But accuracy in the number of lines is of more importance than the appeal to the eye, and the appeal to the eye must of course not be made a substitute for it. The context shows the high note in [Fig. 24] (which is several times repeated) to have been intended for E, the position of which, on the paper, it about occupies. But, being on the first leger-line, it is A, and would be were it a yard above the stave! (The example is taken from a printed, not a manuscript copy! The first two notes are evidently intended as grace-notes, though the stems are turned down; the stems in the second half of the first measure should have been turned up.)
Fig. 24.
Vocal Music.
[37.]—In vocal music the singing of one syllable to two or more notes is shown in the case of whole notes, half notes, and quarters, by a slur (see [Fig. 25]).
Fig. 25.
It will be seen from the above that a slur does not dispense with the necessity for tying consecutive notes of the same pitch, occurring in a passage sung to one syllable. For an apparent exception see a passage from Handel's “But who may abide”:
