Andrew Stiller wrote:
Re: Faerie's aire and death waltz
From: Christopher Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I didn't see anything there that was impossible in Finale, though it
would take a day or more, I would think. Jef chipewa certainly could
do it! (you can mail me my cheque for the free publicity, jef!) 8-)
For me, the ultimate transcendental etude for music notation has always
been Cornelius Cardew's Treatise, wh. unlike the item under discussion
is meant perfectly seriously.
P. 183, the climax, features stems that turn into staff lines, curved
staves, staves with lines that go out of parallel, upside down and/or
backwards clefs, backward flats, accents attached to stems, inverted
mordents included in the middle of beams, etc. etc. Other pages feature
feathered staff lines, freehand (wiggly) staff lines, noteheads with
cutout white spaces--in short, virtually every kind of musical graphic
imaginable. All this could be done w. Finale, I suppose, but it would
doubtless be quicker with a straightforward graphics program--especially
since most of the shapes required are circles, ellipses, straight lines,
and boxes.
There is a surprisingly large amount about this piece online, mostly
devoted to the question of how to perform it. See especially the
excellent discussion at
http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/picturesofmusic/pages/anim.html
This is the kind of thing we used to dread way back when I was studying
anthropology. Imagine being on a dig, and finding something like this,
and then trying to figure out its meaning. Lifetimes could be spent on
what is, essentially, a practical joke. Yeah, some will continue to try
to interpret it, but it is admittedly something intended to be
interpreted individually, and to have no concrete or set meaning.
At least the "Faerie's Aire" gives an intentional chuckle. The
"Treatise" seems more to be meant to drive musicologists mad. [sigh]
If only the composer had known what he was after, he probebly could have
notated it in a more traditional manner - but that appears not to have
been his intent.
cd
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