At 6:05 AM -0700 5/28/06, Richard Yates wrote:
Two replies said that the top example was 'confusing'. Could someone say what is confusing about it? Aside from it being unusual, after looking at it is there any chance of someone actually misunderstanding the intent?
Yes, absolutely!! If I came across it I would ASSUME that the reversal of first and second endings was a typo. That is MUCH more probable than assuming that you really meant it, if I even bothered to flick my eyes up to the numbers in the first place. It would require stopping the rehearsal and discussing it at some length. It is so totally unusual as to be not just confusing but incomprehensible!
Richard, you asked for opinions. Now you've become defensive and are attacking the opinions you're getting. You can lay out your music any way you want to, so why did you bother to ask?
I understand that if the situation were someone, or a band, sightreading along for the first time in performance and coming across this unexpectedly it would likely trip them up, but that circumstance would never occur with this music.
Never? Dream on! Have you never heard of a substitute coming in and having to sightread the book? I've had to do it with Stravinsky!! Have you never noticed that one non-standard use of the expected and understood conventions of notation can confuse readers over and over again and, as someone said, require an explanation before beginning EVERY SINGLE TIME! We've played charts where that was the case, and it was just over little questions like whether a section is in 2 or in 4 and the engraver hasn't made it clear. EVERY SINGLE TIME! I learned the hard way that overdoing shortcuts cost me 10 times the rehearsal time as using conventional layout would have, and I'll never, ever do it again!
Your third example still has me absolutely stumped, with no repeat sign or double bar between the first and second endings. I would have to stop playing and wait for an explanation. And every single part will end up with pencil marks all over it, even as the musicians cuss you out for being really weird!!!
But go ahead and make up your own notation. Good luck! 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 Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
