shirling & neueweise wrote:
i long ago came to the conclusion that an orchestra is not a musical
body, but a political one.
Every group of humans larger than one is a political body. Orchestras
are certainly no exception. Professional orchestras are beyond
political: each one is a tribe. Anyone not in the orchestra is an utter
outsider. It is important to remember this when visiting one in the
capacity of composer.
John Howell wrote:
> So much for MOLA and their aging orchestra members (like me!)
> with poor eyesight!!
>
The MOLA guidelines are generally commendable, except for a couple of
points. The last time I tried it, I believe I discovered 8.5 mm staves
end up requiring Finale staff sizes to be around 100%. This is about the
size of staves in childrens' piano primers. I have heard that one of the
prime movers behind the guidelines was a long-time librarian of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, who seems to have been allowed to incorporate
some pet peeves into the guidelines. I have old eyes, and I play in a
professional orchestra, and I have not seen any parts so ridiculously
large. Finale 85% closely matches the B&H look that the MOLA guidelines
seem (otherwise) to prefer. With Petrucci font, I also enlarged the
notehead font size to 26, but that is overkill for Maestro.
The last time I looked at the guidelines, they contained a blatant math
error. The guidelines specified a minimum image area of 8.75x11.75 on a
sheet of 9.5x12.5. The guidelines stated one should leave a 3/4 inch
margin all around. However, to leave a 3/4 inch margin all around on
9.5x12.5, the printed image would have to be 8"x11". I generally leave a
1-inch margin all around on 10x13 pages, producing a printed image that
is 8x11.
--
Robert Patterson
http://RobertGPatterson.com
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