On Fri, June 20, 2008 3:55 pm, dhbailey wrote: > But it's a bastardization of the original 8va which does not mean > "ottava alta" or any such thing. It simply meant "ottava" or "octave." > Its placement above the music means an octave above, and its placement > below the music means to play the music an octave below what is written. > So to put a 'b' in place of the 'a' simply produces a nonsense > abbreviation of a non-existent word.
Like the "ATM machine" redundancy or "their" as singular or "myriad" as a noun or "dial" for touch telephones or "logon" for open websites or a thousand other changes that seem illogical or historically uninformed, this is among them. What makes it unclear? Don't forget that it is used in local-language-only scores (along with just 8). And to me 8va and 8vb are doubly helpful because the placement of an 8va or 8 symbol between nearby staves is ambiguous unless you hunt for a line and hook. Plus it's been around a long time. I just checked -- I was using it before 1970, and yes, I had the first edition of Read with the green cover with Stockhausen on the back and learned from it. But I also knew where his advice was not really useful. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
