Loading…
Loading…
Whip (slapstick).
Labels the whip line (Whip, or Slapstick), written on a single line with one note per crack, usually accented. There is no roll; each crack is a separate stroke, and the instrument stays with the player until the part names another.
Also spelled: Slapstick
Two hinged boards clapped together give a sharp, dry crack like a gunshot or a cracking whip; Ravel opens his Piano Concerto in G with a single one. Use it for punctuation — a downbeat, a surprise, a climax — rather than rhythm: in quick succession it loses its force, and the player needs a free moment to pick it up and put it down.
Whip 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 →