Phrasing

What it means

Phrasing designates the organization of music into coherent units of meaning, the phrases, and the manner in which this organization is made audible in performance. A phrase corresponds roughly to a sentence in language: it has a beginning, a course, and an end, and it stands in relation to the phrases before and after it.

Phrasing is to be distinguished from articulation. Articulation concerns the connection of individual notes — bound, separated, detached; phrasing concerns the larger units. The two are connected but are not the same: a phrase can consist of detached notes and still be heard as a unit.

Phrasing shows itself in performance through dynamics, agogics, small caesuras, and the direction of movement toward a goal point.

In the notation

Phrase slurs extend over whole phrases and are outwardly indistinguishable from legato slurs. Where articulation and phrasing diverge, some editions place two slurs one above the other. Caesuras are occasionally indicated by a comma or a short vertical stroke above the staff. In many cases, however, phrasing is not notated and must be inferred from melody and harmony.

Musical use

Phrases organize every music, but their shape differs across periods. In the Viennese Classical period they are often regularly built, in groups of two, four, or eight bars; in Baroque music they often run over longer stretches without fixed breaks; in the Romantic era they become wider and more irregular.

Phrase slurs indicate the organization. Phrasing comprises organization, breathing places, and the shaping of the climax and end points of a phrase.

Performance practice

Before practising, look for the phrases and their goal points: where does a unit begin, where does it strive to, where does it end? Shape the direction through dynamics and slight agogics. Set caesuras distinctly but without interrupting the tempo. And with winds and singers, take care that the breath falls at phrase boundaries, not in the middle of the line.