At 4:25 PM -0500 11/19/07, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
A few folks have said this, but it bothers me. Sophistication? Does that mean this sophisticated singer is going to be insulted by courtesy accidentals? Is the presence of courtesies actually a sales limiter? Will these sophisticated buyers put the score back on the shelf with a snort?
No, I shouldn't think so. And there's something valid to your grumble. Fashions--even fashions in applying musica ficta--do change over time, and the one thing that is most useful is a clear indication of whether a given accidental was in the original or is a modern editor's idea. (Well, that's one thing, and information on original mensuration signs and proportion signs is another.) Not all editors know more than all conductors, and some of us are both knowledgeable and quite capable of making our own ficta decisions.
But to turn not so far away from the singers, there are definitely keyboard players who REALLY do not want to see somebody's idea of a continuo realization in front of them, and others who could not get along without it. There are levels of experience, levels of knowledge, and levels of awareness no matter what the ensemble, and a good many of my college students are happy to follow my suggestions because they're still learning and haven't been exposed to this before.
I guess what I'm objecting to, more than anything, is the dichotomy between an attempt at an urtext score and a "performing edition" in which all the decisions have been made by an editor. All the necessary information should be available, and available at a glance, in ANY edition! The question raised here, and the example that illustrated it, are a good example of "Editor Knows Best!"
John -- John R. Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 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
