Which fingers would you use ? 1, 2, 3, 4 or none of the above?

For the upcoming 175 East concert, I am preparing Elliot Carter's Canon for 4. Encountering the piece again after almost 8 years (I can't believe I never had the chance to do this until now), it is interesting to see the fingering decisions I made back then - the younger, bright-eyed, näive me. I thought it might interest some

You are looking at bars 66 & 67 of the piece, a couple of bars of violin-noodling , yes that is a real musical terminology you can look it up. Bearing in mind the tempo is dotted-quarter = circa 69, what numbers (or fingerings) would you come up with ?

I will explain right now that I am going to be utilising the American system when referring to note values. After dealing with both American and British conventions, I think Hundred twenty-eighth notes are infinitely more acceptable than Quasihemidemisemiquaver (which is just ridiculous). So dotted-quarters it is.



Well here is what I came up with straight out of undergrad with only a few non-Brahmsian compositions under my belt.



Today I look at the 4th note of bar 67 and ask aloud why anyone would bother to shift down for the last half of that first dotted-quarter beat, hence the awkward 2-4, 2-4. A more optimal solution could be staying up in position with the first finger leaning back, anchoring down the fourth note (pitch: D) , then crossing over to the A-string and have the first finger already in position to hit the G (basically a G 7th arpeggio).



I would be curious to see what kind of numbers other violinists have come up with. Share and share alike !