On 10 Sep 2007 at 23:08, John Howell wrote: > printing music from movable type is exactly how 16th century > publishers did it, until the use of engraved copper plates came > along--sometime in the 17th century, I would think.
Well, Breitkopf's system developed in the mid-18th century was an effort to make a typesetting system that looked better and was cheaper than engraving. I don't know that I agree that it looks very good -- it's certainly inferior in comparison to the finest engraving, but not that much worse than some of the hack-work engraving that is seen in the late 18th century, especially in Vienna. Paris, on the other hand (and to a lesser extent, London), seemed to maintain higher engraving standards as a rule than the German engravers. I don't know why. But type for music printing didn't die out until some time after 1800. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
