At 10:47 PM 9/29/03 -0400, Tim Thompson wrote: >I was rehearsing a piece today on tenor sax with a pianist. My part >went up to C (5 lines above), and I don't have to think too hard about >that, as I am only reading one line, but the pianist was constantly >asking "what's that note?"
I work with a brilliant pianist whose sight is poor. He always prefers 8va markings on passages (not just a few notes). He had a particularly difficult time with one score he commissioned from me last year; it had some extreme low and high passages. When I then 8va'd the score for him, other pianists also commented that it was easier to read. Though it was a small sample (just five pianists), none preferred the ledger lines (one even re-wrote the score by hand because he was shy to ask for a copy without ledger lines!). Keyboardists, conductors, and composers are notational generalists, though, aren't they? Performers on instruments with well-exploited extreme ranges are more comfortable with the ledger lines (and of course other techniques), and lines can be liberally used in parts for those players. (As one whose first instrument was the bass clarinet, I know that reading lines below the treble clef still continues to be more 'instinctive' than lines above.) Working with performers for first performances gives valuable feedback. I can adjust the notational presentation if it seems reasonable to change it (immediately with Finale, if necessary). But it's impossible to know how performers will react once you get outside familiar territory. Sometimes they'll complain because they feel it's their duty to find something amiss in a new piece. :) Veering further off topic: I will happily change how a score or part looks -- as long as the changes do not turn the notation into a "see Spot run" version of what I mean. As some of you probably know, I'm among those who believe notation (like the written word) is more than the representation of potential sound -- and that where changes misrepresent meaning, it is wrong to make them. There will always be unhappy consequences. [I capitulated to "see Spot run" for a premiere some years ago. The piece (chamber music for five performers) was created without barlines. But despite frequent dotted guidelines (for rehearsal) and plenty of musical pulsation in some parts, the group still demanded it be broken into measures of simple meters. I did that. And I soon regretted it (too late to change it back) because they then played the notes perfectly in place, but never 'got' the melodic flow because the presence of barlines created an illusion of syncopations (as well as an ugly mess o' notes). Their performance was filled with not-quite-right meter-native accents, breath intakes, nodding, and other distractions that revealed they have given up the musical meaning for counting through music that now looked much more difficult.] To return to the ledger lines question: I use the clear-at-three-feet rule, based on my aging vision. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
