FWIW, I vote for: 1) dotted quarter rests in compound metres 2) 4r 8 8 8r 8r in 6/8 3) 4r 8r 8 even in 4/4 (with its curious single beam for 4 eighths).
The point of using quarter and dotted quarter rests is to reduce the number of rests that could be mistaken for a main beat. This is the one benefit of the otherwise confusing 15th C. (and later, my wife tells me) practice of making a breve(B)* or a breve rest stand for three semibreves (S) in tempus perfecta. Incidentally, I wonder whether the practice of using 8r 8r 8 rather than 4r 8 derives at several removes from the fifth rule of imperfection in tempus perfecta (i.e. when a B represents two Ss instead of three) on p.108 of Apel: "A B-rest can never be imperfected; however, a S-rest may cause imperfection of a note."
* this is a context in which it seems a bit perverse to call it a double whole note.
-- Ken Moore _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
