[Mark D. Lew:]
>I think there is a gray area between
>typographic and notational issues where the distinction cannot clearly be
>made. For example, suppose a manuscript for an SATB chorale puts the tenor
>and alto in C clefs. Is it an editorial decision to change the clefs? Of
>course it is, but good luck finding a chorus to read it if you don't.
>That's exactly why you're re-engraving the piece. If the original was fine
>as it is, you could just photocopy it.
I see what you mean; there certainly is a grey area. When I was arguing in
favour of following a composer's original notation, I wasn't thinking of
situations like this, but of more modern music where the notation is quite
understandable, but just with certain mannerisms: things like note-beaming,
style of key-signature change - the things we were talking about before.
[Michael Edwards, earlier:]
>> I do [pay attention to details of notation];
>>I consider it essential to do this in order to maintain clarity of
>>thought about what I'm doing. I don't necessarily do this in my first draft,
>>though, while I'm actually creating the music [...]
[Mark:]
>For my clients, "while I'm actually creating the music" is their idea of
>what it means to be a composer. Thinking about notation is a tiresome
>distraction.
>
>You mention that you might not do this until the second draft. In some
>cases, I *am* the composer's second draft.
Okay; I understand what you mean, and agree that clearly editing has to be
done there. I was not talking about cases like that, though.
I hope my arguments have not been taken as stronger or more general than I
intended them to be. Careful notation is, to me, so much a part of the total
compositional process (although not necessarily a very early part of it) that I
just took it for granted that other composers would feel similarly. My musical
background is thoroughly classical, with a good grounding in theory, so I take
proper notation for granted, as much as good writers take proper spelling and
grammar for granted.
My normal process is to notate my ideas in whatever way they come to me, so
that I can later read or play them accurately, without worrying too much about
correctness of notation, consistency, and so on; that *would* be a distraction
at that point. Then, later, after I feel a passage is probably complete and
needs no further significant alteration, I recast the notation into its final
form, taking all the due care and observance of correctness that I feel the
final version of a piece requires.
I have never had anything published, and am probably not ever likely to;
but I prepare this final version as if it were to be published.
Regards,
Michael Edwards.
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