Slurs and ties
Let me rewrite the "rule" for the tie. Ties connect the same notes that are immediately adjacent to each other.
A line between two notes that are identical, but that have other notes between them, is a slur.
Unless the notes in between the identical notes belong to another voice, and there is no break between the first note and the second one.
In the case below, the line connecting both C's is a slur.
Again, please correct me if I am wrong.
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... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
Animisha Let me rewrite the "rule" for the tie. Ties connect the same notes that are immediately adjacent to each other.
A line between two notes that are identical, but that have other notes between them, is a slur.
Unless the notes in between the identical notes belong to another voice, and there is no break between the first note and the second one.
You don't need to make it that complicated. Just stop before the bar line and check which notes are being held down at this point. A note which is held down until the bar line and tied across the bar line to the same note in the next bar is simply held down longer (a tie) rather than repeated.
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The notation for slurs and ties was invented before pianos existed. In the case of woodwind/brass instruments, the curved line connecting notes indicates that tongue shouldn't be used before sounding each note. Musically, this is what I have in mind when I see slurs/ties--a smoothness that is similar to a woodwind not tonguing.
If a note is being switched between two voices, I don't think it would be notated with a slur/tie. If it were 3 flutes playing, for example, you would hear when a C was being switched between players. Your original example seems to be better represented by 3 players, with two of them playing the same top line in the first measure, before splitting into E and G in the second.
Were I to play that music, the lower C would be held for four beats across the bar lines as a continuous tone. It is a tied note, i.e. a note that sounds continuously. Were there no bar line at that point, it would be written as a whole note. It is a tie.
It would have been useful to see it in context so as to get a sense of the music. What I'm "hearing" is a melody in the lower notes that seem to be coming to a conclusion, like a phrase settling on the Tonic (if this is in C major).
It's a tie, not a slur, because it is not combining different notes that belong together in a legato kind of way; it is a single note that plays continuously.
Once again, I am unsure.
In legato intervals, it happens all the time that one note is repeated, and the other one makes the legato. For instance, in the treble clef In Church by Tchaikovsky, the same note B is not tied but slurred. The legato is made by the top notes.
Now these below are the final two measures of The shepherd playing his pipe by Rebikov. Both clefs are treble clef. Key is probably F# minor (three sharps).
Is the top note of the lower clef B slurred or tied?
I guess, tied, because there are specific lines connecting them. Is that correct?
And, now that I have your attention, how would you make the LH legato in this last measure? I don't understand which finger(s) I can keep down in order to make legato with the last chord. Or would you cheat with the pedal?
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... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
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Animisha I’ve not spent a lot of time with this but here are my quick thoughts about the 2nd passage and your question. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, the 2nd example piece is in f sharp minor and both staves are in the treble clef. For my hand, the most obvious fingering for the last chord is 1235, and I think I’d play the preceding chord with 123. Since the d sharp is repeated and the upper b is tied, the e sharp is the only note you could possibly connect, and I think given the final chord, it’s hard to do so. I suppose you could consider the tied note to ‘connect’ the phrase, but I’d probably use the pedal if I wanted to get a more connected effect.
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Animisha sorry, I didn’t play through the piece and since the final chord is a B major chord, I assumed that it was in a major key. I was mainly trying to get across the accidentals in the key signature in case anyone else wanted to respond and didn’t look up the piece. But I just played the beginning and I think you’re right that it’s in f sharp minor.
Edit: 
— for some reason when I played the LH when I looked at this in the morning, I kept on playing it with d sharp rather than d natural and final chord I b minor.
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In a tie, you see separate notes, but you hear a single note. In the first piece, all the notes are under a slur, because there is no note in any of the voices that is held so as to sound like one note when we see two or three.
In your second example, the three LH upper B's sound like they are one single B that continues for three beats. The lower LH notes D#, E also each last for four beats, and if they started at the start of the measure you'd see all three notes written as whole notes. Since a same note sounds continuously these are all ties.
The lowest swishy thing is a slur, indicating that the whole thing is a phrase. You have a cadence E7 to B, and cadences tend to flow into each other. (
I think the important thing is now what they are called, but how to play them. I still have to double check the names. When playing the music I never think of what the thing is called - I play how I hear it should be played.
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For key, I found the Rebikov piece played on-line with notation. It's in ABA where the middle jaunty bit is different. We keep settling to an F# Tonic over an F#m chord so through the main part, it feels like F# minor. But it has a modal feeling, because we never get a true V or V7 chord - we have Bm to F#m throughout.
Rebikov throws a curveball at the end because it ends on a Bm chord, and we do have a cadence -- a dim7 (in classical terms we could call it E#dim7/D - jazzy-wise we might called D dim7 going by the bottom note) - and that diminished chord resolves to this Bm chord. But our final melody note is still an F# and it still sounds minor.
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It's actually in B Dorian mode. The notes of the key signature are the same as a dorian scale and it ends on a B minor chord.
To hear what Dorian mode sounds like play all the white notes from D to D.
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BartK It's actually in B Dorian mode. The notes of the key signature are the same as a dorian scale and it ends on a B minor chord.
To hear what Dorian mode sounds like play all the white notes from D to D.
I thought of that myself, but then why that key signature? The piece has G#'s all over the place. So think of it ending in B Dorian?
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BartK The key signature of A major corresponds to B Dorian. Go check it out! Play a scale B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A-B. It sounds the same as D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D.
I wrote some gobbledygook while figuring out what happened.
What you're trying to say is how I learned modes first: Dorian is 2nd degree to 2nd degree of a major scale. When you originally wrote:
BartK .... play all the white notes from D to D.
my goldfish mind shifted from B to D and I was in some hybrid world between the two. D Dorian doesn't have G# in it, but it also doesn't have F# in it. Somewhere in there I lost the plot. I wouldn't want to think about D and B at the same time, though I know why you went that direction.
I did originally learn the "2nd degree to 2nd degree", where D to D white keys was the go-to for perceiving the intervals. It's still a handy reference. If I used that method, I'd be playing A major but starting on the 2nd note. I would not think of C major going D to D, in order to get at A major going from B to B. That jumbles up too many systems for me.
What I switched to a long time ago was either:
B major, lower 3 and 7.
B C# D# E F# G# A# B ==> B C# D E F# G# A B
B natural minor (key signature of D major), raise 6
B C# D E F# G A B C ==> B C# D E F# G# A B
I found this less cumbersome than the 2 to 2 as in the example of D to D, but I might still use that white key D to D reference to double check after the fact. But at the moment of working with B Dorian, to also be following something with D, mentally that put me between keys somehow. Glad you caught it.
Thank you Sgisela, keystring and BartK for your discussion of this piece. The B Dorian information is way over my head, but I'll ask Chat GPT to explain it to me.
keystring I think the important thing is now what they are called, but how to play them.
For me, unless I know if the line is a slur or a tie, I don't know how to play them!
keystring In your second example, the three LH upper B's sound like they are one single B that continues for three beats.
First I need to figure out that the line connecting the notes is a tie, and then I will know that I'll need to make it sound like one single B.
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... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
BartK
I'd consider that the piece starts in F#m. The tonic 2nd position used for cadence at the beginning is a proxy/suspension for a V chord. The score is murky at the end, but that appears to be an E#, which is the raised 7th position on an F#m scale, and not found on the B Dorian scale. The piece does end on a Bm chord.