The big dilemma of tied eighth-notes in choral music

I am guilty… I’ve tied eighth-notes in my pieces. Who has not? They make choral composers feel that there won’t be a big black hole in their pieces. They made me feel that way, but I have changed… a little.

The “British Way”

As every composer, I used to study many scores that included this “technique.” I copied it because it was the way to do it. There was nobody in the score to tell me otherwise, and these were very important composers doing this tricky little detail.

Later in my classes, I had so many conversations about this with David –back when I was in UH– where he would always mention the confusion the tied eighth-notes bring to people.

“Are you sure you want this tied note?” he would ask me. Later helping me realize that, in fact, I didn’t.

I was addicted to the tied-eight note

I used it as much as I could. It looked cool, professional. I was part of the wolf pack.

I was the tied eighth-note and the tied eighth-note was me.

Tied eighth-notes are not always the answer

To tie or not to tie? That is the big question! Here is what I think:

Tied eight-notes, as fancy as they look on the page, bring so much stress to the conductor, singer, composer, and frankly to the whole world. We don’t know what the composer truly wants with this unless they explain it (as Ms. Walker does in this letter).

Is the choir supposed to place the consonant on the eighth-note or on the rest? Is it enough breathing? Suddenly, someone raises their hand in the middle of rehearsal and asks if the tied eighth-note on measure 52 is for the consonant, and then someone else says what about measure 48? and on, and on, and on…

What are the consequences?

We are afraid that without this tiny note, our score will show the biggest breathing whole in the story of choral music. Singers will worry about where to put the consonant and how to breathe as fast as possible in that tiny eighth-note.

See? Stress…

The truth

You know what some conductors did to some of those tied eighth-notes I wrote in my scores?

They told the choir to cross them out jeje and I could not be happier about it.

So, hereby I want to declare that I will make an effort to avoid tying notes to eighth-notes just because. It needs to have an incredible explanation for me to do it. Of course, like any addiction, it will be hard to not fall again but I will try.

I invite you to try it with me and give everyone else around you the joy of clarity.

I also must confess that by writing this post I just learn how to correctly spell eighth-note. So yay for knowledge and for not being afraid of leaving breathing spaces in our scores. It will help your score, making your music be clear and precise.