phrase marks ending on tied notes: first vs last?

[Jeff Olson]

Just curious whether other users have wrestled with this choice or have 
strong preferences.

At the recommendation of my reviewer, I'm adding phrase marks \(...\) to 
hundreds of simple sight reading exercises, to make them more readable.  
While doing so, I caught myself sometimes ending the phrase on the first 
note of a tied pair, and at other times going all the way to the last 
note of the tie.  My reviewer had no preference, but in the interest of 
uniformity I went back and started doing them all the same way (phrasing 
to the last of the tied notes).  But I didn't always like the results.

The attached example (MWE-phrasing-to-ties.png) shows excerpts from two 
cases where my eye preferred doing it differently (first staff).  The 
second staff shows the opposite in each case, which I don't prefer.  
(The excerpts are from Olcott: My Wild Irish Rose and Waldteufel: España 
Waltz, but the originals are generally unhelpful re phrase marks: I'm 
making exercises, not urtexts, after all).

Perhaps my issue is the visual interference between the phrase curve and 
the tie curve when they're both on top.  It just looks more busy, more 
complicated in such cases. I know I can force them to avoid each other 
(one up, one down, or more space), but I'd like to use the same simple 
source again in another octave, where the collisions could be 
different.  And I've got hundreds to do, so it has to be easy.

I can imagine that the target instrument might influence this choice.  A 
guitarist might prefer ending on the first, since they have little 
influence after the note is played; while a clarinetist or vocalist 
might prefer ending on the last, since they can't breathe until it's 
done.  My work is currently for guitar, and there are no lyrics involved.

So do people have rigid rules on phrasing, or just play it by ear?  What 
would Elaine Gould do?

Discussion is invited.

Jeff

MWE-phrasing-to-ties.png
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MWE-phrasing-to-ties.ly
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