>> Is there an accepted way to indicate that most of a piece is played 8va >> except for certain areas played 15ma and other areas played loco? (Or, >> maybe, is there just a better 8va treble clef available in somebody's font?) > > Can't quote any "rules," but as a practical matter, > > 1. I would never, EVER use an 8va clef, especially for a pianist who > almost certainly will never have seen it before, will not realize it's even > there, and will not know what it means. > > 2. In your specific case perhaps the best thing to do would be to write > the entire piece 15va in order to avoid possibly confusing jumps. That > way, once the player figures out where to start, the rest follows > predictably. > > John Well this is a case where "your mileage may vary." My wife is a concert pianist specializing in new music, and she has seen an 8va clef from time to time. She certainly understands what it means. It is by no means common, and most of the cases when I've seen it (I turn pages for her often) the passages are on three staves -- the normal two plus a third above with the 8va clef.
If you are unsure that the pianist will understand, you could always explain what you are doing in a footnote. Mind you, I am not necessarily recommending this practice, although point #2 above is a good one -- that is, that you should use the 8va or 15ma alterations either for decent length contiguous stretches of music or for single notes -- don't switch quickly back and forth between these, or between one of them and loco. If, though, as you say, the work has one staff's worth of music virtually ALWAYS in the highest two octaves of the piano, I guess I would use an 8va clef -- and probably also use a footnote if only to alert the pianist that it is there. David Froom _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
