I've been looking at the September Song in this book and in bar 36 there is a harmonic sign over a G. To me, that says that I should play the ordinary octave harmonic (half way up the string) but that makes the melodic line shoot up an octave... If that's what is meant to happen then fine, that's nice and easy, but, if not, am I missing something?

W

(sorry to bump...)

W

Sorry i'm of absolutely no help but i feel really sorry for you that no-one has been able to help!
Could your teacher help you with this?

I don't have that book so I can't give a definitive answer.

Assuming that the harmonic sign is a small circle over an oval-shaped note, then the oval-shaped note should indicate the actual sounding pitch of the note (although a few composers do not comply with this convention). If the harmonic sign (small circle) is over a G that corresponds to an open G string then I would assume that is the actual pitch at which the note should be played. This would mean that the small circle could be a typographical error and is supposed to be a '0' indicating an open string, or possibly that the composer did not fully understand harmonics on the viola.

Hi Willobie,

I haven't got the score, so I'm not totally certain, but if it's not the octave g with the harmonic, then the harmonic is not likely to be the half way one, I think. Is this something that is on the D string in first position? If so, could it be the third finger harmonic that is used?

As I said, I don't have the score to hand - can you post a scan?

Allan