Schleifer

What it means

The Schleifer is an ornament of two or more notes that lead stepwise up to the main note — usually from below. It thus belongs among the grace-note figures: the notes precede the main note and lead into it.

The English name is slide, the French coulé. All three designate the same figure.

The Schleifer is to be distinguished from the single grace note, which places only one note before, and from the turn, which plays around the main note from both sides. It differs fundamentally from the glissando: there a gliding connection is made between two notes, here particular scale degrees are individually executed.

Whether the figure begins on or before the beat depends on style and period; in Baroque music it predominantly lies on the beat.

In the notation

The Schleifer is notated as a group of small notes before the main note, often with a crossed-out beam, and connected to it by a slur. In older music a sign of its own appears instead, whose meaning is to be taken from the edition's ornament table. Modern editions usually write the figure out.

Musical use

The Schleifer gives the main note a run-up and thereby emphasis, without accenting it. It is widespread in the music of the Baroque and the Viennese Classical period, especially with leaps and at the beginnings of motifs. In vocal music it serves to attack a syllable softly; in instrumental music it gives melodies momentum.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach treats it in his Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments of 1753. It stands on the beat and is executed quickly.

Performance practice

Execute the grace notes lightly and accent the main note, not the figure. Keep them brief, so that the goal note comes in time. Check whether the figure is to lie on or before the beat, and decide before you practise. And take care that all the notes of the figure are even — the first easily becomes too long.