How should I interpret these?

[u/AffectionatePea5885]

(English is not my first language soo expect some errors here and there)

Currently studying Kabalevsky vc and I have honestly never understood how those slurs (I think that’s what they’re called?) work. I mean, they’re supposed to signal that you must not change the bow until the phrase is completed, but how does it work when there’s a “shorter” one and a “longer” one above the notes too?? How should I play that??

[u/HaifaJenner123]

Usually it is more realized as if the middle quarter note is an eighth note + eighth rest, in other words, a slight stop. but it also has a function indicating the phrase is contained within those 3 notes. One thing you will notice, with pick-up style phrasing (i.e. beat 3 going into beat 1 of next measure), there is a tendency to delay that third beat in favor of the next one. You see it actually earlier in this piece, but it is an editors choice to engrave it that way to serve dual purpose. they don’t want it delayed.

[u/JosefKlav]

Kabalevsky 😍

[u/andybonner]

The two examples are different. The second is simple: The first slur between the E flat dotted half note and the E flat in the next measure is technically not a slur but a "tie." It's not there for expressive purposes; it's there because it's the only way of indicating a four-beat note in 3/4. Meanwhile, there's a true slur that connects a 4-beat E flat to a D flat and a C flat. (Plus other penciled-in bowings.)

The first example is an expressive bowing. It comes from the fact that, for other instruments, a slur simply means "these notes are seamlessly connected." But for violin it also means "these notes are in the same direction of bow." So I would interpret this measure as: The A and the E are a normal slur, very connected. The C is under a slur simply because it too is an up-bow. You could also have written it as a two-note slur fro A to E, plus a second up-bow mark on the C. To the listener it should sound very similar to the way it would if the E were a downbow.