At 10:23 AM +0100 7/2/06, Owain Sutton wrote:
There's a huge difference. One is creating every conceivable block in advance, to ensure that every ligature can be preserved. The more practical situation is making a smaller set of blocks which enables the printing of some common ligatures, at the expense of others.
When theory meets practicality, I suspect that practicality always wins out in the beginning, theory in the end. The process of designing and cutting or casting type was labor intensive, as was most everything prior to 19th century industrialization, and therefore required the investment of resources. One would have created the type needed for the jobs being processed, and no more. Ligatures were so ingrained that they hung on for much longer than there was any need for them, but they were actually no longer needed after the 15th-16th century simplifications in notation.
Same thing over and over in history. There may have been only 3 or 4 rhythmic modes actually used by the Parisian group in the late 12th century, but the theorists eventually completed the system, which could then be used by composers even after they had adopted the more flexible Fanconian notation.
Modal-transposing key signatures hung on well into the 18th century, even though the modes they were created for generally did not, but theorists gradually won out and the result was modern key signatures.
When you're hiring and paying musicians, never hire more than you actually need. Until you can convince large numbers of singers that it's worthwhile to donate their time and talent in large choruses.
Does Finale ship with fonts which cover every possible detail of musical notation? ;)
Can "every possible detail of musical notation" even be defined? (Which I suspect is your point!)
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
