At 02:15 PM 2/15/06 -0500, David W. Fenton wrote: >There's an infinite number of dynamic gradations. But >there's no way to actually notate them all, so proliferating the >dynamic markings at the extremes really doesn't accomplish anything >useful, in my opinion, except of the "voodoo" variety
Saying 'no way' doesn't alter the fact that gradations are getting finer without any voodoo whatsoever. We're increasingly clarifying the interpretation on the page itself, and in our recordings. An infinite number is still a few years away... Seriously, there are documentated ways of notating fine gradations of dynamics. They include the fully relative groups (such as the standard dozen through the +/- systems and the 20-level decimals and notehead sizes) and the absolute-relative groups (such as SPL, Midi volume, and NRPN codes) and the absolute groups (such as dB, RMS pressure, and dynes/sq.cm.). The desire to notate or otherwise fix more subtle gradations increases as music moves out of its past into its future. That's how it's been, and there's no reason that it will stop as we continue to educate our senses and develop tools to identify what we have learned. And there are documented performances, real and virtual, successful and not. Failure exists only so long as something can't be done. Once success is achieved, then there is yet another ladder of professionalism added, just as multiphonics are now commonplace in the instrumental vocabulary. Anybody who's ever sat at a mixing board for hours knows how subtle these levels can be, and how they can be achieved with a combination of attentive performers, acoustic balance and mixing skill. Whether dynamic gradations are more relative than absolute are notational and performance choices, and whether these interact with coloristic tendencies or group dynamics just makes them part of the whole. I think you and Lee and others and I all agree on that. Nevertheless, fine gradations are present and accounted for, and moreover, have meaning and usefulness and musicality. You know, there was a lot of music written in the 20th century that couldn't be played well, if at all. Younger performers are coming along in this century laying waste to that idea. Music that once sounded awkward and crude and full of errors is now tight and elegant and nearly flawless. Hearing it is a joy. Tell me that there's a class of performers who can't play refined dynamics and tell me that there's a class of composers who aren't interested in them and tell me there's a class of directors who couldn't distinguish an mf from a 6.0 from a 64, and I'll heartily agree with you. But refinement exists and continues. 'Tain't voodoo. Dennis -- Please participate in my latest project: http://maltedmedia.com/people/bathory/365-2007.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
