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I was looking at the start of the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Symphony 7 and the notes identified with a tie in the treble clef are played how I would imagine, they extend the length of the note. However, in the bass clef notes identified with a tie are actually played as individual notes, which basically seems to ignore the tie instruction. Why is that?

Beethoven - Symphony 7 - 2nd Movement

David Cittadini
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    Does this answer your question? Violin - Playing a slurred staccato Note that that question is itself a duplicate, but if you follow through to the original, the accepted answer is not the most relevant to this. – Andy Bonner Apr 07 '23 at 03:25
  • Yeah it’s played differently. Note the dot on each note. It’s not as square and uniform as a minim, there should be a sense of it being two notes, or at least one note with two distinct halves. It may be that you very slightly slow the bow down in the middle, or allow a little more weight to mark the begging of the second note. The slur part of the notation shows you must do it without changing bow direction. – OwenM Apr 07 '23 at 06:39
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    The bass clef notes are not tied, they a slurred. Ties and Slurs between the same note can be a bit hard to distinguish, but what is telling here is that a tie would need to be between all tied notes, but we only have a single curve for each chord, which is a typical behaviour of slurs. Also both notes have an articulation, which would be unusual for slurs. There are slight minor differences between how ties and slurs are shaped to make distinguishing them easier with the ties generally being placed closer to the notes. – Lazy Apr 07 '23 at 06:43
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    Actually, the best explanation I have seen is this "It's actually notation for a certain kind of note articulation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portato The explanation sounds weird in words, so it's easiest to read the explanation while remembering how those notes sound in the orchestra." This was then further enhanced with this "Portato ([porˈtaːto]; Italian past participle of portare, "to carry"), also mezzo-staccato, French notes portées, in music denotes a smooth, pulsing articulation and is often notated by adding dots under slur markings. Portato is also known as articulated legato." – David Cittadini Apr 07 '23 at 08:41
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    I then found a video of an orchestra playing the exact same piece above and you can see a very close-up of the cello performing the "portato", it is brilliant!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv2QnrCJNk0 – David Cittadini Apr 07 '23 at 08:43
  • Thank you for the answers, it helped a lot – David Cittadini Apr 07 '23 at 08:44
  • And you did the thing I was about to suggest, find a recording! This passage is about the best textbook example of portato that you could ask for. – Andy Bonner Apr 07 '23 at 12:31

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