At 1:59 PM -0400 7/18/04, Darcy James Argue wrote:I agree absolutely with Andrew, but I do have a question about a tricky situation I often run into in these cases.
[snip]
My preference so far has been to write unisons as unisons, even if that results in less-than-optimal spelling for some players in some cases. But I'm curious how others feel about this.
In my opinion, what you are balancing there is the relative importance of harmonic spelling versus melodic spelling. Again in my opinion, if the line is not too fast, harmonic spelling wins most of the time, as you said you favoured. If the line is sixteenths or faster at a medium tempo, then melodic spelling wins (for me); in other words, I might spell your example with flats. Intonation of individual chords (or unisons) becomes less important the less time you spend on the pitch in question.
Just as a footnote, I might mention that if you are writing for bowed strings the choice of accidentals also impacts on questions of fingering. On the violin D string, for example, an Fb would by instinct be played with the 2nd finger, while an E nat would be played with the 1st. I would recommend consulting with an experienced string player in this case, and even putting in suggested fingerings, even if many players would change them, lest a player suddenly run out of fingers because of the choice of accidentals!
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
