Loading…
Loading…
Alternating — between instruments (a player who doubles) or between players or hands sharing a passage.
Printed in instrument headings and parts — “Flöte 3 und 4 abwechselnd” — to show players who switch instruments, or over passages divided between players or hands. It lasts for the arrangement it describes.
Alternating: in orchestration it signals doubling (one player, two instruments) or sharing a line between players to save breath or allow a page turn. Use it in the instrument list to announce doubling, then mark each change in the part with nehmen. In keyboard music it can ask hands to alternate on repeated notes.
Mahler, Symphony No. 5, second movement, instrument headings: “Flöte 3 und 4 abwechselnd” and “Klarinette 3 abwechselnd” — players who double on a second instrument.
Abwechselnd is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
Browse the full dictionary →