On 28 May 2003 at 16:24, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote: > At 01:02 PM 5/28/03 -0800, Mark D. Lew wrote: > >It was only with your post that this turned into a debate about publishers > >trying to suppress non-standard notation, which as far as I can tell nobody > >is defending. I wonder if this whole discussion is a non-debate based on a > >semantic misunderstanding. > > This is where I jumped in: > > James O'Briant: "The composer used the beaming pattern (either unorthodox > patterns within measures or cross-barline beaming) to try to convey > interpretation or accents or rhythmic patterns. My opinion: To convey > accents, use accents." > > That goes well beyond copy editing to re-writing content -- and, moreover, > re-writing it incorrectly -- and it's the sort of behavior on the part of > an editor/engraver/publisher that gets me aroused. Given the opportunity, > musical editors (any editors, really) will generally push the blue pencil > pretty far, and engravers will elevate themselves to editors. It's happened > down through musical publishing history, and I think we can point to plenty > of examples, from harmlessly absurd titles to significant re-writing.
I value beaming quite highly in historical manuscripts and printed editions, as I think beaming says something not about "accents or rhythmic patterns" but about *phrasing*, but phrasing at a level that one would not indicate with slurs. For example, one of the problems with slurs in string music is that, in general, they will be interpreted as bowings. Breaking beam groups according to phrasing is something that happens a lot. If I were editing a present-day composer, I'd include every idiosyncrasy of the original manuscript that I could, as long as it did not compromise readability. I would not use a non-standard notational device unless it were quite widely accepted within the group of musicians who were the target audience of the publication. I think there is a lot that is subconscious in musical notation (e.g., the way Mozart's dots become strokes over a passage that logical should increase in volume; I don't mean necessarily that the notes should become shorter, as I don't think Mozart distinguished dot from stroke interms of sound, but it does seem as though Mozart's writing mirrors what the music is doing), and I think as much of that as possible should be preserved. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
