Hia - technical question ( or possible idiocy on my part ) @Fiddlerman - or indeed for anyone who can dig me out of this mind-funk I got myself into...

OK - so I'm looking at the cello I score.  ( Not that I am going to be playing it - this is just my unending curiosity getting the better of me and improving my sheet-reading skills ) - and I see this at bar 13 - 

Now - what got me wondering was the presence of the little "^" indications.

At first I read it as "slur" - but that's not really how it would normally be shown - to my mind if it was a slur it's usually above, or below, and drawn from note-head to note-head.  So, I thought, this is indicating a duplet - where each pair of dotted 1/8ths are played in the same time as a dotted 1/4 (the basic beat).   But then the more I think about it, it "seems to be correct anyway" without the duplet ( if that's what it is ) indication...

If I add it up ( I'll use 16ths ) - I get 

4 + 2 = 6 ( 16ths )

another 4 + 2 = 6 ( 12 x 16ths so far )

then (ignoring the "^" indication - we have 4 off (2 + 1 = 3) i.e. 12 x 16ths

That makes the whole bar 24/16ths - i.e. 12/8

So my question is - what IS the "^" because it doesn't seem to be a slur, and, if indicating a duplet, it appears to be un-necessary.....    Hmmm - it could of course be a "reminder" to the player because although the time signature is shown 12/8 - in a strange way it's a bit like 4/4, except the basic beat is a dotted quarter... now THAT last thought appeals to me....

HELP !   Sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees !  Go on someone, put a poor boy out of his misery !

Yes indeed.  The other thing that argues against it being a duplet is the lack of a "2" in or underneath the little curved line.

But I'm still not convinced it's a slur....  LOL  (well, until someone says it IS !!! ) 

I (as you know ) use MuseScore - and duplets, triplets and so on are shown as something like this |----2----|   etc - but I HAVE seen score sheets using a little curve like that as another way of showing it, but always there has been a number with it, like ^ with a 2 or 3 below.

I'm probably confusing myself un-necessarily...   Thanks for the thoughts though @charles

LOL - you've put me out of my misery ! LOL  Thanks @admin !    I was just getting so confused 'cos I'd seen a "similar but not identical" usage for tuplets -and still couldn't work out WHY it could be a duplet !  ROFL....   cool, TY !

LOL - no need to say "sorry" - it was just me, as usual, being somewhat curious - as ever - "a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing" (especially in MY hands)...... always learning, and that's the point.