slightly different. Depending on the instrument and range (and the player), the breath in the middle might not be necessary. In such a case the editor puts the breath inside parentheses. Combined with the N.B. marking (which stands for "No Breath"), the full message here is, "You can breathe after bar 2 if you need to, but remember that you have to play through measure 4 with no further breaths.

Even in the first two examples, you are not required to actually take a breath. In the first, you can make a little emphasis on the note after the breath mark. In the second, you would probably create a little space after the note ahead of the breath, but would not emphasize the following now.

So when you see a breath mark that makes little sense in the context of your part, consider the various reasons it could be there. Your best course is to believe it is there for a reason, either as advice or a mandate, and then listen carefully to what the other parts are doing and see if that helps it make sense.

Comments

  1. davewerden's Avatar
    Another great example is the Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1. Strauss wrote it partly for his father, who was a horn player. Legend has it that his father had very low lung capacity, so the editor included many breath marks in places that most horn players would not need to breathe. Here is that example, with red dots over each breath mark to make it easier to see them. In cases like this one, which may be more commonly seen in music edited to be playable by young players, the best musical result would be to leave out any breaths you don't need, unless you are at a natural phrase break.
  2. fmanola's Avatar
    Thanks Dave, this is really helpful. Our church organist recently introduced me to one of the interpretations you described. In some hymn accompaniments he wrote, he put breath marks which he described as "you can breathe here if you want but try not to breathe anywhere else". His intent was exactly as you described; he didn't want breathing at certain points due to what else was going on.
    Updated 05-11-2013 at 05:32 PM by fmanola (to clarify)
  3. tonewheeler's Avatar
    Timely blog Dave! I was just practicing a piece for my quintet, J.S. Bach's "Sleepers Awake", and it similarly had what seemed like odd breath mark locations. I now understand! Thanks!