Okay, I'm sure this has come up before, but I'm just wondering what folks' feelings are on the usage of cautionary accidentals in non-tonal music.
I know that one approach is to display the accidental again if the note is repeated following other pitches in the same bar, e.g.
| F# D# Fn B D# |
but would you do this even if it was just D# B D#?
Do many people still advocate the traditional approach to accidental and cautionary use?(e.g., it applies till the end of the bar, and so in the above cases, no cautionary would be necessary at all)
Part of me thinks it can be very easy to go overboard with cautionary marking, which then leads to problem if misses the marking on one.
Thoughts on what is almost certainly a well-trodden topic are appreciated.
Dear Colin,
This is likely to be a hot topic for sure. I see at least three possible choices for notation in non-tonal music: 1) Sign every note - that is, all notes will have a natural, sharp, or flat, regardless of repeated notes in a bar, 2) Kurt Stone's suggestion where accidentals apply only to the notes they precede, and 3) use the standard notation is normal for tonal music.
No. 1 is especially useful for serial music and very chromatic music. No. 2 is useful for just about any kind of non-tonal music, but there MUST be an obvious note at the beginning that accidentals affect only the notes following them. No. 3 is useful for non-tonal music being read by musicians who spend a large part of their time reading music that has relatively strong tonal focus. I personally prefer No. 3 because so many of the performers I encounter are most comfortable with it and therefore make fewer mistakes. I almost always use cautionary accidentals (mostly naturals) in a succeeding bar, but I do not use parentheses, which tend to clutter up the music.
Some professional performers may complain that they know that the bar line cancels any accidentals, but I tell them "I don't always get someone to play that is as professional as you." That usually quiets their complaint. For singers, however, cautionary accidentals are even more essential. Perhaps some solo singers will not need them, but chorus members surely will benefit by them, even professional choirs.
Hal -- Harold Owen 2830 Emerald St., Eugene, OR 97403 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit my web site at: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~hjowen FAX: (509) 461-3608 _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
